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JOHN 6:48 “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.” (KJV, NKJV, NIV, NASB, ASV, RSV)
I am sure you are detecting a theme here. Bread. I want us to memorize three Scriptures teaching us about bread and see how the Lord teaches us some very important aspects about it.
Our first passage we referred to was in chapter 39, from Matthew 6:11. Jesus taught His disciples to pray for daily sustenance, for their “daily bread.” I still very much believe that the Lord was sharing the importance of asking, even for something seemingly simple as the food we needed to eat every day. This would certainly remind every reader of the way He provided for the Israelites for forty years in the desert.
How do you feed a million people, all traveling on foot, through the desert? The Lord literally dropped bread, or manna, from the sky. He provided and He provided enough. He gave them a full day’s worth every day and even provided two day’s worth on the sixth day of the week so they would not have to work/gather bread on the seventh, the day of rest.
When Jesus walked through His ministry, He often provided food for His disciples, such as when they gathered grain from the field. More miraculously, of course, he took two fish and five loaves of bread, multiplied them and fed over 5,000 people. He is obviously intimately interested in being the source of our existence. Here though, He is calling Himself “the bread of life.”
For context and a great Bible study, read entire passage, John 6:22-69. He had just fed the thousands with food He miraculously supplied. Next, in the middle of the night, Jesus miraculously walked on water, in a thunderstorm, and joined His disciples in the boat.
The crowd met Jesus and the disciples on the other side of the lake looking for more miraculous food. Jesus very wisely told them in verse 27 to not work for food that spoils but for food that endures to eternal life. In verse 29, He clearly told them this meant to “believe in the one God has sent…Him.”
As with so many other occasions during His ministry, they focused on the miracle not the miracle giver. Verse 30 sees them looking for yet another sign from Him. They even refer to the miracle of the manna from heaven provided for them in the wilderness under Moses.
Jesus told them, as He tells us, that far more important than any earthly bread that would fill our stomachs and then leave them empty again, we need Jesus as our “bread of life.”
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus tells them in verse 35 as well as verse 48 that He is the bread of life? Although largely symbolic of the bread we eat every day, Jesus was making it very clear that spiritual life would be impossible without the heavenly bread that God had provided through Him. Looking toward His sacrifice on the cross and the bread and wine we regularly use to symbolize that sacrifice as His followers, Jesus revealed the spiritual truth of His “flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (verses 52-58) that we absolutely must have if we wish to have eternal life.
Jesus told them that the manna their forefathers ate in the wilderness, although it physically supplied nourishment without which they all would have died, was in a larger sense the prophetic foreshadowing of what He was there to do…give His flesh and blood as the ultimate and only sacrifice for our sins. It is easy to understand why many found this a hard teaching, and some would not believe (verses 60-66).
The twelve didn’t really understand yet what He was teaching either. This was the first time Jesus revealed what He knew to be true in Judas’ heart. Many decided to turn away and not follow Him any more. Jesus asked the disciples if they would leave Him too and I love Peter’s response when Jesus asked them that question. He said, “to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (verse 68)
Peter got it. Even though He probably also did not completely understand what Jesus meant by His declaration that He was the bread of life, Peter knew he wanted and needed that bread. He knew that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Although Jesus’ illustration here is steeped in huge imagery, we absolutely must grasp the truth that without Jesus as our bread of life, we will spiritually starve as much as any man will starve physically if he stops eating. Does that truth grasp you every time you partake of the Lord’s Supper?
We must quite literally be so starved for the “bread of life” that we realize that nothing else takes its place, nothing else will keep us alive and bring us eternal life. Jesus never suggested cannibalism. He did not literally, physically mean that we needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood…although those are the words He used. He did mean that, without His death on the cross, giving His flesh and bleeding His blood, followed by our unfaltering acceptance and allegiance to its truth in our lives, we would all spiritually die!
Jesus is the Bread of Life. We will not live forever without partaking of it. Don’t just memorize this short little verse and move on to the next one. Let the profound truth of it sink in, maybe for the first time for you. Realize how important it is for us to daily partake of Him, just like we eat bread to stay alive. Thank Him for being our bread of life, just like we thank Him for the bread we prayed for in the Lord’s prayer. Be prepared to share this truth to everyone you meet, because they need this Bread of Life too!
Questions for discussion: We really need to understand how hard this truth would have been for Jesus’ listeners to take in. Would you have had just as hard a time understanding what Jesus was saying without having the advantage of looking back on it with the aid and revelation of history and the Holy Spirit? Just like we will become very hungry very quickly if we do not eat food daily, do you ever feel any sense of hunger when you don’t daily partake of Jesus’ presence and leading through study of the Word and speaking to Him through prayer?
Other Scriptures to study: Matthew 4:3 Satan tempting Jesus by telling Him to turn stones into bread so He could eat. Matthew 16:5-12, Yeast of the Pharisees. Matthew 26:26-29 (Luke 22:1-35), The Lord’s supper. John 6:35-68, Parallel verses. Acts 2:42-47. 1 Cor 10:16-17. 1 Cor 11:23-26.
 
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