John 6:35-40 NRSVue
35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away, 38for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. 40This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.”
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Reflection on John 6:35-40
Inspiration from 2025-05-07 Daily Prayer
Jesus longs to draw all people to himself and to find life in him. This is what the Father wants, too, and it is why he sent his Son to us. It is again a call to believe in Jesus and is the main reason John wrote his gospel. It was Peter who said, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life. We have come to believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God’ (John 6:68–69). We pray to grow in our faith.
Further reflection
The whole life of Jesus is a response to the pull, the polar attraction of the Father's will. Remaining completely faithful to the Father is what nourishes and sustains him. When we pray, we seek to find and do the Father's will ourselves, not to bring God round to doing ours.
In Jesus' life of complete obedience to the Father, we recognize our own call and our true identity as human beings. He has come to draw each one of us to the Father. Everything he says and does is for this purpose. He never drives us away.
I ask Jesus to help me to be as he was: not self-serving on some personal project, but doing the will of God.
It may be that in my prayer I recognise what is enduring, what is at the heart of life. I may glimpse what it means to live in eternal life, seeing my experience of God’s Spirit as the inheritance I am promised.