Not Accepted

By: Jeffrey Wong

So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?

John 6:30

Before the people asked this question, they just had a miraculous meal the previous day when Jesus fed the 5000. The days before, they had seen Jesus healing the sick (John 6:1-15). So why are they asking for another miraculous sign when they’ve seen at least two already?

The answer is, simply, that they didn’t want to believe that Jesus is the Messiah (the one who has come to save humanity from God’s wrath), that they had been waiting for.

The people loved the miracles that Jesus did, however, they would not accept His message that He was the Messiah. Jesus even calls them out on it when he meets the crowd that day by saying, “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” (John 6:26-27).

At this the crowd asks, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” (John 6:28). Jesus replies, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29).

By asking Jesus to perform another miracle, they discredited the previous miracles, and Jesus’ claim that He’s the Messiah (John 6:14, John 6:27). After all, Moses, who was not the Messiah, had also fed their ancestors with miraculous bread (John 6:31).

Jesus states that the bread Moses gave was good, but God is giving an even better bread; a bread that gives life (John 6:32-33). Of course the crowd wants it. Jesus plainly tells them, “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).

Jesus is here to give life. That’s His message, but the crowds rejected it. Jesus tells that directly to the crowd. “But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe” (John 6:36).

Even though the world rejected him, Jesus continued to do what He was sent to do, which was to save the world (John 3:16-18), and to give people life (John 10:10). Jesus even reminds the people that if they don’t believe His message and who He is, they should at least believe that the miracles are real so that they will know the truth (John 10:37-38).

As a Christian, the world will reject you. They reject you because of who you stand for and what His message proclaims (John 15:18-21). No matter what you do to show that Jesus is real and that salvation is offered to everyone, some will deny and reject it. You just keep doing what you’re doing. You must keep testifying about Jesus, and in everything you do, give glory to God.

The feeding of the 5000 was not the last miracle of Jesus. Jesus kept performing miracles like the following:

  • Healing a man born blind (John 9),
  • Raising a man from the dead (John 11),
  • His own resurrection (John 20).

When Jesus resurrected, like he said he would, the soldiers who guarded the tomb where Jesus was buried gave a report about it (Matthew 28:11). The authorities actually believed the report, but they still denied Jesus as the Messiah. That’s why they had to create a lie to keep people from believing in Jesus (Matthew 28:12-15).

Jesus didn’t stop doing miracles. We shouldn’t stop testifying about Jesus and the gospel, even if it’s not accepted.

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Matthew 21:42