Journey through John 6:13-15

Good Morning Church Family – Journey Through John

Read John 6:13-15

Devo Thought: Have you ever heard of doing the right thing for the wrong reason? The way T.S. Eliot put it in his play Murder in the Cathedral is, “The last temptation is the greatest treason/To do the right thing for the wrong reason.” This sort of thing happens in the Bible all the time. We see it very clearly in this passage. The disciples gather up all the leftovers from the feeding of the five thousand, and then all of the sudden, it’s like everyone realizes what has just happened. There was almost nothing, and Jesus was able to produce so much that they were able to gather up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. At that moment, the people collectively say, “This is indeed the Prophet who is come into the world!” They were about to try to make Jesus king by force. Now, Jesus doesn’t respond the way you might expect him to. Instead of allowing this to happen, he steps away from the scene and withdraws to be alone. Have you ever wondered why he did that? In theory, they were right to recognize that Jesus is king and deserves to be recognized by others as such, but there was something wrong. The problem is that they didn’t see him as worthy to be king because that’s who he is. They saw as worthy to be king because they saw him as someone who could fill their bellies when they are hungry. I think this is a good reminder for us. Do you recognize and make Jesus our Lord because that’s who he is whether he does everything we want him to do or not? Jesus is worthy because he is the Son of God. If he did nothing else, he would still be worthy. But because he is the Son of God, he has done so much for us.

Let us ask God to help us investigate our motives for following Jesus and to trust him for the right reasons.