Sensitive to the Call

Here's the next part of my essay I started awhile ago:


Sensitive to the Call

“Come to Me” He says…”Come to Me.” It’s an interesting parallel passage to God’s call to man in Genesis: “Where are you?” “Come to Me” looks forward to what Jesus was going to accomplish on the cross. It’s an invitation back into His Presence…and this invitation, “Come to Me,” is saturated with the love that only our Father has for each of us.

A sensitivity to this call exists in a great number of us. Note what happens just before the feeding of the 5000 in John 6:

“Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.” ~ John 6:2

Jesus performed signs on those who were diseased. He had developed a reputation for making whole those who were sick, lame, blind, and diseased. He set people free. He forgave sins. He ached for people in His incredible compassion. There was something about Jesus that caused the hurting to look to Him. There is still something about Jesus that causes the hurting to look to Him.
After feeding those all those people He went off by Himself for awhile and then met the disciples on the sea. The people then got into boats and went looking for Him. When they found Him, they asked Him when He had gotten there. His response was quite revealing:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” ~ John 6:26-27


Before John had said that they were following Him around because of the signs He performed on the diseased. Now Jesus says they were following Him around not because of the signs, but because they themselves ate the food He gave them. He said they had been filled. They got a taste of that which satisfies. For a brief period of time, that restlessness, that toiling, that hole in their hearts had been satisfied. It was nothing less than Jesus Himself. Remember our curse from Genesis 3?

“…In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread….” ~ Genesis 3:19a

No longer…. No longer will we eat bread in the sweat of our own faces. Jesus calls us to no longer labor for the food that perishes. Jesus calls us to Himself. Jesus says, “Come to Me.” Jesus says,

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” ~ John 6:35


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©Bill Sines