John 6:22-71 — Damian Kyle

The Setting in Galilee and the Previous Day’s Miracle

John chapter 6 verse 22. The Lord Jesus is in the region of the Galilee, northern Israel. He is specifically in the city of Capernaum. And we pick things up early in the morning of a particular day. And quite a bit has happened in the ministry of Jesus the day prior.

The day prior, he has fed 5 ,000 men, we don't know how many women and children, with five loaves and two fish. And he has fed them as much as they wanted to eat. It was just Thanksgiving, it was sickening.

They just glutted themselves. Just kidding, it was wonderful. And then following that feeding, these Jewish people decided that he seemed like a pretty good candidate for king. But Jesus didn't come into the world just to be a king.

He's much more than that. He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And Jesus knew that the reason that they wanted to make him king was they wanted a king that could fill their belly. They wanted a king that would fill their fleshly appetites.

Jesus never becomes anybody's king on that level. He becomes our king on his terms. And that's not only best for him, it's best for us. It's a loving thing that he does. And so they come and they want to make him king.

And Jesus, of course, doesn't allow that to take place at all. And he dismisses the crowd and he takes the disciples down, we know from the other Gospels, to the Sea of Galilee. And he tells them to go cross over to the region of Capernaum.

And they get in the boat and they're making their way to Capernaum and there's a great storm that arises on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is up on the mountain praying. And the people all see Jesus send the disciples away in the boat, the 5 ,000 men, however many women and children, and they see Jesus not going with them.

And the boat goes off. And of course, Jesus, as they're making their way across, a great storm comes up. These men, many of them experienced fishermen. They hit this storm and they're rowing for eight hours.

And they just made it four or five miles, about halfway to where they needed to get. And they're never outside of Jesus' attention. And he comes to them walking on the water, scared them at first. It would scare me.

I don't see myself as any greater than them. And Jesus comes to them and he pronounces peace upon them. And then he identifies himself. And they eagerly or willingly brought him into the boat. And then instantly they're at the shore of Capernaum.

Jesus Seeks the Motives Behind the Crowd’s Pursuit

And then the people wake up the next day. We're told in verse 22, the following day when the people, so they got there late in the early, early mornings. And yet Jesus and the disciples are, you know, kind of at work early the next day.

And then the people, and these are the people, these people are the people who were fed to the point of being blood of the five loaves and the two fishes. And they were standing on the other side of the sea and they saw that there was no other boat there except that one which his disciples had entered and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone.

However, other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. And when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they also got into boats and they came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.

So they wake up in the morning and they realize that Jesus is gone, but they don't know how he's left because there was only one boat there, the boat that the disciples got in and left on, and yet Jesus is gone.

And they're not so alarmed that Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God has left their presence. They're concerned that their meal ticket is gone. Funny thing about even Thanksgiving, you have a nice feast about two in the afternoon, you know, and you find yourself in that dumb refrigerator picking away at about eight o 'clock at night, don't you?

There's just that fleshly appetite. It's never satisfied permanently. And so here they have, they spend the night, they sleep and they're in just as desolate a place as ever in terms of food for that number of people.

And they say, well, where's Jesus in order that, you know, that he might feed us again. And so they follow him now getting other boats that had in the meantime come from Tiberias to that place. And they evidently kind of hired them or talked them into going over to Capernaum.

They come to Capernaum and they find Jesus there and they don't know how Jesus got there because Jesus had walked on the water to get there. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, this is what they said to him.

They said, Rabbi, when did you come here? And that's the question that they ask of him. They saw the disciples leave without Jesus. And they wondered about his ability to get over to Capernaum. And then Jesus's response, of course, is interesting.

In verse 26, he answered them and said, 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. He said, you're not coming to me for the reason that you ought to have come to me on the basis of the miracle.

And what he's telling them is the miracle that he did was not given supremely to satisfy their fleshly appetite. The miracle was done so that their appetite might be satisfied, but they would, in seeing the miracle, recognize that only God could do this.

Only the Messiah could do this. And that they would recognize him as the Messiah and as the Son of God. This goes completely over their heads. They're only interested in food. And Jesus, you know, confronts them concerning their real reason for following after him.

So Jesus is saying, listen, their question is why, he says, you're asking, how'd I get here? The real question, the most important question is why are you following me? Why did you go through all that effort to go from that place to follow me into Capernaum?

What's your motivation in following me? And the complete discourse that he gives now is an answer to that question. He is going to test the motives of those who claim to be his disciples for why they follow him and reveal the only motive that will withstand over the long haul what God has called us to do and to be in following him.

And so Jesus tells them, listen, the only reason that you followed me is you want bread. You want me to meet your physical need, but you're not interested in spiritual things. And that's what they wanted.

And that's what a lot of people want today. They want someone who will feed them, keep them physically supplied while they do exactly what they want to do with their life. And that's not Christianity.

And the Lord Jesus will never let a person be content in that kind of life where he just supplies a physical needs. And then we continue on doing precisely what we want under our own Lordship. He loves us enough not to do that.

One of the things that he's communicating here is that a spiritual hunger can never be satisfied by a purely physical anything. The day before, as I said, they've been stuffed. The very next day, they're hungry again.

The Food That Endures and the Gift of Salvation

Now notice what he says in verse 27, do not labor for the food which perishes, that is temporal food, but for the food which endures to everlasting life. Now he exhorts them now to search for the food that endures to everlasting life, to search for, to seek out everlasting life with the same zeal that they were searching out temporal food.

Wouldn't it be something in this world if people gave as much consideration to everlasting life and the source of everlasting life that we do to what we're going to eat in a given day. Can you imagine the number of hours on one day alone on planet earth that is given over to thinking about temporal food?

A few months ago, my oldest sister, who is an attorney for a corporation in the United States, and she lives in Colorado and she came out to the Napa Valley, to the wine country, and one of my nieces and her husband, they own a restaurant in Nashville.

It's very cutting edge or whatever the word is for it. There's odd things on the menu. And in order to give them kind of this culinary tour of California, they invited the whole family to the French Laundry in Yonville.

It's one of the premier restaurants in the entirety of the world. I don't know how many courses it was. The meal was thousands of dollars. I didn't pay for it. My sister paid for it. I think the wine was about a thousand or two.

Karen and I could hardly make our way to the car after. I'm just kidding. If you're going to come here, you got to have a sense of humor. But they're doing all of these things and everything, and getting it just to match Austrian wine, to match the caviar, and then this thing and all of that.

I'd never eaten caviar before. I'll never eat it again, I'll tell you that. That's overrated to me. But there were things they served us that were all kinds of different things, and I didn't have any problem moving them over to somebody who could appreciate them, let them finish them off.

But it was a neat experience. But I just I sat there and I watched that meal come forth like, you know, an artist, the amount of time that's given to food, just in an individual human life, corporately.

And Jesus is saying, listen, you guys, if you gave that kind of attention to everlasting life, listen, you'd be successful in discovering the source of everlasting life. He said, 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.

He guarantees that if they will give as much consideration to everlasting life and the food that leads to everlasting life, Him, so to speak, that they give to the natural food. He said, I guarantee you, you'll be successful.

I assure you of success in it because God the Father has set his seal on him. Speaking of him, he said, I have the Father's authority to do this. Then they said to him, what shall we do? And the word do is an important one that we may work the works of God.

Now you notice in verse 27, that second half, which the Son of Man will give. Jesus says, give. And what does man say? Do. And that is the prevailing attitude as it relates to everlasting life today is that somehow it is attained to by me doing something to earn my salvation.

But no one can earn their salvation because none of us can be righteous enough or right on enough or right. And the rightness that is the only rightness that's accepted by heaven is perfect rightness.

We're already too late in our lives for that because we've sinned. Our only hope for salvation is that God will make it a free gift. And thus he uses words like give, but they think, okay, what do we got to do?

And it's one of the hardest things for people to grasp is that they can hear it a hundred times. It's a gift. It is everlasting life is a gift from God. It is no harder than receiving a gift at Christmas time or on your birthday.

All you do is an act of your will is to receive that gift. It's that simple. God's made it that simple. Now what? Our air conditioning, there's hope, glory. Go ahead. Go ahead. Clap. It's all right. I thought I was going to have to stop in another verse.

So some of you look pain, but there is this idea that no matter how often a person will hear it, it's a gift. You just receive it that somehow, okay, I've got to do something. And somehow we think if we do something, we'll make our salvation a little more secure than it is, but there's nothing we can do to, it's a free gift.

So they say, okay, what do we got to do to do the works of God? You're talking about everlasting life. We do want everlasting life. What do we got to do in order to please God that we can have everlasting life?

And Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God. If you want to call it a work that you believe, and there's that great word of John's gospel, believe it's going to be repeated over and over again in this passage that you believe or trust in him.

That is in Jesus whom him in him, whom he sent, who the father sent. So I salvation everlasting life is found in simply trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins for everlasting life, trusting in him, acknowledging the fact that he is the Messiah and the savior that was promised all the way from the beginning in Genesis chapter three.

And so salvation, the only work that is involved is the equivalent of receiving a gift and nobody could consider that work. And so, so he corrects that. And I want you to know, if you don't know the Lord tonight, you can't work your way into heaven.

God knows you. He knows me. So he's made a free gift. And when we receive Jesus as our savior, we believe in him, trust in him for salvation and honors the father. Cause that's the way he has chosen to save mankind.

And therefore they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe in you? What work will you do now? Wait a second. That's the kind of thing that just makes you say that's all I can take.

I can't take no more. They're asking him for a miracle to prove himself in order that they might believe in him. Excuse me. Were you not fed to the point of stuffed yesterday with five loaves and two fishes?

Now see to me, and John seems to keep bringing out this point, the weakness of miracles as a basis for faith, because it's always, what have you done for me lately? And so here it is. God's done this tremendous miracle the day before they had all the proof that they needed.

And now they want them to do another miracle of their own choosing, which they're going to suggest a miracle in just a moment, one that would be helpful to them. And, and, uh, and so there's always that kind of thing.

They had all of the proof that they needed that he was the Messiah from the miracles. And they said, well, listen, since we're talking about you performing a miracle to prove yourself, we, maybe we could suggest one verse 31.

Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And what they're communicating here was, you know, um, listen, we've had deliverers before in our history.

And, uh, we had one by the name of Moses and Moses, uh, brought forth from heaven manna for 40 years. So Jesus, if you're open to suggestions in terms of miracles to prove yourself, uh, we'd like that to happen.

Would you feed us for 40 years? What you did yesterday, that was night. That was great, but we we've had better in our history. Moses did that for 40 years. So maybe you could feed us for all of our life.

And then we'd believe in you. And Jesus said to them, and he begins with a correction. Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven. Moses never supplied that for you. He said, but my father, his father, the Lord, he's the one that provided that bread, but he's also the one that provides the bread that gives everlasting life.

He's the one that's provided the son for the world, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. And Jesus is saying, just as the father provided physical bread for you through manna in the old Testament.

So too, he has provided spiritual bread for you under everlasting life, but it's found in me. And so they bring up the subject of bread here now because of the miracle and everything that's gone on. And Jesus is now going to carry that particular physical image of bread, a physical thing that they understand, and then communicate to them spiritual things through it.

And so he declares to them that the father provided that in the old Testament, but the father has provided now something greater. And that is the true bread speaking of Jesus where everlasting life is found for the bread of God is he, it's not a loaf of bread.

It's a person he's talking about himself is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Now you notice that word life all the way through, there's going to be a reoccurrence of this life, everlasting life, eternal life.

That's the theme, how to have everlasting life. And so the bread of God is who it's, he who's come down from heaven and gives life to the world. And what Jesus is communicating to these people is that I'm just not a miracle worker.

I've come from heaven. That's my home. I'm not just a great man. I have come from heaven to do what it is that I've come to do. They're going to stumble with that over that, but that's the truth. And that's the thing that they ought to have recognized from the miracle.

It wasn't like, Oh, you know, here we got fed by five loaves and two fishes. And, uh, you know, that was happening every day in Israel. Then they said to him, verse 34, Lord, give us this bread. Always give us this bread.

That doesn't just last 40 years, but it lasts for everlasting life. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. And so this is the first of the great, I am statements of Jesus in the gospel. According to John, I am the bread of life.

And notice what he said. He who comes to me shall never hunger. And he who believes or trusts in me shall never thirst. And he's talking again about spiritual things in the, uh, through physical things.

There is a spiritual thirst and the spiritual hunger in every single human being born into this world that can never be satisfied by physical things. Sometimes when I watch a person or sometimes, you know, you're one of your loved ones and we're praying for them or something like that.

And I see them, they get into this thing and then they get into that thing. They don't know the Lord yet. And then they get into this thing. And then six months later, they're into this thing and they've bought everything associated with it.

And, and then the next thing and all of this, and I'm looking at a thirsty person. That's a person that's trying to find some kind of satisfaction, the physical realm for a spiritual thirst that they have.

And Jesus is saying, you'll never be satisfied with the things. Before I came to know the Lord, we had bought a house in Napa. It's an expensive place to live. Great place to own a house. Any place is a great place to own a house.

We had fixed that thing up and we had sold it and made a lot of money off of it. And then we bought a nicer one and we fixed that whole thing up. The whole outside, the whole inside, I mean, we did the whole thing.

And I got done with that thing. And I thought to myself, and I remember talking with my wife and I said, in essence, if this hasn't satisfied me, upgrading beyond here isn't going to do it. I'm going back to the Lord.

And I knew the Lord was the true way. I knew I'd been raised in it. And I started to go back to the Lord. There was that recognition, that light went on for me, that this will never satisfy me. And I think satisfied is one of the most beautiful words.

I stand before you and I know it's your testimony to a satisfied person. I am so satisfied in my relationship with him. And then whatever the Lord brings into my life or doesn't bring into my life or any of these kinds of things, it's a non-issue.

I am so satisfied. There is no big search that's going on in my life at all. I'm not looking for anything because I've come home. I've come to what I was created for. And if you're here tonight and you're searching and you're moving from one thing to the next and all this kind of stuff, you're on a spiritual search, my friend.

And no physical thing is ever going to satisfy it. But you come to the Lord and you'll never thirst again. And that's his promise. And that's the truth. And Jesus said, but I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

It's not that they would not believe, but that they do not believe is an act of their will. They wouldn't believe in him. They wanted a miracle. What greater miracle could you have than to have God, the son in your presence, the very Messiah in your presence, the one of whom the prophets wrote the one of whom these great prophets, Jeremiah prophesying for 40 years without a single convert would have given his right arm for one day in the Messiah's presence.

Here they are in the Messiah's presence. They've been an object of one of his miracles and they still can't see it. He's the miracle. And again, the conclusions that they could have should have come to concerning him as a result of the miracles.

And yet he said, you don't believe only the Emmanuel God with us could have done the things that he was doing. And he said, all that the father gives will come to me and he who comes to me, I will by no means cast out.

And so the promises that the Lord gives concerning those that will come to Jesus, all that the father gives verse 37 will come to Jesus. Jesus looks at their unbelief and he's not discouraged by it. Not one single bit, not discouraged by the unbelief that's represented in that crowd.

Not one bit. He knows that the father has given, has chosen and elected some to be saved coming to Jesus. And Jesus puts his attention on these. It's one of the things that has saved me over the years in the ministry is that so often there's such so much bad news.

People say, well, you know, this is going bad and that's going bad and this is going wrong and that's going wrong and so-and-so and this and then all this stuff. And there was a while back just for my own survival.

I'm talking about years ago where I have as a purposely put my focus on the folks that are doing well. So Jesus wasn't surprised by all of this. And Jesus said, and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out.

Jesus will not cast you out. Those who come to him, he will by no means cast you out. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done. I see Tony in the back. He saved Tony. You're in by a mile. No matter what our backgrounds, no matter what our sin, no matter what they are.

If we come to the Lord, as he speaks to us right here, he will by no means cast us out. Come to him. He won't reject you. All of God's plans concerning salvation, they're going to come to pass, but this doesn't negate man's responsibility.

And here you have the great coin, both sides of the coin in verse 37, all that the father gives, he will come to me. You've got the father's side in salvation, the election, but then you have, and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out.

You've got man's responsibility there. And so a person says, well, how do I know that God has elected me? Come to him and you'll know he's elected you. That's how, you know, come to him and give your life to him.

And then you'll know that he has elected you. And so there is, and this of course is an object of tremendous discussion all through the ages in all. And when I teach through the Bible, those passages that have to do with God's election, I teach them careful of the context concerning those things.

And then the scriptures that have to do with, with man's responsibility to accept God's offer. Then I teach man's responsibility. One of the things with me is I don't have a problem with mystery. I love it when Paul writes in Romans verses nine, chapters nine, 10 and 11, and this great theme on God's election and his sovereignty and all of this.

And you read through that. And even as he's going through that whole thing, he goes in one direction and then he goes in another direction and he comes to the end of the whole thing. And he begins to talk about the great mystery that it is.

And he just praises God and he closes it out because you have the sense he could write another a hundred chapters on it and not provide any clarity. And so to me, when I'm dealing with someone who doesn't know the Lord, I'm going to talk to them about their responsibility to receive God's salvation and to believe in him.

I notice in John chapter three, where Jesus meets with Nicodemus, with the woman at the well in John chapter four, there's no mention of election there. And that discussion that goes on though, election is all over the situation, but he doesn't address them with that.

He talks to them about their responsibility and what they need to do. And so that's what I do. A person needs to receive the Lord. I talk to them about their responsibility, the invitation of God to believe in him, to trust in him.

Here's what you need to do. Now do it. Then once a person comes to know the Lord, then the great focus of my attention is on the security of the believer. I'm not going to talk about the security of the believer to an unbeliever, the security of the believer.

I don't want anyone that knows the Lord to doubt their salvation because Christianity is a response to what God has first done for us. And I must be confident in his salvation so that I respond to what he has done for me.

And then Christianity becomes not an issue of trying to obey this law and that law and all these kinds of things. Everything I do is in response to what he's first done for me. And then you've got joy in the Christian life.

And so here's this beautiful thing. And all the way through, you can see where there's, he goes into election, he goes into responsibility, the whole thing. To me, there is like this line that as it relates to the two truths that when you stay within the two lines, it all makes sense.

But if you go over the line in either direction, then the whole thing becomes chaos in your mind. And so God, he elects and you come to know the Lord. And then when you come to know the Lord, you look back and you realize he was all over it.

We thought we did it. We thought on all of that, but then there's that responsibility to come to him and heed his call. And then in verse 38, for I have come down, Jesus said from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of the father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. So here we have the promise that of, of God's election is calling to be saved.

And then here, the, the opportunity for us to believe in him. And then here in verse 39 is that, that great assurance of the fact that when we give our life to the Lord, he's not going to lose us. Isn't that nice?

My salvation is sure. It's a secure salvation. I never spend a single day of my life wondering whether I'm going to be in heaven. I know I'm going to be in heaven. I don't agonize over that at all because my life has been given into the Lord's hands.

He knows how to keep what he is given to him. And you notice at the end of verse 39, but should raise it up in the last day. I am the bread, which came down from heaven. And so what they're, they're troubled with here is that Jesus has promised it here.

And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the son and believes that his trusts in him may have, have it now everlasting life. And I will raise him up on the last day. And the Jews then complained against him because he said, I am the bread, which come came down from heaven.

And so what they're, they're troubled with here is the fact that Jesus is saying that he's come down from heaven and they recognize that, you know, this is a claim to deity or something supernatural. They didn't like this claim, this heavenly origin, but they shouldn't have been surprised about it because no one could claim to be the Messiah without having that heavenly origin and be the Messiah, according to the scriptures.

God declared through Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah nine, six, four unto us, a child is born unto us. A son is given. You have salvation. You have the Christmas message from earth's vantage point, a son given or, or, or, or a child born.

And then from heaven's vantage point, a son given for unto us, a child is born unto us. The sun is given and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, the prince of peace.

And so this beautiful testimony of the fact that even as he said, I'm from heaven, whether that ought to, instead of this confusing them, it should have bolstered their faith in him. And then they said, is this not, it is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.

How is it then that he says I've come down from heaven? So they think to themselves, listen, they're up in the North. They're near, they're near Nazareth where Jesus was raised. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth and said, wait a second, we know Joseph and we know Mary and that's his parents.

And how is he saying that he comes from heaven? And they're rejecting Jesus on the basis of wrong information. Now think about how many people do. They don't know the truth about him. Joseph is not his father.

The Lord is his father. Mary is his mother. And so they look and they think they know everything about him and they're going to reject him. They didn't know anything about him. When I was in college, when I was a kid, I was raised up in a lot of different churches and in no church.

And I got into college age and I attended college and I didn't, you know, I certainly wasn't walking with the Lord. I was, I wasn't the heathen Tony Willett was. We'll be sure we get Tony a free tape tonight, but I wasn't walking with the Lord.

And I remember listening to, but I knew enough about the Bible. And then that college environment, all of these people speaking like authorities on the Bible. And I'd sit there and say to myself, and sometimes I'd speak up just because it would aggravate me.

I wasn't ready to live for the Lord, but I was, I was willing to argue for him to get. And a lot of times I would just keep silent and people would say the most inane things that you would never believe.

If you ever read through the Bible just even once, and they were rejecting him, the source of everlasting life on the basis of fables, they didn't know what they were doing. That's what's happening here.

They know nothing about him at all, but they think they're an authority on them. I hope nobody's in that category tonight. And therefore Jesus, therefore answered and said to them, don't murmur among yourselves.

Kind of a rebuke, isn't it? He said, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall know all and they shall all be taught by God.

Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. Now, this is interesting because Jesus, as he commands them to stop their, their murmuring, he then begins to speak to them about the fact that not only did they not know very much about him, but they didn't know much about the father though they considered themselves experts on the father.

What Jesus is saying there in, in verse, uh, 44 and in verse 45 is that they thought that their rejection of Jesus was because of such a great zeal and intimacy with God, the father. And Jesus is saying, if you had true zeal for God and true intimacy with God, you would not be rejecting his son.

So he's, he's kind of given them a wake up call to the fact that they're not nearly as spiritual as they thought. They thought their big problem was their relationship with Jesus. Jesus says, that's not your big problem.

There wouldn't be a problem in your relationship with me. If you didn't have the problem that you do in your relationship with the father, and that is that you don't know what he's doing. You don't know what he has said, but you don't know that.

Now these are religious leaders. And of course, this is among the disciples and they're going to pipe up to, and they're, and this isn't going to sit that well. What's the evidence that someone has heard God and been taught by God.

He'll come to Jesus. She'll come to Jesus. It's as simple as that. That's the person that's heard the father. And then he says in verse 46, not that anyone has seen the father, except he who is from God.

He has seen the father. Jesus is declaring you claim to have intimacy with God, but no one has had greater intimacy than I've had. I come from heaven. I come from that throne. I come from that rain. You're never going to have a closer relationship with a father than the one that I have.

And you ought to listen to me. And most assuredly are verily, verily in the King James, which I like better. I say to you, he who believes. And again, that great word in me has present tense everlasting life comes by trusting in him.

I am the bread of life. Your father's eight manna in the wilderness and are dead. You want me to do a manna thing again? That's the best you can come up with. You're still going to die. And Jesus is telling them you're willing to settle for such pathetic evidences, miracles that will make you think that I be convinced of who I am.

But the great miracle that's needed in your life is the one that I'm willing to do. And the one that I'm willing to do is not just to feed you physically or materially, but I'm willing to give you everlasting life to meet your spiritual needs.