But Why?
Thursday afternoon found me in my son’s classroom, surrounded by twenty-three 2nd graders who all wanted to tell me something. We were talking about an artist, but the range of information being imparted in that discussion ranged from what someone’s sister had once painted, to how big a giraffe can be, and to whether anyone knew someone who had ever been to France.
It’s not just seven year olds who love to gather information. We may not be sticking up our hands, desperate to share, but it can be satisfying to know things.
Sometimes, as I pick up my Bible, I find my information-gathering self comes to the fore. Whether it’s how big the tabernacle really was in Exodus or the exact details of all of Jesus’ miracles or the stringent logic of Paul’s arguments in Romans, I love to know stuff. My temptation is then to shut my Bible, and move on with my storehouse of information replenished.
But getting the ‘what’ is not enough. We need to ask ‘why’. Why are we being told this information? Why has the writer included it? Why did the original readers need to hear that? Why do we need to hear it?
In 6:30, John gives us people with information. We have Jews who know all about the Exodus and God’s provision of manna in the desert. It’s a wonderful moment in salvation history, but if we stop at just knowing about the manna, we miss the point. Instead, we need to ask why is the manna moment being brought up here? Why does Jesus bother to engage with them on it? Why do they need to hear this, and why do we need to hear this?
6:32-33 gives us all we need. The manna in the desert, way back then, points us now to Jesus being the bigger, better, more permanent manna from heaven. This moment now is a fulfilment of that moment then.
It helps to know about the bread from heaven that was given back in Exodus, but it is heart-level, life-giving truth to understand that the manna was given then, in order to point us to Jesus now. As we grasp the ‘why’, our heart shifts, our eyes are drawn to Jesus and we are all the more eager to follow Him as the one who really is the bread of life that is given from heaven.
