Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
John 6:35
There are times when I stand in great need. A kind of need that you know no human can provide. As a Christian, I know in these moments that I’m supposed to “trust in God”, “go to pray”, “rest in Jesus”, but often, or always, I just can’t seem to get there like an ‘easy button’. I’m drowning in my thoughts and in order to win I need a thought. I need a truth to lift me out of the pit. It was in one of these battles that John 6:35 came through in the clutch.
Now, none of us were there when Jesus made this statement to the crowd, yet we’d be right to imagine him declaring this with full conviction. With a steady, penetrating gaze this Nazarene put himself forth as the perfect resource to humanity’s existence. He unabashedly says, “I, Jesus, am all you need. I am better than all else.”
What do we do with a statement like that? If anyone else making this statement, we’d understand it as hyperbole, an exaggeration to prove a lesser point. But Jesus isn’t exaggerating here. Anybody else making this statement, and within a few months of bearing our every need we’ll hear the, “I can’t be your everything. No one can.” spiel. But Jesus is saying I will never give such a talk.
As prisoners of a broken world, we simply cannot fathom perfect satisfaction. We cannot imagine infinite wholeness amidst such severed moments. This brokenness could tempt us to try to disbelieve Jesus’ statement, but to do so would be a fatal mistake for us. To believe that there is nothing better than what we know is a lie; deception.
No. Instead we must proclaim that Jesus is better. Jesus is better than all we have ever known. He is the only person from whom we can take, without fear of annoying or depleting. He is the only man who gives what can never prove to hurt us. He is the only man whose provision reveals our incredible lack and whose incredible Father is committed to supply.
Jesus is better.
David Noel, Jr.
David Noel, Jr, is our Director of Youth Ministry and recently married Nendir on May 13th.