"I Am the Bread of Life"

John 6: 35, 51

Some still ask, "Who is Jesus?"
They still ask, even though God has employed every heavenly and earthly means,
in order to let the whole world know.
One of Jesus' best-known answers about His identity is "I am the bread of life."

The miracle that accompanied the statement was the feeding of 5000 men
(plus women and children) with only "five loaves and two small fishes."
This amazing event is recorded in all four Gospels, and may rank as the most familiar of Jesus' miracles.

In our minds we can easily visualized Jesus teaching on a hillside far from populated towns.
A huge crowd had followed Him out there, and had listened for hours.
When the people became hungry, they would have to walk several miles to obtain food.

When Jesus asked His disciples, "Where can we buy food for these people?"
Philip answered that it would require many day's wages to buy sufficient food
for each person to have even a little to eat.
Andrew, Peter's brother, spoke up: "Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two small fish.
But that lunch will not even begin to feed all these people."

"Make the men sit down," Jesus instructed.
The disciples fanned out and persuaded the crowd to sit down on the grass.
"And Jesus took the loaves," the Bible tells us,
"And when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples
to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would." (John 6:11)
Jesus had multiplied that seemingly insignificant lunch into more than enough food for all.
The disciples were even able to take up 12 baskets of leftovers.

All of Jesus' miracles, whether then or now, are astounding, but this one is no doubt
one of the most remarkable and significant.
The crowd required a tremendous amount of food, even if each person was to be given only
one piece of bread and a small portion of fish.
If we planned a church picnic for 5000 people, imagine how many catering vans would be necessary.
In this instance, Jesus employed the feeding of the 5000 to teach great truths about Himself.

On the following day many of those who had eaten of the bread and fish searched for Jesus
all over the countryside on both sides of the lake.
When they found Jesus, He questioned their motives: "Ye seek me, not because ye saw
the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." (John 6: 26)

Today, Americans have often given a superficial response to what might be called
"the gospel of health and wealth."
Through the appeal of manipulative preachers, they ask, "What's in it for me?"

Many of Jesus' day, also, thought only of physical satisfaction.
Yet Jesus wanted them to concentrate on the spiritual truth He was trying to impart.
"Labour not for the meat (food) which perisheth," He taught,
"But for that meat (food) which endureth unto everlasting life..." (John 6: 27)

As people so often asked in the Biblical account, they inquired here,
"What must we do?"
This is also a typical question today.
We sometimes think in terms of what we should do, instead of, what we desperately ought
to be open to receive.

Jesus replied, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent...
for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."
(John 6: 29, 33)

He emphasized this truth -- "I am the bread of life" -- and then repeated it. (6: 35, 48)
In verse 51 Jesus expanded on this teaching: "I am the living bread which came
down from heaven.."
Sometimes, even headstrong and impetuous Peter could ask a correct question, and verse 68
is a case in point: "Lord, to whom shall we do? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

Let us compare John's Gospel account with contemporary concepts that draw upon
the figurative meaning of "bread."
In this context, we will consider three emerging truths to help make the Bread of Life, Jesus,
more nourishing to us.

Jesus Is the Source of Life!

John presented that central truth as the foundation of his Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word
... all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made." (1: 1-3)
All we have in this life is traceable back either to the earth or to mankind.
And God created both.
God is the source of life.

As an anonymous poet expressed it:
"Back of the loaf is the snowy flour,
Back of the flour, the mill;
Back of the mill are the wheat and the shower
And the sun and the Father's will."

Surrounded as we are by a multiplicity of possessions and ideas, we all too easily forget
the basic fact that everything we have and everything we are emanated from God, the source.
In addition, all we can become in the future belongs to Him, too.

God Is the Ultimate Source!

Usually in the peak of health, young people can easily forget that God is the ultimate source
-- of their bodies, their possessions, their food, their homes...
God is the source of physical health, and also the source of all healing and restoration.
All the good that enters our lives is granted by God as His gift.
And God can take it all away if we misuse it!

As James 1:17 reminds us: "Every good gift and perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning."

God supplied the Israelites manna in the desert -- that sweet, mysterious daily food
that fell from heaven.
It provided complete nutrition, perfect for both the weak and strong.
Since Moses' day, Hebrew tradition has taught that when the Messiah comes,
He will give them "manna."
Orthodox Jews believe this will be one of the signs confirming the great prophecy foretold by Moses.

When Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes, declaring that He was the bread
sent down from heaven, those who had heard Jesus and had eaten the food He miraculously
provided were profoundly impressed.