Tuesday, Third Week of Easter

More than once in the gospels, people come to Jesus asking him to perform a sign before they will take him seriously. In today’s gospel reading people ask Jesus, ‘What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do?’ This is immediately after Jesus had done the work of feeding a large crowd with five barley loaves and two fish. Here was a work that was a sign for those with eyes to see. This work pointed beyond itself to Jesus’ true identity. His feeding of the crowd with bread and fish was a sign that Jesus was ‘the bread of life’ in the language of today’s gospel reading. The real significance of Jesus’ miraculous work of the crowd lay in what it has to say about who Jesus is for all those who believe in him. The crowd who were fed would become hungry again, however, Jesus remains the bread of life for all who come to him, not just during his public ministry, but for all future generations who will come to him as risen Lord. Jesus is our bread of life today. The promise he makes in today’s gospel reading is made to each one of us, ‘those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never thirst’. The risen Lord promises to satisfy the deepest hungers and thirsts in our heart, the hunger and thirst for love, for forgiveness, for justice, for peace, for communion, for life to the full. There is a sense in which those deeper hungers and thirsts will only be fully satisfied at the heavenly banquet in the kingdom of God. However, Jesus’ promises pertains not just to the ultimate future but also to the present. Here and now, in our own place and time, he is bread of life for all who believe in him and for all who come to him. We encounter the Lord as bread of life in a special way at the Eucharist, yet the Lord’s invitation to come to him as bread of life is not limited to the Eucharist. He is our daily bread of life, in every place and time.