Today is the second Sunday of the Lenten season and we shall continue to study the “I AM…” sayings of Jesus. Our Gospel reading this morning was John 6:22-51, during which Jesus tells His disciples, the crowd following along, and us, “I Am the Bread of Life!” In order to understand why Jesus chose this particular metaphor for His teaching, we need to go back a little farther in John’s Gospel account and see what is going on at the time.
Our passages this morning began with, “The next day the crowd…”. And we learn that somehow Jesus had disappeared from where the crowd expected Him to be. So it is very important to go back to the day before and find out what had taken place that would cause these people to be seeking Jesus on this, the next morning.
A summary of the events of the day before our Gospel reading begins is as follows: Jesus had been in Jerusalem where He performed several miracles and, on the day before our starting point, He and His disciples had crossed Lake Galilee. A huge crowd of people had followed Him because they had seen the miracles Jesus had performed in Jerusalem. Jesus had gone up to a hillside, sat down, and saw the great multitude of people who had been following along.
It was near evening and Jesus decided to test Phillip, one of Jesus’ disciples. Jesus asked Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Jesus asked this even though He already knew what He was about to do. Phillip says that they do not have enough money to buy enough bread for the people to have even a little piece. See, there were according to Scripture 5,000 men. (Throw in the women and children and there were probably near to 20,000 total people there.)
Most of us have heard what happens next. Another disciple brings a boy to Jesus. This boy has two small fish and five small loaves of bread. Jesus gives thanks to God the Father, gives the food to His disciples, and tells them to distribute the food to the crowd. We are told that everybody eats their fill and when the leftovers are collected, there are twelve baskets of food left!
After this miracle, the crowd of people was so happy that they wanted to make Jesus their king, by force if necessary. (I guess we would want a king who could provide all the food we could eat for free, too!)
Later that evening the Disciples got into a boat, without Jesus, and crossed back over the lake to Capernaum. Jesus joins them later (after miraculously walking about three miles out to the boat on the turbulent water during a storm). The next morning, where our reading this morning begins, the crowd couldn’t find Jesus, so they went looking for Him.
It is during the next thirty-some passages that Jesus repeatedly refers to Himself as, “The Bread of Life”, and says that in order to be saved we must “Eat my flesh (Jesus’) and drink my blood (also Jesus’). This statement caused the people there at the time and millions of people since to ask, “What in the world is Jesus talking about?” First of all, it means that Jesus is primarily concerned with satisfying our spiritual needs, rather than our physical appetites.
The first question the crowd asks Jesus when they catch up to Him is, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” But Jesus knows their hearts and doesn’t even answer their question. Instead He goes right to the crux of the matter and says, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”
The crowd then asks Jesus what they must do to “do the works God requires?” Jesus tells them and us, “The work of God is this; to believe in the One He has sent.” I find the crowd’s response to that statement very, very interesting. They ask Jesus in verse 30, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?”
“What sign will you give us?” What do you mean, “What sign will you give us?” These are the very same people who had been fed miraculously the day before. Jesus had just fed 5,000 men and countless women and children the day before with two fish and five small loaves of bread and they have the audacity to ask, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?”
I find it very curious that people who look to Jesus to be some kind of cosmic Santa Claus, look for Him to be the key to having all of their physical appetites satisfied, never seem to ever be totally satisfied. There is always the next “thing” that they want. The people talking with Jesus that day had just witnessed a tremendous miracle the day before, but had already forgotten it! But alas, we too can be like that, can’t we? “Hey God, what are you going to do for me today?” Or sometimes the opposite is true. “God, since you haven’t done anything miraculous in my life recently, I don’t think I want to follow you anymore!”
Well, those people asked for a miracle, but Jesus knows that they are following Him for the wrong reasons. You see:
Let’s think about bread for a moment.
First of all, Jesus is not talking about Holy Communion. While Communion is an important sacrament of remembrance, there is no saving power inherent in the act of communion itself. That power lies solely in faith in Christ.
The same is true of baptism. Communion and baptism are both outward acts of inner commitments to God and His Word. The thief on the cross next to Jesus was never baptized, nor did he ever take Communion. Yet he was saved by his faith in and profession of Christ as the Messiah!
So if Jesus is not talking about communion, what is He speaking of? I believe if we take a closer look at Jesus’ words, we will find the answer. Jesus says, “I Am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (verse 35)
“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I Am the Bread of Life. Your forefathers ate manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from Heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I Am the living bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” (verses 47-51)
What does it mean to “eat the bread of life?” Whenever the Hebrews spoke of “eating” in this manner, they were using the term “eat” as a euphemism for believing in something to the point of taking it into your very being or making that something an integral part of your life. We still use a similar term to this day. I remember my high school basketball coach telling us that in order for our team to do well, we would have to “eat, drink and sleep” basketball. I can tell you, we did not run out and begin chewing on basketballs, but we did take the sport to heart and work very, very hard to understand every aspect of the game, as best we could.
So in these passages, to “eat the Bread of Life” as Jesus tells us, “Eat my flesh and drink my blood” means to:
I believe today’s Church can learn a bit from this passage. It says that “many”, not a couple, not a few, “many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” The Church of Christ today is so paranoid that if it teaches the total truth, even the “hard sayings of Jesus”, that someone may be offended and leave the Church. Hence it has shied away from teaching or preaching much of the Gospel of Christ. The fact is, some of the Gospel of Christ, especially the parts about His righteousness, will indeed offend those who are convicted by it. But does that mean that we are to throw up our hands and ignore that character trait of the One we call Lord? I think not.
Let’s look at how Jesus reacted to “offending” many of His disciples so much that they left Him forever. Did Jesus get upset and run after them begging for forgiveness and their return? No way! Instead, Jesus turns to the twelve apostles and asks them, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Peter gives the best possible answer to Jesus’ question. Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” I am sure that at this point in their journey of faith, the disciples were still a bit perplexed about this whole “eat my flesh, drink my blood” teaching.
I believe it sounded just as strange to them as it does to us. They may not have understood it all, but they understood enough from their interaction with Jesus to know in their hearts that He was who He said He was. The disciples did not let their lack of total understanding about some of the things that Jesus said, to keep them from affirming their belief in Him as the Son of God, who possessed the key to eternal life. We shouldn’t either!
Perhaps you are here today and have never made the commitment of turning your entire life over to Jesus, but are considering doing just that. You desire eternal life and you’re pretty sure that Jesus is who He says He is – God the Son. But just maybe you have some questions that are still unanswered. Or there are parts or passages of the Bible that you simply do not understand. Well, I am here to tell you that no one understands it all (even though there are some who would like you to believe that they understand it all). But here is the great news! You do not have to understand it all! All that you need to understand is that Jesus IS the Bread of Life and without Him, your soul will never be satisfied and you will never be able to gain eternal life!
You may never comprehend everything that Jesus says. You may never understand why Jesus answers some prayers and not others. But if you will come to Him believing that He is God the Son, if you will ask Him to be your personal Savior and Lord, and if you will put all of your faith and trust in Him, then He will satisfy your soul. For Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, I AM the Bread of Life.” Amen!