JESUS - THE BREAD OF LIFE
The sixth chapter of St. John holds some amazing insights into Christ’s ministry and character. As we unpack what the Apostle has recorded there, may God give us a little more revelation in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
The
beginning of this chapter in John is a narrative about how Jesus fed over 5,000
people with just two small fish and five barley loaves of bread. If you are unfamiliar with the story, you can
read it in John 6:1-14. Notice in verse
14 that it says the people who had experienced this miracle first-hand didn’t
recognize Jesus as the Messiah or the Son of God but, instead, said, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.” Jesus was forced to depart from them at
this point and retreat to a mountain by Himself lest they take Him forcefully
to make Him king (verse 15). Jesus hadn’t
come to be made a conquering king; Jesus had come to be the Lamb of God that
would be slain for the sins of the world.
When Jesus later stood at His trial before Pontius Pilate, Pilate asked Him
if He was the King of the Jews. The Lord
made His position quite clear about this. He said, “My
Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:33-37). Jesus was also much more
than just another prophet, but the people didn’t really understand who He was
or what the Father had sent Him to do.
Many today read
this story as a stand-alone account of a notable miracle performed by Jesus,
and they ignore everything else that follows in the chapter. The miracle of the loaves and fish is only a
very small part of the overall picture.
It is merely the setup for what comes next which is the real lesson of
the entire chapter. Even the other
Gospel writers detach this story from Jesus’ subsequent teaching. John was the only one who connected
everything together into one cohesive lesson.
There were
many lessons that the Jews could have taken away from the miracle of the loaves
and fish. Jesus never did anything that
was without purpose or without a deeper spiritual significance. Jesus is “…the
brightness of His [God’s] glory, and
the express image of His person…” and
He upholds “…all things by the Word
of His power…” (Hebrews 1:3).
Therefore, everything the Lord said and everything the Lord did pointed
to the Father and revealed more of His nature and character. The Jews weren’t looking that deep,
though. They were more excited about the
actual fish and loaves than the very Word of God made flesh Who stood before
them.
Jesus,
having sent the multitude away, did not rejoin the disciples, but sent them by ship
to Capernaum. The accounts of this story
in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark mention that Jesus constrained, or compelled,
the disciples to get into the ship and go without Him.
As they were
going, a great wind blew up, churning the lake and making it difficult to
row. It was then that they saw Jesus
walking on the sea and approaching their ship.
Initially, the disciples were afraid, thinking that He was a ghost; but
He reassured them saying, “It is I; be
not afraid.” (verses 17-20).
Scripture
records that they then willingly
received Him into their ship and “…immediately
the ship was at the land whither they went.” (verse 21). There are many times in our lives that storms
will hinder our progress, troubles will distract us from our goals, and it
seems as though we are unable to reach the place that we want to be with the
Lord. At those times it may seem that
the Lord has left us on our own. Such
trials of our faith are necessary for our spiritual development, however. Jesus wants
us to experience the storm, but He also wants us to witness the awesome power
that He has over the waves and all difficulties of life. He compelled
the disciples to get into the ship and go.
He sent them to
Capernaum. At first they were frightened
by the storm’s very real threat and the sight of Jesus walking across the waves;
but then, when He spoke to them, they were comforted and willingly invited Him into the ship. In that instant
they were delivered to their safe haven!
And so it is with us. It may seem
at times like the Lord has left us on our own.
Do not be afraid. Where He sends
His disciples is where He Himself intends to go. He will come walking on the waves and
speaking peace to our frightened spirits.
I was once
asked to preach at a revival at a small church in our town. As I prayed for a message to share, nothing
would come to me. I prayed harder. Nothing.
It was time to leave for the church, and still nothing would come to
mind. As we sat in the church and I was
being introduced to the congregation, I still had no message. I was getting distressed by this time and
wondering if I shouldn’t have taken this opportunity. As I walked to the podium and stepped behind
the microphone, I could not think of a word to say! Then, as I was preparing to fumble, a brother
in the front pew spoke up and said, “Brother Dodds, may I share a testimony
before you begin?” I said,
“Absolutely!” As the brother shared his
simple testimony, I could feel the Lord’s anointing begin to move upon me, and
a scripture verse popped into my mind.
When the brother was finished I opened to the passage in the Bible and
spoke a powerful message that moved the congregation. All glory to God! I was sinking, but Jesus came walking on the
waves just when I needed Him the most.
And I willingly invited Him
into my ship! When I did, we were right
where we needed to be – immediately.
I believe this
short vignette is sandwiched into the story to show us that there is a
difference between how the Lord deals with His disciples and how He
deals with everyone else. You can be
sure that, Christian or no, the storms are going to come to us all. As believers, however, we have the promise
that all things will work together for our good in the end (Romans 8:28). The lessons that we learn out on the lake in
the middle of the storms are not lessons for the multitude. These are lessons for disciples only. Even those
who have eaten of the loaves and fish are not in a position to learn from this
type of instruction if they aren’t yet sure who Jesus is!
The next day
after the miracle of the loaves and fish, the people who had been fed were
searching for Jesus. They eventually
figured out that He must have gone over the sea the night before (although they
weren’t quite sure how He had gotten there knowing that He had not been in the
ship with His disciples). So they also
got in ships and came over to Capernaum.
When they found Jesus they asked Him when He had come over. Jesus ignored this question altogether
because they had not yet learned the basic lessons from yesterday’s miracle and
were not ready to handle the deeper lessons from the night before.
The Lord’s
next statement cut right to the heart of the matter. He said to them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye
seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves,
and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth,
but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son
of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed.” (John
6:26, 27).
The Lord’s
words were meant as a reproof, but also as a signpost to point them toward the
truth. One would think that seeking the
Lord would be a good thing, but Jesus recognized that these folks were seeking
Him for the wrong reasons. The people
were excited not because of the spiritual food that Jesus offered that would
feed their inward hunger, but because
Jesus fed their bellies! St. Paul would later warn the disciples at
Corinth of this very thing when he wrote, “...look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are
temporal [not eternal; perishable; transient]; but the things which are not
seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18). The Prophet Isaiah’s words to the rebellious
Jews of his day also come to mind. He
said, “Wherefore do ye spend money for
that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye
that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”
(Isaiah 55:2).
The trouble
was that the people witnessed only Jesus’ acts
– the miracles, the healings, etc. – but they missed the message behind the acts. They missed the very thing that would fill
their empty souls. They did not
comprehend His ways. Israel had always struggled with this. Centuries before the Psalmist had written, “He [God] made known His ways
unto Moses, His acts unto the
children of Israel.” (Ps 103:7). Moses
understood God while the Jews only
witnessed what God did. Moses had forged
a relationship with God in the 40 years that he spent on the backside of the
wilderness. You see, we learn obedience
by the things that we suffer in this life, but only if we are willing to
surrender ourselves to God. Otherwise,
we just suffer.
St. Paul
wrote to the Ephesian Church and said, “I
do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of
wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your
hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called
you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is
the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe, according to the
working of His great might…” (Ephesians 1:16-19 RSV). Of all the things that Paul could have prayed
for these new believers, the most important was that they would receive a
revelation in the knowledge of Who Christ is (His character, His ways), what is
the hope of His calling on their lives, what is their great inheritance in
Christ, and how unlimited is His power in those who believe in Him.
The people
then asked Jesus the following question: “What
shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” (John 6:28). This reveals again how focused they were on
acts, works, and things. Jesus’ answer
was simple. He said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He
[God] hath sent.”
(verse 29; see also John 3:34). This is
a lesson that we, too, need reinforced from time to time. The Lord’s work is not comprised of a bunch
of programs, agendas, ministry outreaches, formulas, tried and true methods, or
the like. God’s work is to believe on
the only begotten Son of the Father Who He sent to save the world. It is to learn to live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD.” (see Deuteronomy 8:3). He is the Word made flesh Who was in the
beginning with the Father and Who created all things. HE has already done the work. HE has proclaimed that “It is finished.” WE
just need to learn to give up our own ways and our own thoughts, and discover
how to hear and obey the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit within us. As God spoke by Isaiah, “…My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,
saith the LORD. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts
than your thoughts. For as the rain
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the
sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My
mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah
55:8-11). As we walk with the Lord we
learn His ways little-by-little and day-by-day.
The people
said, “What sign shewest Thou then, that
we may see, and believe Thee? what dost Thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as
it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” (verses 30, 31). Imagine!
Jesus had just worked a notable miracle the day before, and they had all
witnessed it and been partakers of it; but now it was like “…what have you done
for me lately?” It goes to show that
however uplifting and awe-inspiring miracles may be, they cannot establish
faith in the hearts of those who cannot see beyond the sign or wonder to see
what God is speaking.
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but My Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. For the
bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the
world.” (verses 32, 33). All along it was about this one thing: Jesus
Christ is the BREAD FROM HEAVEN, He is
the BREAD OF LIFE.” The manna and the loaves and fish were simply
types and shadows that were pointing to that one truth. Manna couldn’t save the souls of the Israelites,
it only sustained their bodies for a time.
The same was true of the loaves and fish. The Word of God, however, can give life to
the world and nourish the souls of the hungry.
God is looking for those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness that He might bless them. Those who seek only temporal blessings and
signs are going to hunger still. Real
Life can only be found in Christ for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
As a young
believer I could not get enough of the Word of God. I was constantly stealing a moment here and a
moment there to read more of the Bible.
When I was at work I would use my breaks and lunchtime to study the
Word. One day a fellow worker saw me
reading and called me over to where he was working. He said, “I’ve noticed that every time you
get a break you read from that little Book in your pocket.” I said, “Yes?” He said, “Well, I’ve watched you a long time,
and I have a question.” I said,
“Ok.” He said, “Haven’t you finished it
yet!?” I just laughed and said, “Well,
let me ask you a question.” He said, “Go
on.” I said, “I’ve noticed that every
time you get a break you go to the cafeteria or the vending machine and get
something to eat.” He said, “Yeah?” I said, “Don’t you ever get full!?” He just gave me a questioning look, and I
said, “Just as you constantly need to feed your body to keep it strong and
nourished to survive and do your work, I have to constantly feed my spirit with
spiritual food from the Bible in order to survive and function as a Christian.” I could see the light of understanding come
on his face as I silently thanked God for the opportunity to witness to this
man.
“Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give
us this bread. And Jesus said unto them,
I am the bread of life: he that
cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
But I said unto you, That ye also have
seen Me, and believe not.” (verses 34-36). These Jews had been witnessing Jesus’ works
and miracles all along, but had not let faith germinate in their hearts so that
the light of understanding would dawn on them.
Jesus
continued, “For I came down from heaven,
not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me,
that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is
the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
(verses 38-40). The secret is that we
must not be intent on doing our own will or having our own way, but be
surrendered to do the Father’s will. As
in all things, Jesus was setting the example for all of us to follow.
“The Jews then murmured at Him, because He
said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of
Joseph, Whose father and mother we know? how is it then that He saith, I came
down from heaven?” (verses 41, 42). They had watched Jesus grow up, and there had
not been anything remarkable about His early life. He was 30 years old before He performed His
first miracle. Neither Jesus’ words or works were sufficient to convince
them of who He was. Like their fathers
of old, these Jews did not have ears to hear the truth. If they had forged a relationship with the
Father, they would have recognized the Son.
Their religion and their traditions were getting in their way and
blinding them to what should have been apparent.
Jesus said
to them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.
I am that bread of life. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from
heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that
I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (verses
47-51). Jesus would have to give His life in order for the world to know
life.
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood,
ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My
flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the
last day. For My flesh is meat indeed,
and My blood is drink indeed. He that
eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in Him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live
by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that bread which came down from
heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this
bread shall live for ever.” (verses 53-58). This was some heavy-duty theology for these
Jews to hear. Jesus was not just teaching
the true significance of God sending Manna to their fathers, but He was also using
the types and shadows surrounding the Jews’ sacrifices for sin and
uncleanness. To consider a man stepping
in as the sacrificial lamb that would wash their sin and bring them life was
unthinkable for them!
“Many
therefore of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”
(verse 60). As we walk with the Lord and
allow His Holy Spirit to guide us through the twists and turns of life, there
will be many times that He speaks “hard
sayings” to us. Those are the times
that He requires more of us than we thought we would have to give. The times when He ushers us to some secret
room in our hearts and asks that we give up what is inside. Jesus was not above the struggle with the
flesh to live a surrendered life with God.
When facing the reality of His betrayal and imminent anguish on the
cross, Jesus prayed, “O My Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou
wilt.” (Matthew 26:39). To His
disciples He said, “Now is My soul
troubled; and what shall I say? Father,
save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.” (John 12:27,
28). We will all be tempted by the
weakness of our flesh, but by God’s grace we will be strengthened by His Spirit
working in our inner man and will ultimately choose the Father’s will over our
own.
“When Jesus
knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Doth this
offend you? What and if ye shall see the
Son of man ascend up where He was before?
It is the spirit that
quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they
are spirit, and they are life. But
there are some of you that believe not…” (verses 61-64). If, as Christians, we insist in living to
please the flesh, we will profit nothing by Jesus’ words. It is our inner man, our spirit, that is
quickened and made to flourish. Jesus
said that in the world we would experience tribulation, but He also said, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the
world.” (John 16:33).
“From that time many of His disciples went
back, and walked no more with Him.” (verse 66). This is a very sad verse. It wasn’t just the misguided Jews that were
offended and turned their backs on the Lord, but it was some of His disciples: those
besides the Twelve who had followed Jesus from the beginning. These had seen all the evidence that He was
the Messiah and yet they could not receive Jesus’ words now. Oh, how we must pray to never be offended by
what the Lord asks of us. We cannot be
concerned with what others do or how they live their lives. We must work
out our own salvation with fear and
trembling knowing that He will give us grace and strength to do all He asks.
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