Jesus the Bread of Life
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Jesus the Bread of Life
— Jack Mariner
We are looking at John Chapter 6 where Jesus says I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.
So gluten-free followers of Jesus I’m sorry – you might have to skip what I've got to offer today. I was thinking of an appropriate alternative. I thought of Jesus saying I am the rice cake of life – but it doesn’t have the same ring to it. But of course, with so many of Jesus’ teachings – the thing is not the thing - Jesus spoke using the language and imagery of physical bread at that time to help communicate something of a higher paradigm.
So let's unpack it a bit.
Here – in John's gospel – Jesus is talking to his followers. He has just fed the five thousand with bread and fish. And now in this passage – He announces Himself as the bread of life.
Why bread?
Jesus uses the image of bread because, all over the world and particularly for the first-century Jews that Jesus was speaking to, bread was an essential part of life. In fact, the Bible mentions bread nearly 500 times.
Bread was essential for survival. For those in the ancient near east, Bread WAS LIFE. It is what they ate. They didn’t have the varied diet we have now.
Simply put: without bread, there was no life.
Furthermore - Breaking bread together was an important part of family life, of community life. It was the symbol of life in the relational sense too. So Jesus is saying:
I am the bread of life. I AM LIFE. Come to me, I will give you life.
And I want to unpack why this is so fundamental for us living in the 2022 western world today.
As we’ve said before, to understand the language and imagery used we need to expand our thinking a little. Figurative and metaphorical language exists in many places in the Bible. We have it in the Psalms – written as poems - the parables of Jesus, imagery and metaphor are a part of how God speaks. They communicate heavenly concepts that are difficult to put into words and provide concrete images to help us grasp abstract ideas.
What is the image about here?
The disciples say in verses 30-31,
If you don’t know this story the disciples are referring to, there was a time when the Jewish people, the Israelites, were wandering the desert and as with all deserts, there was a lack of food and water. Their leader Moses prayed and God provided food for the people miraculously from heaven, not just once but every day.
The disciples want Jesus to do something similarly amazing to prove himself. Jesus essentially says to them - you want bread from heaven? I AM bread from heaven.
We love this verse, don’t we? We like the idea of not being in need and yes, God is our provider, but that is not really the point here. He goes on...
In that story of the Israelites in the desert, God provided amazingly and abundantly to meet the physical needs of His people, and that was wonderful, and God can still provide for our needs today. But Jesus is saying – I will do MUCH more than meet your physical needs! I will give you eternal life.
The verse we read above (v.35), is not actually about the needs of our physical bodies, Jesus is really talking about the needs of our spirit and about eternal life. Just as bread is the essential element in the human diet, Jesus says that He Himself is the foundation for spiritual life - Jesus gives us spiritual and eternal life.
How does Jesus give us this life?
Jesus is talking here about his own death. It is easy to read this now we know the full story, that he went on to die and rise again. But Jesus said this while he was still alive. He predicts or prophesies his death and he is saying that his life, needs to be given for others to have life. In other words, without his death, no one else can live.
Just as corn in the field must be cut down and crushed to make bread which gives us life. So Jesus was killed, he suffered and died on that cross so that we can have eternal life.
There was no other way, this is a reminder that our good deeds do not give us spiritual life, and our best efforts do not give us life. No! Jesus knew that he would have to die, he would have to be crushed in order to pay the price for our wrongs and to give us LIFE!
The bread is his flesh and His flesh was given. His death brought life to the world.
This is the unique and beautiful thing about our Christian faith, it is nothing to do with us and everything to do with HIM.
So Jesus brings us life through his death. Now we are getting to the good bit...Jesus doesn’t just claim to be one among many things that bring life. He claims to be THE bread of life.
And this is a message that our world desperately needs. Our world, that is on the one hand obsessed with success, material goods and self and on the other hand, it’s afraid, focused on survival, and fears economic uncertainty. So many people are hungry and thirsty, searching for life. Maybe they believe in God, or maybe they aren’t sure.
And Jesus is saying come to me. I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE – I am ALL YOU NEED. Stop looking elsewhere for your sustenance, your purpose, your meaning. Do you want to know how to live? You want a life of significance, a happy life, a peaceful life – I AM THE SOURCE OF LIFE. I AM.
I AM.
And I love these two words. When God made his name known to mankind He could find no better word than I AM. About 1300 hundred years before Jesus was born, Moses and God were having a conversation. In Exodus 3:13-14. God had just told Moses to go and tell His people that their deliverance was near, but Moses wondered how the people would believe that God sent him. And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’
John demonstrated that the “I AM” in Exodus was now physically standing in front of people, ready to be their Shepherd, their Door to the Father, their Life, their Light, their Bread of Life, and their Truth. Jesus is the GREAT “I AM”—the beginning – the end.
Just as God the word, spoke life into being at the beginning of time. So into our world, Jesus’ words come to bring us life. It's not one of many options. It's not a guess at what we need. Jesus never guessed. He knew and he knows. I AM the creator God. I AM the foundation of this world. And I have come to give life. All we have to do to accept this. It is found in verse 29,
Believe in me, believe that my life death and resurrection will bring you eternal salvation. That’s what eating the bread of life looks like.
How can we respond to Jesus today?
#1 - Say yes to Jesus
Perhaps you find this easy. Thanking Him that his body was broken and blood poured out. But maybe you’re unsure. And that’s the invitation. Come, taste and see for yourself. But it starts with a step of faith.
If you’ve never said yes, I believe in you Jesus, then you’re in the right place. Jesus welcomes you with open arms. Drop us a message and we’d love to share some ideas about how to know more about Jesus.
So we say yes to Jesus.
#2 - Feed daily
It's not just a one-time meal we need, is it? Can you imagine only eating a meal once a week? That would lead to a very miserable life. Jesus wants to give us our daily bread otherwise we will run dry. It's why he said to pray, ‘Father give us our daily bread’.
That story of manna from heaven wasn’t just for fun - it revealed a spiritual necessity; we need daily doses of spiritual bread to thrive. So often, we get a good spiritual feed. We hear a good talk. We encounter a great sunrise. We feel closer to God as we worship him. And then we go days, weeks, months... without a good feed. Hoping what we had then would sustain us now.
But here’s the thing: We need to feed daily on Jesus.
Unfortunately, we can’t store spiritual food as an animal puts on fat for the winter. Look at what happened when the Israelites tried to hoard the manna in Exodus 16:19-20,
Our spirits need fresh daily nourishment that comes from a living relationship with Jesus. He wants daily communion with us. That is the source of LIFE.
What are you feeding on at the moment? How is it bringing you life?
For many, the answers will be so varied. I love that we can meet him in his word, in silence, in worship and in prayer. We encounter him when we meet together with others like this, or in our homes to pray or look at scriptures together.
I think for many of us, daily encounters with Jesus can feel like a rule and when we don’t do it we can feel rubbish and condemned. If that is you, Jesus responds, I have come to give Life.
Jesus wants to bring life – salvation to us. NOT condemnation. He is the bread of life. So, I invite you to start today afresh. Plan what you’ll do tomorrow. Prepare when you’ll do it. Then put it into practice. Whether it’s reading the Bible at breakfast and taking 2 minutes to pause before your day. Going to bed 15 minutes earlier than normal and journalling as a helpful way of praying to God.
What you’ll find is that doing this each day soon becomes a habit. And what happens with a habit after a while, is that it develops into a lifestyle that will bring you spiritual life. It takes time but is part of becoming a mature disciple of Jesus. Just as a child takes 18 years to develop physical maturity so too it can take us time to develop spiritual maturity where we have learnt to self-feed.
Conclusion
Jesus – THE GREAT I AM - is the bread of life.
He has come to give life. All we need to do is believe in him. I want to invite you if you’ve never said yes to Jesus to believe in Him today. If that’s you, get in touch – we’d love to connect with you.
And if you know Jesus – how are you feeding on him this week and is there anything from today that has stood out to you that you might want to respond to?
CONVERSATION STREET
With: Sharon Edmundson & Rach Marshall
What is Conversation Street?
Conversation Street is part of our live stream, where the hosts (in this case, Sharon & Rach) chat through Jack's talk and answer questions that were sent in through the live stream. You can watch the conversation in the video, it starts 26 mins 36 s into the live stream, or you can go straight there by clicking here. This week’s questions and topics of conversation are:
What stood out to you from the talk?
How is Jesus' claim of being the life-giver contradictory to the popular belief that Christianity takes the fun and life out of things?
How does Jesus give you life or bring life to you daily?
Does it mean that since you became a Christian, life is joyful and lovely all the time?
Can you give an example of a specific area in your life where Jesus has brought life?
What are some ideas to stay connected and feed on the bread of life in our day-to-day lives?
What is the Greek word for "bread" that's been used in this passage and what does it mean?
More Bible verses on Jesus the Bread of Life
John 6:32 - Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
John 6:9 - “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
Exodus 16:4 - Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.
Exodus 23:15 - You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.
Matthew 4:4 - Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”