Here is the spiritual character arc of a people, collectively and individually. Israelites are brought out from the 430 year long Egyptian slavery, and are on the on the dessert for forty years making there way to their promised land. They were hungry and thirsty; and kept complaining, grumbling, and were full of self-interest (Exodus 16: 2-15). They, after centuries, hear the words of Jesus, saying, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6: 35). They say, 'give us this bread always'' there is a journey from want, hunger, thirst, grumbling, complaining, and endless dissatisfaction to acknowledgement, satisfaction, and happiness.
The same is seen in narrative in John 6: 24-35. We have people constantly in search, unsatisfied, wanting more and more bread; and they eventually move to happiness, acknowledgment, and accepting Jesus as the bread of life. The gospel passage calls it, ‘coming to believe in the one who is sent’; in other words, faith in Jesus. This is the faith arc of people individually and as a whole.
There is a beautiful example in John chapter 21: 1-11. Peter and team after the death of Jesus, seeing not much of a future, goes fishing. They were ace fishermen, but the entire night they toiled but caught nothing. They were disappointed, perhaps were complaining about their failure and fate, and grumbling about Jesus who called them away from fishing. This long night of toil could be compared to the 40 years of Israel making their way through the dessert. At daybreak a man comes to them and asks them to cast the net on the other side. They obey this man out of sheer helplessness; and they have huge catch of fish. Then john, the disciple Jesus loved, not having the courage to shout, whispered to peter, “It is the Lord.” Peter jumped out of the boat. That was a moment of acknowledging that the one who stands behind and along with us in our toil, success, journey, and arrival is the Lord. Spiritually is one moving from complaining to acknowledging. It is a moment of believing in the one who is sent.
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