The Bread of Life

Today’s Text: John 6

Introduction

This chapter is divided into four sections which, when considered together paint us a twofold picture of the human condition and God’s response to it.  We see the human tendency to put spiritual concepts into physical categories, and we see God’s response to human need as spiritual reality.  We also can see the result of the clash between the two: most people will fall away from God.

Part One: John 6:1-15

This is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  This great miracle of Jesus really gets the attention of the people because not only was it amazing to behold, but it also included a free meal.  To some in the crowd, Jesus leapt out as a man they should listen to, for He had performed a miracle; He must be in good with God!  To others, Jesus brought them hope that they could support their families for free; surely God was at work!

Part 2: John 6:16-24

This section includes another sign that the crowd did not get to see: Jesus walking on the water.  He  left the place where He fed the crowd and the disciples followed Him by boat.  A storm blew up on the Sea and suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward them.  When He got into the boat, they reached shore.  Not bad for a night’s work; two miracles in one! The next day, the crowd realized that Jesus was gone, and they went out to look for Him.  Eventually, they got into boats and sailed forCapernaumwhere He had gone, and we move into the central part of the chapter…

Part 3: John 6:25-59

In the third section, Jesus disappoints the crowd by telling them that He isn’t giving them another free lunch, but that the true bread of life in Jesus Himself.  Before getting into the particulars, we must understand that to these people, “bread” symbolizes life.  If a person has bread, he will not starve this day.  If he has the supplies and the ability to make bread tomorrow he will not starve then either: where there is bread there is continuation of life. Bread remains the staple aspect of Western cuisine to this day, much in the same way that rice is in the far east.

25-27:   Jesus confronts the notion of free meals right away, pointing the people instead toward the spiritual truth behind the feeing of the five thousand.  The people could only see the physical, practical aspect of receiving food from Jesus.  Jesus on the other hand was more concerned with the truth behind the miracle: life depends on a life-source that transcends mere biology for the true nature of life is spiritual not physical.

28-29:   OK, they seem to say, what must we do?  They are looking for a new rule or an activity by which they could obtain a loaf of bread that will be able to automatically replenish itself: they were making a serious category error.

29-31:   The answer Jesus gave was classic: The work for you to do is to believe in Jesus!  Great, say the people: give us a sign!  It’s hard not to laugh at this… Wasn’t feeding the five thousand enough of a sign? What will Jesus need to do to convince the people, rise from the dead or something?  I’d bet people wouldn’t even believe Him if He did that! I know, why don’t you start the manna flowing again…

32-33:   Here Jesus tells them that if they want manna from God, it isn’t the kind that Moses had, but rather it will be true bread (as opposed to literal bread) This true bread is Jesus Himself.  Jesus gives life; it doesn’t come from the grocery store, for life is a much more profound force than the continuation of a biological process in the body.

35-42:   Ok fine, give us some of this bread… Jesus tells them that He is the bread of life; all life forces come from Him.  If you take within the bread that is Jesus, you will have eternal life, not just your little lifetime here on earth.  This starts not with just eating some whole wheat or rye, but rather when you decide to believe.  If you don’t decide to believe then you can go no further down the road of eternal life, but when you make this huge choice, eternal life is within your grasp, through Christ Himself.  Quite naturally, the people didn’t want that, for they were only looking for physical things, and they grumbled and complained as people like to do.

43-52:   Jesus tells them to stop grumbling amongst themselves, always a command we need to keep in mind, for while we grumble we neglect what He is teaching.  He goes on to give a memorable passage in which He tells them that those who believe in Him will have eternal life, and that we must eat of Him to have life.  We must eat of His flesh which He will give for the life of the world.  Physical bread will not give eternal life. The people, who are always stuck on the mere physicality of life are horrified!  Yuk!

83-59:   Since the people are determined to be stuck on the physical, Jesus gives them physical.  He talks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood as though He were going to offer Himself to a bunch of cannibals.  Of course the traditional Sunday school lesson will teach here that Jesus was only speaking of Communion: Laughable!  Again, we only see physical things.  Jesus was talking about what Communion represents; the reality of Communion.  Communion has little to do with its physical aspects; it is all about redemption and what sustains a new life.  When we eat of the bread and drink from the cup are we nourishing our bodies?  Hardly…

We do this in remembrance of what He did for us; this is important.  We go through an act that symbolizes taking Jesus into ourselves to sustain our lives spiritually. When you eat a meal, that food enters you body, and in due course provides energy and nourishment to your body; the elements that make up the food become one with your body on a molecular level. Thus in a sense the food becomes a part of you.  When we take the Spirit within us (the indwelling of the Holy Spirit) the Spirit becomes a part of who and what we are spiritually, and grows within us when we allow it.  This gives us eternal life.  This gives us fellowship with God, which was God’s purpose for creating Man in the first place; and completes the cycle of redeeming and reclaiming Mankind for God.

Part 4: John 6:60-71

Upon hearing all of this, the people following Jesus largely abandoned Him. Of course we now know that this is typical of people who cannot allow themselves to discern spiritual truth.  People will often follow Jesus for a time, but when they realize that this involves more than a “get out of jail free” card, and that it will result in growing far beyond the merely physical they bail.  Jesus spoke one more great line here, one that we should commit to memory: “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”  This is truly something we must always keep in mind, for they are the key to unlocking the things of God.

Conclusion

It is important to note that Jesus in this discourse used typology in His treatment of manna and bread.  The manna is the type, Jesus is the antitype or the reality that the type represents.  God gave provision to the Israelites in the Wilderness with the manna; it sustained them.  However this was not God’s ultimate purpose.  His ultimate purpose was to redeem Mankind to Himself through Christ, thus the manna as sustenance was the type of Jesus the Redeemer and sustenance unto eternal life.  A related type would be the Communion elements: they are not what redeemed us, they are the representation of the body and blood of Christ: Christ is the redeemer. Of course, the Old Testament in particular is full of typology. Moses as the leader and redeemer of the people was a type of Christ, the Promised Land is a type of Heaven, and so on…