A Healthy Appetite

We are born hungry. Not long after birth, children want to eat. As they continue to grow, they want to eat more. I had three athletic teenage sons in my house at one time, walking around the house saying, “protein.” They were serious carnivores, and our food budget reflected that. But that was good. Appetite is a sign of health. If one of them came down with a fever or had a stomach bug, they lost their appetite. Nothing smelled good. Nothing tasted good. They didn’t want to eat.

After Jesus multiplies the bread and fish and walks on the sea, he preaches his “bread of life” sermon to them. He is the bread of life. He is the bread that came down from heaven. Those who eat this bread will not die (Jn 6:35-50).

However, the crowds to whom Jesus was speaking didn’t have an appetite. They grumbled against Jesus like Israel in the wilderness. Jesus told them that they saw him but did not believe (Jn 6:36). Jesus had revealed who he was before their eyes through signs, and like Nicodemus earlier, they knew that he had come from God because no one can do these signs unless he comes from God (Jn 3:2). Still, they don’t have an appetite for the bread of life.

Jesus tells them why. All that the Father gives to him will come to him (Jn 6:37), but no one is able to come to him except the Father who sent him draws them (Jn 6:44). In that last statement about the Father “drawing” people, the word used there can speak of dragging, as if you are dragging an object from point A to point B. The object may not be complicit, but it is moving.

The idea of dragging a resistant object is not the image being conveyed here. “Drawing” in this context speaks of attracting. The strength of the word is not minimized in the least, but it is an attraction in which a person’s desires are changed. The Father doesn’t drag people kicking and screaming to Jesus. He gives them an appetite, and the attraction is, shall we say, irresistible. People begin to see the Son as the Father sees the Son, so they love the Son as the Father loves the Son.

Think of it as something like this. You’re not all that hungry, but you drive up to your friend’s house, and the hickory smoke is rolling off the grill. The smell draws you to the pit, and he gives you a peek at the baby back ribs. Your appetite builds. (If he’s just burning it for some type of fire and doesn’t have meat over it, he needs to be arrested or, at least, fined.)

The Father gives us an appetite for the bread of life by the work of his Spirit. He restores our senses to see and smell the bread of life, creating an appetite and a desire to eat.

What does it mean if you don’t have a desire for Christ? What does it mean if you have no desire to join the people of God around the Table where Christ provides himself as bread and wine? What does it mean if you have no appetite for God’s Word and don’t want to do what he commands? The lack of an appetite for Jesus is a sign of poor health. It means that you’re dead in your trespasses and sins.

So, how is your appetite?

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