Read John 6:16–71
What is it that you need? I mean really need. There is probably a big gap between our answers today and those of the crowd Jesus fed. iPhone? Didn’t have it. Wifi? Didn’t have it. Air conditioning? A car? Regular access to a nearby grocery store with five kinds of Cheerios? You get the point. But maybe now you’re thinking, “Ah, food!
We all need food to eat!” Let’s see what Jesus has to say about that. Jesus uses the feeding of the 5,000 to point to a deeper truth—He is the true bread that satisfies not just physical hunger, but the spiritual hunger of our souls.
Jesus explains that just as bread nourishes the body, He alone can nourish and sustain our spirits. He invites us to come to Him, basically declaring, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (6:35). His audience, however, struggles to understand this deeper meaning, just as the Samaritan woman struggled to comprehend Jesus’ teaching about living water in John 4.
To the Samaritan woman, Jesus offered “living water,” which would quench her spiritual thirst forever (John
4:13–14). Just as He uses bread to explain spiritual nourishment in John 6, He used water as a metaphor for eternal life to the Samaritan woman. Both metaphors—bread and water—reveal the same truth: Jesus is the only source of true satisfaction. Physical needs, like hunger and thirst, are temporary, but the spiritual needs of the soul are eternal. Jesus meets those needs perfectly.
Both stories also highlight the importance of belief. When Jesus told the Samaritan woman about the living water, she believed and shared the good news with her village. In John 6, however, many who heard Jesus’ teaching about being the bread of life found it difficult to accept. Some turned away, unable to understand or believe.
In both cases, Jesus invites us to trust in Him for sustenance that lasts forever. He is the bread that fills our
deepest hunger and the water that quenches our deepest thirst. In Him, we find eternal life and satisfaction that the world cannot offer. In Him, we find what we truly need.
Begin praying with Psalm 107:9:
“For he has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things.”