John 6:42-59 - Bread Of Life

^{To review where we are. Jesus has feed the five thousand, walked on the water and is currently expressing His deity to}

 ^{those who witnessed all of this and yet still don’t seem to get it.  He heard last time:}

⁴¹ The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” ⁴² And

 they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

And so Jesus very plainly and honestly answers them. Now He had to know they were not going to accept him, more than that He knew that when you speak the truth to rejecters of the truth you inspire animosity, an animosity that would soon lead Him to the cross.

⁴³ Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Let it be firmly said that God calls and draws all, but not all answer. Jesus would echo this later when he said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except by me.”  With these statements we know that there are not many paths to God as some might have you believe, but rather there is only one way: Jesus Christ.

⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets,

And that is as simple as it is. We heard what Jesus has said, we have accepted it as the truth and we commit ourselves to it and Him…..and we are God’s. There is no effort, no work (though surely effort and work will follow our salvation) you simply belong.

⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

Bingo.

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life.

Jesus many times through the Gospel of John uses the phrases I Am.  I Am the good shepherd, I Am The Sheep Gate, I Am the way the truth of the Life.   With each use of this phrase He is reinforcing His deity. When Moses asked God’s name, He answered by saying  “I Am”  Yahweh and it’s Alternative Jehovah  both simply mean  I AM.

⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.

Okay now Jesus did it….He’s messing with Moses. Abraham and Moses where two figures in the Jewish tradition which were Golden and untouchable, and here Jesus is saying His bread…the bread of life, is superior to that which was provided by God, in the presence of Moses.  This is NOT how we make friends here.

All kidding aside, this was the message He HAD to tell them. That “I Am” above Moses, I am above Abraham, I AM. Again speaking this kind of truth is guaranteed to make you enemies. The truth always makes enemies….because many people align themselves against the truth. Jesus said he did not come to bring peace, but rather a sword….separating those who will trust Him and those who will reject Him.

Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.
35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and a man’s enemies will be those of his household.’[e] 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

Okay what is life?  Is life the living and breathing and eating and sleeping that we do?  Well yes that is physical life. There is also spiritual life…the life we are reborn to (John 3:3)  in Jesus Christ. It is this life that Jesus is referring to, and it is only by Him that we can attain this life. Now does this mean we all our going to eat his actual flesh and drink his actual blood…physically as some of our Christian brethren think.  No because otherwise Jesus would be speaking about physical life as our reward, and our spiritual eternal life is what he is talking about, so we shall keep this context, that Jesus is talking about Spiritual Life, and our partaking of his Body and Blood ( a foreshadow of the last supper and crucifixion) as a spiritual undertaking, for spiritual purposes.

⁵² The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us  flesh to eat?”

Our Jewish friends, didn’t quite get that point. And so Jesus presses the point, and if your looking at this in a physical point of view what He says next is downright disgusting, so much so that it merely emphasises the fact that Jesus IS talking about spiritual things and eternal spiritual life. The breaking of His body on the cross, and the blood He spilt is indeed our salvation, our Bread of Life.

⁵³ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

Keep the mind focused on spiritual things. Jesus IS everything that sustains us, everything we need. If we are looking for satisfaction or fulfillment from any other source then we are “feeding” on the wrong things. There is nothing we need in our spiritual life besides Jesus.   If you have found that you are not fulfilled, may I suggest, you need to “eat” more?

⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

This is the plan our Father has for us. Eternal Life.  Surely this body we are in will die someday, but we who call Jesus Lord and rely on his mercy and grace, will never know death.

⁵⁹These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

From Capernaum to our computer, the words have no lost an ounce of their meaning or their promise. I encourage you to seek out the Bread of Life build it into yourself as there is an unending supply.