John 6:43-51
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ u Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” [1]
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The part of this brief passage that jumped out at me today was the first part, Jesus’ rebuke of his hearers: “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” They were of course grumbling about Jesus’ claim to be bread from heaven.
Grumbling. It’s ironic actually. In this passage Jesus is identifying himself as not only a new Moses, but also the new manna, calling to mind the Exodus. And here are the people, acting like the Israelites, who engaged in recurrent grumbling throughout the years in the wilderness. (We haven’t gotten to the “grumbling” yet in our Exodus worship series, but we’ll be there in a couple of Sundays.) It can be mind-boggling to us to consider that the Israelites, who had been delivered miraculously by God, fed miraculously, and witnessed other miracles, would grumble over food choice and leadership appointments. But they did. And here they are at it again. Jesus has performed an amazing miracle, fed them, offered them eternal life, and they’re grumbling among themselves.
What about me? What about us? Am I a grumbling person? I have been incredibly blessed by God with all I need for life, including eternal life. I live each day surrounded by blessings that are so easy to take for granted. I have a relationship with the God of the universe by His grace that includes His promise to hear and answer all my prayers. I have been blessed by God to be a participant in His mission in people’s lives.
And still sometimes I grumble. It may not be directed at God, but even still, it’s grumbling. And so these words from the Lord ring in my ears: “Stop grumbling!”
Praying for a thankful heart today, one that takes its cues from God’s gifts rather than the brokenness in this fallen world. One thing that I do as part of my daily prayer routine that helps me orient myself in this way is this: I review the previous day, walking through the schedule, offering thanks to God for the blessings and the people who were part of my life yesterday. So my prayer is that today is not a day of grumbling, but of thankfulness.
[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 6:43–51). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
