“The Bread of Life”
John 6: 35-51
I want us to talk about food for a few moments ... is that O.K.? Not difficult for most of us. Perhaps you have a restaurant you really like and even a favorite meal when you go there. My wife and usually eat at home but last Sunday we went to Cracker barrel. They have a meal there called Sunday chicken-2 pieces of chicken and I order a side of chicken and dumplings and fried okra and always ask for a little extra cholesterol on the side. I heard of a health food restaurant with a billboard that says “eat here and live longer.” Not to be outdone the BBQ place next door posted a sign that said, “eat here and die happy.” Have you ever noticed that when you eat your favorite meal an interesting thing always happens. About 3-4 hours later you could eat it again. You’re hungry all over again. We always want more.
All of us I believe are on a search for something that will satisfy us and will satisfy us completely. But we don’t find it. That’s because most of the things in life don’t satisfy; they just leave us empty and still wanting more. In John 6 Jesus does something that He did repeatedly. He started talking about something that was material and then He turned it into something spiritual. He talked about physical birth with Nicodemus in order to get him to think about being born again. In this chapter He talks about being physically hungry and then talks about being spiritually satisfied.
Before we move any further let me give you some background about bread. In the NT, bread was the most important part of the meal. When you and I go to a restaurant we focus on the main dish, not the bread. In the day of Jesus, if they served meat, it was always a side dish. Bread was always the main dish. So when Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life He is saying that He is what matters .. the most important thing in life. In that day, everyone had access to bread. Rich or poor, they made their own. Bread was one of those things that brought people together. When you broke bread with someone you were friends for life.
The temple was always supplied with bread ... shewbread. It was always a symbol of God, a reminder to His people that every time they ate bread, they were to think of Him. In this passage Jesus had just fed the 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and two small fish. The disciples then get into a boat and head to Capernaum. A storm comes up, Jesus comes walking across the water and tells them not to be afraid. Now the crowd who are all hungry again because what they had eaten didn’t satisfy them, they jumped into their boats and set out to find Jesus. Jesus says to them ..vv. 26-27. The key word here is the word work. Like may of us, the people thought they needed to do some sort of work in order to earn God’s favor. I love this answer Jesus gives in v. 29. “The work of God is this ..to believe in the one He has sent. In other words, if you insist on working, here’s your job description: BELIEVE IN THE ONE WHO GOD HAS SENT.
Well instead of doing the simple thing and just believing, these people had the nerve to ask for another sign. Let’s see, you fed the 5000, walked on water, what else you got? But we do the same thing. We ask God over and over to do something for us while we forget what He’s already done. Our minds always think of now. We forget our blessings. Then in verse 31 we see the challenge they present. Moses provided bread for millions of people for 40 years. You gave us bread once. The bread Moses gave us came down from Heaven; Jesus - you used earthly bread and you multiplied it.
Look at His response. Vv. 32-33. They’re saying Moses had manna ... Jesus what have you got? And Jesus is trying to tell them and He tells us, I am not talking about physical things. I’m talking about spiritual matters. He is telling them that Manna can only solve physical hunger. But this bread I am describing gives life. Now He has their attention...their appetite is whet. Look how they respond. V. 34. From now on give us THIS BREAD. Jesus then says in verse 35 “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. I am talking about a kind of bread that will change your life completely.
Still they had trouble understanding. V. 41 tells us that they began to grumble. V. 42 tells us why. They grumbled because Jesus said that He was the bread that came down from heaven. I find it interesting that the Israelites grumbled when God provided the manna for them in the wilderness. And really human nature hasn’t changed very much because the Israelites did it, the religious crowd here in the NT did it and guess what? So do we! The real problem I think was this. They all knew about Jesus but as I have said, there is a huge difference in knowing about God and in knowing Him personally. Look again at verse 42. Some of us are in danger of doing the same thing. Maybe you grew up in church, you know a few Bible stories, you know what happened at Christmas and at Easter and you think you have Jesus all figured out. Listen, be careful that you don’t allow what you know ABOUT Him to keep you from actually KNOWING Him.
Perhaps you have read the book or heard the story that Jon Krakauer tells in His book Into Thin Air. In his book he describes the hazards that got in the way when these mountain climbers were attempting to get to the top of Mount Everest. Andy Harris, one of the men in charge stayed at the peak of the mountain too long and on his decent he started running out of oxygen So he radioed the base camp and told them of his predicament. He told them on my way down I have seen several oxygen canisters that were left behind by the others but i know they’re used up. They are empty. But the climbers who had already made it down knew they were full. They told him. Again and again they told him. But it did no good. He wouldn’t listen. He continued to argue and he insisted that the canisters were empty. Why would you do that?
Listen carefully. The problem was that the LACK of what he needed (the oxygen) had so disoriented his mind that even though he was surrounded by the very thing that would give him life, he couldn’t see it. The very thing he held in his hands ... these canisters .... were full of the very thing that was absent in his body. His body was deprived of the very thing that was right in front of him. But he just couldn’t see it. Listen, what oxygen is to the body, the Bread of Life is to the spirit. Many of us are starving ... we’re suffocating and we don’t even know it. And Jesus is offering life to us, it’s right in front of us but we just don’t see it. So we keep looking on other places. V. 51.
