The Only Meal That Matters Text: John 6:26-40
Introduction: A Full Stomach and an Empty Heart
We are a people obsessed with satisfaction. Our entire modern economy is built on the premise of creating an itch and then selling a thousand different ways to scratch it. We are promised fulfillment in our careers, our hobbies, our relationships, our politics, and our pantries. And the end result of all this frantic chasing is a profound and gnawing emptiness. We are the most entertained and well-fed generation in human history, and we are also the most anxious, depressed, and medicated. We have full stomachs and empty hearts.
This is precisely the spiritual condition of the crowd that comes chasing after Jesus in John chapter 6. The day before, they had witnessed a staggering miracle. Jesus had taken a boy's lunch, five barley loaves and two small fish, and with it He had fed a multitude of over five thousand people. They all ate, and they were all satisfied. It was a sign of messianic power, a sign that pointed to His identity as the one who could provide for God's people in the wilderness of this world. But they missed the sign because they were fixated on the meal. They saw the catering, not the Christ.
And so they come looking for Him, not because they are hungry for righteousness, but because they are hungry for another free lunch. They are looking for a political messiah, a bread king who will fill their bellies and lead a revolution against Rome. They want a Christ who will serve their agenda, meet their felt needs, and make their lives more comfortable. And in this, they are the patron saints of much of modern American evangelicalism, which so often reduces the Lord of glory to a cosmic therapist, a divine vending machine, or a political mascot. They want the benefits of the kingdom without submitting to the King.
Jesus' response to this crowd is not to coddle their consumeristic desires. He does not form a focus group to better meet their expectations. He confronts them. He diagnoses their spiritual heart disease with surgical precision. And in doing so, He forces a crisis. He drives them from a superficial, stomach-driven "faith" to the bedrock reality of who He is and what He truly offers. He is not offering a temporary fix for a physical craving; He is offering Himself as the permanent satisfaction for the deepest hunger of the human soul. This passage is a collision between two appetites: the world's insatiable hunger for the perishable and God's gracious provision of the eternal.
The Text
Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, set His seal.” Therefore they said to Him, “What should we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD FROM HEAVEN TO EAT.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.
(John 6:26-40 LSB)
Perishable Food vs. Eternal Food (vv. 26-29)
Jesus begins with a sharp diagnosis of their motives.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled." (John 6:26)
He cuts right through their pretense. They were not seeking Him for who He was, but for what they could get from Him. The miracle was a sign, a pointer to a greater reality, but their bellies got in the way of their brains. They were spiritually blind because they were carnally focused. This is a perpetual danger for the church. People will flock to a ministry that promises health, wealth, and earthly happiness. But a church built on satisfying carnal appetites is a church built on sand. When the free lunch runs out, the crowd disappears.
Jesus then pivots from their misplaced desire to a divine command.
"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, set His seal." (John 6:27)
He is contrasting two kinds of labor for two kinds of food. The first is the frantic, endless work for things that spoil, rust, and rot. This is the rat race. It is the pursuit of earthly things which, by their very nature, cannot ultimately satisfy. But the second is to labor for the food that lasts forever. And notice the glorious paradox: we are to work for a food that is a gift. The Son of Man "will give" it to you. This is the interplay of divine grace and human responsibility. Our effort does not earn it, but it is the necessary posture for receiving it. And why is He the one who can give this food? Because the Father has set His seal upon Him. A seal in the ancient world signified authenticity and authority. Jesus is the Father's authorized agent of eternal life. He has the seal of approval from the throne room of the universe.
The crowd, still thinking in terms of works and wages, asks a predictable question.
"What should we do, so that we may work the works of God?" (John 6:28)
They hear "work" and immediately think of a to-do list, a set of religious tasks to perform to earn God's favor. They want a checklist for salvation. And Jesus' answer completely upends their entire religious framework.
"This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." (John 6:29)
The singular "work" of God, the one thing that He requires, is not a series of actions but an attitude of utter reliance. It is to believe. It is to trust, to depend upon, to cling to the one God has sent. Faith is not the absence of works; it is the one work that God accepts, because it is the work of ceasing from our own works and resting entirely in the finished work of another. It is to stop trying to build your own ladder to heaven and to receive the ladder that God has sent down.
Manna from Moses vs. Bread from the Father (vv. 30-34)
The crowd's response reveals their unbelief. They have just seen a man feed five thousand people, and now they have the audacity to demand another sign.
"What then do You do for a sign so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD FROM HEAVEN TO EAT.’" (John 6:30-31)
Their logic is astonishing. They are essentially saying, "Feeding five thousand is a good start, but Moses fed an entire nation for forty years. Can you top that?" They appeal to the manna as the gold standard of miracles, but in doing so, they reveal their profound misunderstanding. Jesus immediately corrects their theology.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." (John 6:32-33)
Jesus makes two crucial corrections. First, it was not Moses who gave the manna; it was God. They were giving the credit to the mailman instead of the sender. Second, the manna was not the "true" bread. It was a type, a shadow, a temporary provision that pointed to a greater reality. Manna could sustain physical life for a day, but it could not prevent ultimate death. Everyone who ate the manna in the wilderness eventually died. The "true bread," which the Father is giving now, is different. It comes down from heaven and gives life, not just to Israel, but to the world. This is a radical, world-altering claim.
The crowd, still thinking in purely physical terms, responds with a request that is both right and wrong.
"Then they said to Him, 'Lord, always give us this bread.'" (John 6:34)
They are like the woman at the well who asked for the living water so she wouldn't have to keep coming to the well (John 4:15). They want the product, but they do not yet understand the person. They want the gift, but they are not yet ready to embrace the Giver. Their request, born of ignorance, becomes the perfect setup for Jesus' most staggering declaration.
The Bread of Life and the Sovereignty of God (vv. 35-40)
Here Jesus drops all metaphor and makes the central claim of the chapter, one of the great "I Am" statements of the Gospel of John.
"Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.'" (John 6:35)
The bread is not a thing He gives; it is who He is. To have the bread is to have Him. To come to Him is to eat; to believe in Him is to drink. And the result is ultimate, permanent satisfaction. He meets the deepest cravings of the soul, the hunger for righteousness and the thirst for God, in a way that nothing else can. This is an explicit claim to divinity. He is the substance of eternal life.
But then Jesus returns to their unbelief and grounds the reality of salvation not in their fickle desires, but in the sovereign will of God.
"But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out." (John 6:36-37)
This is one of the clearest statements in all of Scripture on the doctrine of sovereign grace. Why do some believe and others do not, even when presented with the same evidence? Jesus' answer is not found in the supposed free will of man, but in the eternal decree of God. Salvation begins with the Father. The Father "gives" a people to the Son. This is the doctrine of election. And the result of this giving is certain: "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me." This is not a possibility; it is a divine guarantee. The Father's election is followed by the Spirit's effectual call, which irresistibly draws the elect to the Son. There are no lost packages in God's economy.
And what is the Son's response to these who are given and who come? "The one who comes to Me I will never cast out." This is the doctrine of eternal security. Our salvation is not dependent on the strength of our grip on Him, but on the strength of His grip on us. His hold is unbreakable. His welcome is irreversible.
Jesus then explains that His entire mission is subordinate to the Father's will, which is a will to save.
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day." (John 6:38-39)
The security of the believer is rooted in the perfect harmony of the Trinity. The Father's will is to save His chosen people. The Son's will is to perfectly execute the Father's will. Therefore, it is a theological impossibility for the Son to fail. He will "lose nothing" of all that the Father has entrusted to His care. Not one of God's elect will be misplaced. And the final proof of this perfect preservation is the resurrection. Salvation is not just a spiritual reality; it is a physical one. He will raise our bodies up on the last day, completing the work of redemption.
Jesus concludes by restating this glorious truth, this time emphasizing the human response that is itself a gift of God.
"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:40)
Here we see both sides of the coin. From the divine side, salvation is the Father giving a people to the Son (v. 37). From the human side, salvation is seeing the Son and believing in Him. These are not contradictory truths; they are two perspectives on the same glorious reality. God does not believe for us, but He grants us the faith to believe. He opens our eyes so that we can see. And for every single person who does see and believe, the promise is absolute: eternal life now, and a bodily resurrection on the last day.
Conclusion: Feasting on Christ
The crowd came to Jesus looking for a snack, and He offered them a feast that would last for eternity. They came looking for a political king, and He revealed Himself as the sovereign God. They came wanting to do works to earn God's favor, and He told them the only work was to cease from their works and believe in Him.
This passage confronts us with the same choice. What are we seeking Jesus for? Are we coming to Him for what we can get out of Him, a better life, a happier family, a sense of peace? Or are we coming to Him for Him? He is not a means to an end. He is the end. He is the bread. He is life itself.
To believe in Jesus is to feast on Him. It is to find in His person and work the complete and total satisfaction for your soul's deepest hunger. It is to rest in the glorious truth that your salvation is not a fragile thing you must maintain by your own efforts, but a rock-solid reality secured by the sovereign will of the Father, the finished work of the Son, and the preserving power of the Holy Spirit. The Father has given, the Son has received, and He will lose none of them. He will raise you up on the last day.
Therefore, stop working for the food that perishes. Stop trying to satisfy the hunger of your soul with the stale crusts this world has to offer. See the Son. Believe in Him. Come to Him. Feast on Him. For He is the Bread of Life, and those who come to Him will never hunger again.