I AM the Bread of Life | John 6
This message was preached at Sherwood Community Friends Church on Sunday, September 15, 2024. You can watch the video in full by clicking below.
Every Wednesday night at 5:30, anyone who would like to join us gathers around the Garon table and we enjoy a shared meal. In fact, this meal is most often soup and bread. And while the soup is ok (I’m looking at a few cookbooks), the star of the show is always the bread.
This year, I’ve taken up the art of sourdough making, and most weeks, I have a couple of loaves fresh out of the oven to share with the group.
There is just something about bread that is so satisfying. Amazon has over 3,000 Bread Baking cookbooks available. Every culture has their own version of bread unique to them. And when we have to go on a diet… well the one thing we all don’t want to give up is BREAD!
Today we are going to be talking all about bread in John 6, so if you have your Bibles with you, physical or digital, feel free to turn there now.
THE PHYSICAL STOMACH
In John 6:1-15, Jesus feeds the 5,000. Why were there 5,000 people around Jesus? What was going on that they were following him?
Verse 2 - “A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.”
Out of 5,000 people, only one boy was wise enough to bring some extra food I suppose, so Jesus took the 5 barley loaves and the 2 fish and multiplied it to supply not only just enough to feed the 5,000 but there were 12 baskets of food leftover. And verses 14-15 says this:
“When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
The people were discontented with their current government and they were looking for a leader they wanted to follow. Someone who would solve their problems. But, as we’ve been reading this year in our Bible plan, the whole making-people-king-thing didn’t really work out for them in their favor in the past. Yet, here were the people again, following signs and miracles, wanting a king.
Jesus would have none of that.
Their physical stomach was satisfied with fish and some bread. As humans, we will do whatever it takes to fill our stomachs. We work, toil, beg, borrow and steal our way to nourishment. How many times do you pick a restaurant because of that amazing bread they have? Oh and I count fresh tortilla chips in that category too.
And the physical need for bread is important! So important, in fact, that Jesus talks about it in the Lord’s Prayer that so many of us are familiar with…
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Gives us this day our daily…what?...our daily bread…
God knows we need food. After all, he created us.
But when our stomachs do not get what it needs for whatever reason, we become hangry. You know that point of being so hungry your a little angry too? And there’s no telling what someone is capable of doing to find a way to find satiation.
Jesus met this very physical need for the people who were gathered around him - all 5,000 of them. He satiated their physical hunger pangs. For that they would do anything for him because of this physical sign.
So what happens next?
The story continues and the disciples head to Capernaum by boat. They are out in the middle of the sea about 3 or 4 miles, it’s dark, and waves and wind are churning. Suddenly, the disciples see Jesus walking across the sea to their boat. Jesus climbs into the boat and they make their way to the location of our main passage for today. Verse 22
BREAD OF LIFE
22 The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone. 23 Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”
The people come looking for Jesus. But Jesus calls them out because they are not hungry for the life he brings. They are hungry for the temporal, for the physical. They come seeking after him because they experienced a miracle that fed them. This was their driver.
28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.
29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”
The people ask to be able to perform these same types of works. I mean, I guess I can understand their request. Then they would never go hungry. They would never need a doctor because they could heal themselves. They would be independent, wouldn’t they? That’s what the world would like to have us think - that we are independent beings and that, really, we don’t need God other than just giving us the ability to do it all ourselves.
But Jesus doesn’t give them this access. Instead, he is clear - the only work that he asks us to do is to “believe in the one God has sent.”
Notice that word “believe” - if you have your own Bible, circle or highlight that word. In your Bible app you can highlight that word.
This word is the word pisteuō. This word appears 241 times in the New Testament and is most often translated as “believe.” But I think our understanding of the word believe is not the same as that of the original audience who would have heard pisteuō.
This is how Merriam-Webster defines believe today: to consider to be true or honest, to accept the word or evidence of, to hold as an opinion, to accept something as true, genuine, or real.
We say “I believe in Jesus” in the same words that we say “I believe their story” or “I believe this is the best way to do something” or a child might say “I believe in Santa.” It’s an assertion of our personal opinion.
But this word has more depth to it. This word also means to trust and entrust. Trust defined is: to rely on the truthfulness or accuracy of or to place confidence in : rely on. Entrust defined is: to commit to another with confidence.
Committing to is different than holding an opinion about something or someone.
This is the work of God—that you believe - that you rely on the accuracy of, that you place your confidence in, that you commit to in confidence the one he has sent.
Jesus is confronting their core worldview. They ask to perform signs of God and he simply asks them to rely fully on him, for more than physical bread or healing.
In the next verses, feel free to underline or highlight the other times you see the word believe.
They persist.
30 “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
You catch this? Now, they ask for a performance from Jesus so they would have some reason to trust him and rely on him. What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” As if the feeding of 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish wasn’t enough?
They look to the past, to how God provided manna, which is bread that came from the sky for the Israelites while they were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Instead of looking to the present of what new thing God might be doing, they were looking backward.
But Jesus pushes back again, reminding them that no human provides signs of God, including bread, but it is God who provides any kind of bread, physical and spiritual.
34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. 36 But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. 37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jesus makes the claim. “I am the bread of life.”
Jesus makes it clear to these followers that his will, his choices, his plans are not his own. He’s here on behalf of the Father. And the will of the Father is to draw as many back to himself as possible. That has been the goal of the Father since the Fall in the Garden of Eden.
And if we are to follow in the Way of Jesus, then we must be willing to abandon our will, our choices, our plans too. Our will becomes the will of the Father.
Galatians 2:20 - 'I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.'
That word faith is pistis - the same root as pisteuō. Faith. Belief. Trust. Rely.
But the people of Israel are lost. They are sheep without a shepherd. They are looking to the signs of God, a full belly and physical healing, as the answers they have been searching for and to provide what they need. Yet, they have a spiritual stomach that is perpetually empty.
Jesus longs to fill their spiritual need, to recognize only the Father as their king and their provider, through the Son. His will is that they would find their dependence only on God.
What is their response?
41 Therefore the Jews started grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus calls out their grumbling. They brought up the Manna in the wilderness. In Exodus 16, it says this:
2 The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”
Sounds a little extreme doesn’t it? The people grumbled against the leaders God had appointed instead of going directly to God and relying, trusting, believing that He would provide for them.
God did provide the manna for the Israelites regardless of their grumbling and complaining. In fact, God often met them in their grumbles and complaints. In Numbers 11, they are tired of the bread and they grumble that they want meat, so God gives them meat. They grumble about needing water and TWICE God produces water from a rock.
You might be thinking to yourself Lisa, those all sound like pretty reasonable things to be upset about.
Ok. In 1 Samuel 8, they complained that they didn’t have a king, even though they had God to rely on and He had proven his faithfulness. God had not abandoned them, but they abandoned God in their request. So, God gave them an earthly king too.
Jesus, in his accusation of them grumbling, is holding up a mirror to them, revealing that their hearts are the same as that of their ancestors.
Jesus continues:
47 “Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Wait a minute… did he just say to eat of his flesh? Yes. Yes he did. But remember the point that he’s making here! This group of people just experienced consuming a sign of God in the form of bread. And when he slipped away because he did not want them to make him king (again, an error of their previous ancestors), they chased him down. They went to find Jesus and to persist in chasing down these signs of God.
But Jesus keeps pushing back on them. It’s not about the loaf of bread. You have seen the signs - the bread, the healings - and you have heard the teaching. When will you only rely on me? When will you turn to me with your questions? Your complaints? Your uncertainties? Your troubles?
When will you stop your striving for earthly answers? Your spiritual hunger, your striving only perpetuates more striving. We can never satisfy our spiritual stomach. Jesus is telling them that he is the only way to satisfy that hunger and thirst that we strive after.
Verse 52
52 At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, 55 because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
The people came chasing after him for bread, so Jesus used the bread as an analogy. When the people didn’t get it, he leaned into it all the way. When we consume physical food, it becomes a part of our physical make-up. It doesn’t just go through our digestive system. The carbohydrates get stored for later use. The protein goes to building muscle. The vitamins and minerals go to our organs through our blood to repair and restore.
The same is true when we consume the Lord. When we sit in his Spirit in the quiet of the morning. When we devour his words in the Bible. When we gather in community for corporate worship. When we walk in the ways of Jesus, when we allow him to feed our soul, it’s not only one segment of our life that is affected.
It’s every aspect that is changed when we put our full reliance in to the Father. How we speak. What we do. What we watch. Our thoughts. But not everyone will make the choice to follow.
MANY DESERT JESUS
60 Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”
61 Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.) 65 He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.”
66 From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.
67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”
68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
The call to consume Jesus as the Bread of Life is the same call Jesus gives in Luke 9:23-25
'Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, and yet loses or forfeits himself? '
How is the Father calling you today? What is he saying to you? Will you abandon the invitation of Jesus, like so many others did? Or will you accept this hard teaching because you know Jesus is the Son of God?
Closing Prayer
Father God– We give you thanks, that you have provided refreshment at your table in our daily bread to remember who you are and what you have done for us. By your blood we have been cleansed of our sins once-and-for-all. Lord, strengthen our faith and increase our love for one another. Empower us to go out and bring your Bread of Life to nurture justice, righteousness, transformation, love, and hope to everyone we encounter. Give us opportunity and boldness by the anointing power of your Spirit to bring others into your Garden of communion to have a relationship with you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
