Day 15: Jesus Is the Bread of Life

Day 15: Jesus is the Bread of Life

Prayer:

Father in heaven, thank You for making our bodies to need daily intake of food. Thank You for the way our bodies digest food and carry its strength to every cell in our body—and all this without our even having to think about it. Thank You for the way You imprinted spiritual truth into all that You have made. Draw us to Yourself. Feed us with Your finest wheat: the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Primary Scripture:

John 6:35: And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

In John 5, the religious leaders want to kill Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath and for telling him to carry home the mat he’d been lying on. Undaunted, Jesus asserts He did this work in conjunction with His Father. The Jewish leaders understood that to mean He was claiming equality with God. Now they really want to kill Him. Like a calculating attorney, Jesus proceeds to prove His claim to be the Messiah sent from God, using this very miracle as one of His prime witnesses. Then He makes this scathing indictment: "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me."

After that confrontation in Jerusalem, Jesus went back to Galilee. The account of His unpretentious, yet miraculous works continues in John 6. The reader gets the idea that Jesus is trying to get away from the crowds to be alone with His disciples. He took them up on a mountain to a rather remote place, not highly accessible.

Yet the crowd is determined to find Jesus because of the miraculous healings they have witnessed from His hands. He looks up and sees the throng advancing toward Him—thousands of them. In that moment, in such an out-of-the-way place, Jesus foresees another need and asks His disciples where they will buy bread for so many to eat. They've obviously come a fair distance to see Him and will be trudging up a mountain; that kind of exertion makes one hungry. John tells us that Jesus already knew what He was going to do, but the disciples are rather incredulous at the question. We can imagine them sputtering, "B-b-buy bread?? For this many? You're kidding, right? More than half a year's wages would barely buy enough for everyone to have a bite or two."

Then Andrew pipes up with the offer of a boy's lunch containing five barley loaves and a couple small fish. It makes me wonder what kind of personality Andrew had. How and why had he struck up a conversation with one of the boys in the crowd? I imagine the boy running ahead of the others. In his youthful boyish energy and enthusiasm, he made it to the top of the mountain long before anyone else, and Andrew intercepted him with some friendly banter, taking an older-brother interest in the lad. Maybe Andrew noticed his knapsack and asks him what he'd got in there, making conversation. The boy proudly shows him his lunch: he'd been smart and brought along something to eat! When Andrew hears Jesus' question, he tosses out the information about the lunch, perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek, half joking, yet half wondering if Jesus could really do something with it, for he added, "but what are they among so many?"

Jesus tells His disciples to have the people sit down on the grass, and they watch in awe as He takes the meager, one-small-boy lunch, gives thanks to the Father for it, breaks the loaves and fish into pieces, and gives them to the disciples to distribute to the people. Their wonderment continues to grow in increasing amazement as the bread and fish keep coming, feeding this huge crowd till all are fully satisfied. Then, when everyone has had their fill, Jesus told them to gather up the leftovers so that nothing would be wasted. Twelve baskets were gathered, one basket for each of the disciples, a tip for their service as waiters at this impromptu picnic.

It was this miracle that caused the people to begin discussing whether Jesus could be The Prophet that Moses had prophesied would come—One like himself. After all, Moses had given the people manna, the miracle bread from heaven; and here is this Man feeding them with miraculous bread. Was this not One like Moses? Hmm. At the last feast in Jerusalem, hadn't He mentioned Moses? The mental wheels begin to turn. Oh, yeah! He had said Moses testified about Him, and if they believed Moses, they would believe Him. Suddenly this crowd of full-bellied people, who see what great advantage could be theirs, begin to rise up to forcibly make Him their new king. A grass-roots movement if ever there was one!

Is it not a second miracle that with such a large crowd Jesus is able to escape by Himself? (John 6:15). This is similar to the time the people of Nazareth tried to throw Him off a cliff, but He passed right through the midst of them and escaped (Luke 4:29-30). Whether the crowd had murderous intent or notions of exaltation through the power of the populace, Jesus defused them both. He had a single-focused mission; He was not here to people-please, but to do the will of the Father, to please Him.

Two more miracles took place in the middle of that night. The disciples went ahead of Jesus across the lake and a great storm blew in. They had rowed three or four miles out, it's the dead of night, no illuminating electric lights along the shore, no stars or moon due to the storm, and suddenly they see a Man walking out of the shadowy darkness across the water. The disciples are terrified! You would be, too, I guarantee it! But Jesus calls to them, identifying Himself, and tells them not to be afraid. Then the boat, which they had been struggling to row to shore against the wind, immediately, suddenly was there (John 6:16-20).

The disciples were dumbfounded, but they didn't get it. What did the healing on the Sabbath, the feeding of over five thousand people with one small lunch, and walking on water have in common? What were these miracles supposed to teach the people—or at least His disciples? That He was LORD, sovereign over all. All things answered to Him. These physical manifestations were merely the means to a spiritual end: they were witnesses to who He really was. He was indeed a King, but not of an earthly Kingdom. He commanded diseases, and they obeyed. He suspended natural laws. He cared for the needs of His people.

The next day when the crowd realized Jesus was no longer there, they got into boats and took out after Him. Their first question upon finding Jesus was, "Rabbi, when did You come here?" Well, never mind about that; they probably wouldn't have believed it anyway! Jesus totally ignored their question and aimed at the heart of the matter. The real question that needed answering was "Why were they seeking Him?" He knew their hearts. It was not because they understood the signs, these identifiers that pointed to the truth about who He was, their Messiah and, yes, The Prophet Moses had said would come. Rather, it was because they liked having full tummies and having food they didn't have to work for. Besides, magic tricks are intriguing.

Jesus tried to point them to a completely different reality. Jesus is constantly trying to shift our focus from earthly things to heavenly things, speaking of heavenly realities by using earthly metaphors as a bridge for our understanding. But whenever people got stuck on the earth-side of the bridge and took His meaning literally rather than crossing the bridge into the spiritual metaphor He was trying to open their eyes to, the misunderstanding gap was huge. And that is what happened in John chapter six. By the end of the day the people who had sought Him so eagerly felt disillusioned and were walking away in droves.

Jesus encourages the people not to have their sights set on food that perishes but rather to work for food that endures to eternal life. He goes on to make the astounding statement that He is the One who gives this food and on whom the Father has set His seal of approval, like a USDA stamp on the food we buy. This is real God-approved food. So the people rightly ask what work God wants them to do to be able to earn this food. Jesus' answer: Believe. Just believe in the One God has sent.

Is it work to simply believe? Well . . . yes—for our sin-cursed hearts, so full of doubt and misgivings about God, so wandering and straying into disbelief and false notions of who God really is, so easily tempted by the enemy to lean on and desire our own understanding rather than base our lives on the sure foundation of God's infallible Word. To let go of all that and wholly trust Christ takes every effort. Yet it’s not the effort of our own good works, trying to be good enough for God to accept us; for we could never be good enough to earn that merit. We can’t earn it and pay for God’s favor ourselves; we just have to come to Jesus and rest our faith in Him and His merit. The writer of Hebrews states it as an oxymoron: "Make every effort to enter that rest" or "Let us be diligent to enter that rest." (Hebrews 4:11) Diligent effort—to rest in Christ and in His work.

Then, of all the perplexing, nonsensical things to say, they ask Jesus to show them a sign as proof that they should believe Him. What!? Just one the day before they had seen an astounding miracle. That’s why they were looking for Him. He had miraculously fed over 5,000 of them with one small lunch. What more do they want? It shows where their hearts were. They really didn't want to cross the bridge into spiritual realities. They wanted to stay on the side of physical benefits. But that's not why Jesus came. That was not His mission.

They try to get Jesus to come to their side of the bridge, bringing up Moses again: "Moses gave our fathers bread from heaven, and we want You give us this bread always!" Jesus stays firmly on the spiritual side of the bridge with a bold, shocking statement, declaring the first of seven "I AM" statements in the book of John: I AM that bread from God, the true bread, the bread of life, the Living Bread.

He invites them—and us—to come eat of Him, and we'll never hunger; drink of Him and we'll never thirst. But Jesus knows that they don't really want Him. They want an easy, free-from-troubles life here, on earth, with all their needs met. Even our modern evangelism appeals to this me-centered, sinful darkness within us: "Christ wants to give you a beautiful, happy life!" Well, who doesn't want that? And a ticket to heaven at the end. Better and better! Jesus never stooped to these kinds of tactics.

Even His own disciples tried to counsel Him about these things: Don't You know You're making them angry by what You're saying? I mean this isn't really the right way to promote Yourself and get people to back You! (Matthew 15:12). But Jesus didn't come down from heaven to promote Himself but to do the will of the Father who had sent Him (John 6:38). The will of the Father was not to give people a comfortable, magical life here but to give them everlasting life. It was a better life by far, but not what they were hoping for. This kind of life is found only in knowing God (John 17:3). There has to be a God-awakening within.

"I am that Bread! I came down from heaven!" Five times He claims to have come down from heaven. Over and over again in this chapter alone, Jesus claims union with the Father. He is the One the Father has sent to give life to the world.

The people begin to grumble. Really now. Who does this guy think He is? We know who He is; He's the son of Joseph, the common laborer. We know His father and mother. We know where He came from. We know . . . we know . . . Do you hear the reverberations from that forbidden tree?

Three times in this chapter Jesus calls us to believe in Him. I'll never forget a sermon my husband gave of an overview of the book of John to a small group of believers in Northern Iraq in 2010 when we were visiting our son who was a teacher there. He encouraged us all to read through the Gospel of John looking for various elements. It was a simple, yet powerful exercise. One of the things we were to track was the word believe. It’s used 98 times in John’s Gospel. As I read through the book, I circled the word every time I came to it and noted what we were to believe in. Nowadays we are inundated with this inspiring word: Believe! Disney movies are loaded with it. But believe in what? The world's modern answer, and Disney's, is yourself. Jesus cuts across the grain of modern culture—and evidently of ancient culture as well, indeed, all cultures of all time—and unequivocally calls us to believe in Him as the only Source of true Life.

Three times He holds out the offer of the Bread of Life and invites us to come, take, eat. The people staked their claim in Moses, but Jesus clearly makes a distinction: the bread Moses gave was not the true Bread from heaven; it was merely a physical reality pointing to the greater spiritual reality of Christ, the true Bread. The manna, miraculous as it was, didn't give true life. Jesus bluntly stated the stark reality: Those people are dead. That's nothing to get excited about. But here was Bread you could eat and not die! "This Bread is My flesh which I will give for the life of the world." He beckons them across the bridge to the eternal side.

What?! Once again they remained stubbornly, blindly on the earthbound side of the bridge. Jesus went on to talk about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. This is true food; this is true drink. He repeated, this food and drink are not like the manna your fathers ate yet are now dead. Eat of Me and you'll live forever. Disgusting! Cannibalistic! That's how the people who heard Him took it. Disgruntled, they began to criticize Him.

Jesus asked a larger group of disciples: "Does this offend you?" If they were offended, the problem was theirs, not His, for He was telling them the truth. He had come down from heaven. If they couldn't accept that, what would they think when He ascended back into heaven? Only the Spirit of God could open their eyes; the Spirit alone can give true Life. He was speaking of spiritual things. As many walked away, Jesus turned to His chosen twelve and asked, "Do you also want to go away?" Peter rightly replies, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

I have an early childhood memory of a day when one of our neighbors brought over a freshly baked loaf of bread. It was still warm and so soft and fluffy. We children didn't even wait for Mom to slice it; we just tore off big hunks and savored it. That loaf didn't last long! Oh, it was so delicious. Over the years my hunger for God has at times been like our childish devouring of that bread when we couldn't get enough. But other times my hunger for God has waned, and I've had to prod myself to spend time with Him. At those times my heart cries out, "Lord, give me a greater hunger for You and for Your Word!" For on our own we cannot even work up a spiritual appetite. God must give us a hunger for Him—the best, the only Living Bread.

The Bread God invites us to eat of is free of charge. The Bread that will fully satisfy us and bring abundance and delight to our souls is Christ. There is no life apart from Him. "He who eats this bread will live forever." (John 6:58) Will you cross the bridge? It's not this physical life that really matters. This life is only a shadow, a reflection of the true spiritual Life. Will you believe in the One God has sent, come to Him for eternal Life, and learn to rest in the finished work of His death and resurrection for your right standing with God? Ingest Christ—daily. Our souls need daily food just as our bodies need it. Day by day let Christ be broken down in you and then carried, by the movement of the Spirit, to every cell of your being, every area of your life: Christ, your energy; Christ, your sustenance; Christ, your Life.

Family Worship:

Give everyone a slice of bread. Better yet, if you have a homemade loaf or an uncut loaf of bread, have everyone tear off a large piece for themselves. Eat the bread while you discuss the process of eating and digesting: By chewing, swallowing, and digesting the food, it becomes a part of who we are. Talk about how we must do this spiritually with Jesus and His Word: meditate on what His Word tells us about Him, chewing on it and breaking it down by thinking about it over and over; believe it for ourselves, taking it into us; let it become who we are, permeating and shaping every part of our lives.

Pray around your family circle asking God for greater spiritual hunger and to make the Living Christ the life-giving sustenance in all you think, say, and do.

Jesus Christ: The Bread of Life, the true Bread from heaven, the Living Bread.

Other Related Scriptures:

Read Exodus 16 about the giving of the manna.

Deuteronomy 8:3: So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

Psalm 81:8-16: Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels. Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.

Isaiah 55:1-3: Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—the sure mercies of David.

Matthew 26:26: And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."

Luke 11:9-13: (also Matthew 7:7-11) "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

Read John 6.

John 6: 32-33: Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

John 6:47-58: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."

I Corinthians 10:16-17: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.