Breaking the Word

GOSPEL READING: JOHN 6:30-35

Though they saw Jesus performing miracles yet they did not accept them as signs. They were asking for more signs and their understandings of signs were mere external performances and they did not want anything to be done with heavenly realities. That is why they argued saying that their ancestors ate manna in the desert. It was Moses and the bread they ate.

Jesus was telling his listeners that even Moses was only an instrument in the hands of God and it was God who was giving bread to the ancestors. Moses and the bread were only signs of God’s providence in the wilderness. Signs should lead people to God and see God present in the realities of the world.

மக்கள் வெறும் செயல்களைக் காண்கிறார்கள். அவைகளை அடையாளங்களாக காண்பதில்லை. மோசே வானிலிருந்து அவர்களுக்கு உணவு அருளினார் என்று எண்ணிக்கொண்டிருந்தார்கள். மோசேவும் உணவும்கூட அடையாளங்கள்தான். எல்லாமே கடவுளை சுட்டிக்காட்டும் அடையாளங்கள்.

GOSPEL READING: JOHN 6:22-29

The crowd looked for Jesus. The crowd had seen Jesus performing miracles and they had listened to him and so they went after him. Jesus realized that the crowd was not interested in following him or believing in him as the one sent by the Father. They went to him because their material needs were satisfied by him.

Jesus was trying to convince them that the material satisfactions were only signs. They were not end in themselves. They were pointing out to something different or something immaterial. The material world itself is a sign and everything that happens in the world is a sign for a believer; a sign for the other world, a sign of God presence and God’s activities and the response of man is only to believe.

உடல் அல்லது உலகு சார்ந்த நிகழ்வுகள் அனைத்துமே அடையாளங்கள். நம்பிக்கை உள்ளவன் படைப்பையும் படைப்பு சார்ந்த நிகழ்வுகளையும் அடையாளங்களாகக் காண்கிறான். இவை அனைத்தும் மறுஉலகுக்கும் அங்கு நிகழ்பவைகளுக்கும் அடையாளங்களே.