Jesus, the Bread of Life

John 6:25-51                                                                                                              

             In John chapter 6 we find that Jesus identified himself as the Bread of Life.  It is one of many ways we can understand who Jesus is.

I grew up eating good old Wonder Bread made from bleached flour.  Their slogan was, “Builds strong bodies 8 ways.”  Later they changed that to “Builds strong bodies 12 ways.”  Once I discovered that if one compressed a slice of Wonder Bread it would make a small doughy ball.  And years later we’d use a small ball of Wonder Bread to catch Catfish.  It made good fish bait.  So much for Wonder Bread...

            When I was growing up, we would visit my Aunt Mary in Southwest Pennsylvania.  She used to make real bread.  She would make several round loaves of white bread.  My Uncle Bush would have a slice for his favorite breakfast.  Have you ever heard of Coffee Bread?  He’d take an inch and a half slice of homemade bread and put it on his plate.  Then he’d spread butter and sugar on it, and finally top it off with coffee and milk.  I’ve only known one other person who knew what Coffee Bread is.  In Aunt Mary’s home a meal was not a meal unless her fresh from the oven bread was on the table.  And don’t get me talking about her homemade cinnamon rolls. 

            There are all kinds of bread.  There’s the basic white bread and various other varieties including Italian bread, French bread and Hawaiian bread.  Today I suspect most of us eat whole wheat bread.  I enjoy Irish Soda Bread.  It is a whole wheat brown bread that is real bread.  Some like multi-grain bread while others like old grain bread like pumpernickel, rye and barley.  In First Century Israel, the rich people ate wheat bread while ordinary people ate barley bread.  If you go to a specialty bakery, you can find sour dough, pita, pumpkin, walnut, zucchini, carrot, banana and perhaps tomato bread.  Bread has long been called “The Staff of Life.”  It is the basic component of the diets of many lands. 

            In Israel one can find what I call real bread.  It is the basic wheat bread made into a 12-14 inch wide, 3 inch tall loaves of round bread.  Bread making has not changed much in the Middle East.  I have never eaten barley bread but I suspect it is not as good as wheat bread or people might be still eating it today.  In ancient times when food was in abundance, people would eat three small loaves a day.  Prisoners were rationed one loaf.  The majority of people in First Century Israel subsisted on barley bread and water.  Only occasionally they would have meat and wine.  That’s why marriage ceremonies and other celebrations were so much fun.  People got to eat lamb or mutton and wine in abundance.  A diet of bread and water is now considered poor.  However, in a land where famine and scarcity was common, bread was an excellent meal.

            Jesus preformed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fed more than 5000 people.  The very next day they were back for more.  They find Jesus and ask him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”  Jesus saw beneath the small talk their real desire.  “Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I preformed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill’ (John 6:26)”.  The people wanted free bread for their bodies.  They figured that if Jesus could do it once he could do it again.  However, Jesus said to them, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.  For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval (John 6:27).”  They want bread for the stomach but he tells them to work for food that does not get moldy and rot but endures for eternal life.  They call him “Rabbi” but he tells them that he is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.  Jesus is the one who has the seal of God on him.  He is not just an itinerate rabbi.

            In this portion of John there is the characteristic question-answer of the student and the rabbi.  The people ask, “What must we do to do the works God requires? (John 6:28).”  Jesus replies, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent (John 6:29).”  The proper response of disciples is the works of belief.  While such works will not earn us salvation, there is work to believing in Jesus.  Belief is not just the work of learning about Jesus; it is the work of being in relationship with him.  Belief is not just packing one’s brain with facts about Jesus; it is walking daily with him and acknowledging him as the Anointed One of God, the Messiah, and the Christ.  How are you working out your belief in Jesus?  Are you just gathering facts about him or are you walking with him every day?

            The people then ask, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?  What will you do?  Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’ (John 6:30).”  Didn’t these people remember what happened less than twenty-four hours before?  Didn’t they watch Jesus multiply the loaves and feed thousands?  Didn’t they eat the bread that Jesus provided for them?  Wasn’t that enough of a sign that he is the Messiah?  He gave them ordinary bread but they make reference to God giving the bread of heaven, manna, to the Israelites in the wilderness.  They are still hung up on bread for the stomach.  Jesus replies 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.  For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:32).”  Manna is not the best bread.  There is true bread from heaven that gives life to the world.

            The people now respond:  “Sir, always give us this bread.”  Jesus then makes it even clearer to them.  He says clearly: “I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty (John 8:35).”  Manna was okay for the people who were on the exodus from Egypt.  That bread from heaven was okay for people traveling the long way, taking the 40 year trip through the wilderness.  Manna was only a foretaste to the true bread from heaven, Christ Jesus.  While manna was for the body, Jesus is for the soul.  While manna strengthened muscle and bone and gave them energy for the journey, Jesus is the bread of heaven who gives us eternal life.  We receive nourishment for our souls as we trust Jesus.  We can eat Wonder Bread and still be hungry but Jesus satisfies our souls.  We can even eat manna but it too spoils.  Only the Bread of Life, even Christ Jesus, genuinely nourishes us for eternal life.

            The word, bread, has been used by the Jewish rabbis as a metaphor.  In the Old Testament in addition to manna, one finds other kinds of bread mentioned.  In Psalm 127:2 the psalmist speaks about the “bread of anxious toil.”  Much of life is anxious toil for billions of people.  We get up, work, go to sleep and do it all over again the next day.  In First Century Israel the farmers, like today, had no guarantee that the work they did tilling the soil and planting crops would pay off.  If it does not rain, all the work is for naught.  Much work for many people is fraught with anxiety.  Instead of eating the bread of life, many are consuming the bread of anxious toil.  Security cannot be found in money or jobs or work.  It can only be found in Christ Jesus.

            The writer of Proverbs warns us: “Do not eat the bread of the stingy (Proverbs 23:6).”  What is a stingy person?  It is one who is greedy, miserly, not givers, penny pinchers and not generous.  The secular world view is to hold onto what you have.  If you give something away, they believe you may lose it all.  The people of the world say, “Store up treasures on earth.”  The kingdom of God is a different realm from that of the world.  It is a realm where giving and generosity are held as high virtues.  Jesus turns things upside down as he tells us not to lay up treasure on earth but he tells us that it is in giving that you receive, and if you hold on tight, you will lose.

            Old Testament writers warn us against eating the “bread of wickedness” and the “bread of Idleness.”  God’s eternal values point to living holy lives rather than being caught up in evil and wickedness.  As God is holy, he calls us to holiness.  The bread of wickedness leads to eternal death while holiness is the way to eternal life.  And there is great value in being gainfully employed rather than sitting idle.  Rather than being idle about the things of God, Jesus calls us to doing the things that lead to a meaningful life here and in the hereafter.  Want to become an expert on a subject?  One teacher says that if one spends sixty minutes a day studying a subject for five years you can become an expert on that subject.  While we can idle away countless hours pursuing things of questionable value, studying a subject one hour a day seems like a burdensome task.  Don’t spend your money on things that are not the bread of life.  Don’t spend your time on the bread that does not satisfy.  Jesus reminds us that we do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). 

            Jesus is the bread of life.  He is the bread that satisfies and gives us eternal life.  How are you spending your life?  Are you spending it getting the things which do not satisfy?  Jesus calls us into relationship with him and promises life eternal.  Remember the words of our Lord: ““Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God! (Luke 14:15 ESV).”

A sermon preached by CH (COL) Michael W. Malone, USA RET

at Veterans Memorial Chapel

Indianapolis, Indiana