It's not just about the free pizza

S: John 6:26-27, 35

26Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

 O: Ever since I left the dorm half way through my undergraduate career and had to cook for myself, I had always been attracted to free food.

It was especially so when I was a grad student in the ’90 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when the Computer Science graduate student leadership would arrange with tech companies to sponsor pizza Fridays – they would stand in front of the pizza and tell about their company and why we should work for them after graduation, then let us eat the pizza. I loved going to those – free pizza was always good 😊 though I planned to return to Malaysia after I got my Ph.D. and never planned to work for any of those companies.

There was even one company which turned out to be defence contractor, and someone asked, “Does this mean you have to be an American citizen to work for you?” They answer, “Yes, unfortunately, that’s the case.” And we looked around the room, and there was like only 1 or 2 Americans in the room, the rest of the grad students were foreign students like me🤣. 

So, yeah, I went to those free pizza days for the pizza, and was not really interested in the message they were sharing.

A: That’s what Jesus was saying about the crowd in John 6 following him around. Just as pizza filled my stomach temporarily, the people in John 6 were after bread that filled their stomachs, but not their hearts. Instead, we need to be eating the bread of life, and then we’ll never be hungry again.

Many of us came to Christ because we received comfort or healing. It’s awesome to receive God’s miracle. But temporal healing and even such miracles are only temporary – it’s like coming just for the free pizza, and not for the eternal life of living for Jesus forever, through thick and thin – no turning back, even when the going gets tough.

I need to have my mind transformed. I need to offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Then I will be living in God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will, not just for some ephemeral carnal benefit like free pizza.

P: Father, make my life a prayer to you. I wanna do what you want me to. No empty  words, and no white lies, no token prayers, no compromise. I wanna shine the light you gave through your Son you sent to save us from ourselves and our despair. It comforts me to know you’re really there. I wanna die and let you give your life to me so I might live and share the hope you gave to me – the love that sets me free! I wanna tell the world out there you’re not some fable or fairy tale that I’ve made up inside my head – you’re God the Son, you’ve risen from the dead! In Jesus’ name, Amen.