Jesus: The Bread of Life

“Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” –John 6:35 (ESV).

Jesus made seven “I Am…” statements that defined His identity and His work.  “I am the bread of life” is the first of the seven.   It follows closely in time after His miraculous feeding the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish.  The crowd followed Him to the other side of the lake the next day, no doubt expecting to be fed again.  When no food service was provided that day, the crowd began to disperse and many who at first seemed to follow as disciples also turned away from Him.  Jesus is the “Bread of Life” in that He nourishes people spiritually and satisfies the deep spiritual longings of their souls.  The manna provided from heaven to the Israelites during the forty years of their wilderness wanderings was physical food.  We might say it also provided some spiritual food as well, for the provision of it demonstrated that God wanted them to live and that He was giving them sustenance under extremely hard circumstances.  The provision also freed the Israelites from worry about where their next meal would come from.  They often complained about the manna, but as long as they followed God’s directions, they had adequate food for each day.  But Jesus was a new kind of manna come down from the Father.  He provided for a deep spiritual hunger to know God and to have that spiritual hunger satisfied.  The “Bread” Jesus gives is His flesh (John 6:51), with reference to His death on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.  Jesus often taught by using literal objects to represent or be symbols of spiritual truth.  When the Bread (Jesus Himself) is our spiritual food, He is all-sufficient for our spiritual hunger.  We need not look any further to be filled.  To partake of the Bread He offers satisfies the inborn spiritual hunger that we as humans have.  As St. Augustine stated, “Thou, O God, Hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”  And as Jesus taught us:  “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life” (John 6:47-48).  “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever” (John 6;51).

Jesus gave us a symbolic way of remembering that He is the Bread of Life.  Each time we participate in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, we are recalling that the bread represents His body that was given as a sacrifice for our sins on the cross.  The wine is symbolic of His blood that was spilled, for “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22b).  When Jesus says He is “the Bread of Life” he is using bread, a familiar and necessary material object, to teach a deep spiritual truth.  We receive bread into our bodies and it helps to sustain life because it nourishes our need for food.  Receiving Jesus into our life gives us both eternal life hereafter  and abundant life while still upon earth.  Comparing the manna which the children of Israel received in the wilderness to Jesus, the Bread of life we see by contrast how Jesus was the ultimate manna, the true Bread of Life:  Manna met a physical need; Jesus meets spiritual needs eternally.  Manna sustained physical life; Jesus gives eternal life.  Manna was for one nation, Israel; Jesus is for the whole world, “whoever believes.”  Manna lasted during the wilderness wanderings; the Bread of Life is from Adam to the end of time and beyond.  Manna came at no cost; Jesus paid the supreme price, giving His very life.  Manna delayed physical death; Jesus conquered spiritual death.  God sent a gift of daily sustenance; God sent the perfect gift to be the perfect sacrifice.  As we eat our daily bread and especially as we partake of the Lord’s Supper when we observe it at church, let us thank God for Jesus, the Bread of Life, and how He meets and satisfies our deepest spiritual hunger.  He can do this because He is the Bread of Life.