Bread of Life

So today it is going to get weird. That’s OK though since weird is kind of a theme in scripture. From talking serpents to animals lining up to enter an ark, fire coming down from heaven, plagues and miracles in abundance, the last becoming first and the first becoming last the bible has a lot to say about weird and this will be no exception.

First let us set up the scene. Jesus had performed many healings and miracles, then he fed 5,000 with a sack lunch, then he walks on water across the sea to Capernium and after all of that he talks to the people who ask for a sign to prove who he is.

That’s when it gets weird

John 6:26–40 NASB95

Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

The people are looking for another miracle, another sign, they want to be fed and they want Jesus to prove that he will take care of them and meet their physical needs. They talk about mana from heaven and bread and Jesus tries to turn their thoughts to spiritual things, to persuade them to focus on the eternal rather than their immediate physical wants, but they just don’t get it.

John 6:41–58 NASB95

Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. “I am the bread of life. “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

Once again the people try to turn things to everyday concerns, bread and eating and life in general. The people were even trying to put Jesus in his place by remembering that he was born in a town and to a family just like they were, it is almost like they refused to see any kind of spiritual activity or action and were completely focused on making everything physical and normal, and they probably were. We understand the physical and the normal but spiritual things are strange to us, the physical we can see and explain but the spiritual is mysterious. We don’t understand it so we don’t like it, we are more comfortable with things we understand, things we can see and feel and touch. We don’t want to trust and rely on things that are hard to see or understand, how can we control it if we can’t even see or understand it, we can’t. Maybe that is the problem, we instinctively know we cannot control spiritual things and we want to avoid what we cannot control.

Jesus states that he is the bread of life and that the one who eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life and will be raised up on the last day. How weird is that? If you were a Jew it would kind of make sense. The Jews knew something that we overlook. When you eat something or drink something the proteins, vitamins and minerals from whatever you eat or drink are broken down and used to nourish your body, these things are used to make cells or energy, they actually become part of your physical body. The Jews believed that you should be careful who you eat with. They often ate from a common pot or a common loaf of bread and so the same food that became part of your body also became part of the body of anyone you ate with. They believed that this made you somehow connected since the same food became part of each of you that ate together. Now Jesus is saying that you must eat and drink of his body so that his body will become part of your body, his life will become your life and his eternal life will become your eternal life. He was trying to explain it to them in a way that would make sense to them.

Of course it was easier to ignore the spiritual aspect of the conversation and just focus on the physical. If you take everything to be physical then Jesus is recommending cannibalism and vampirism which is just weird.

Jesus goes on to explain that if you eat his flesh and drink his blood (spiritually) then you will abide in him and he will abide in you (spiritually). Now this word abide has some great implications. It means to linger, to not depart, to be present continually, to endure or to live, it means to remain as one and not become different or separate. If you abide with Jesus and he abides with you then the two of you linked together for as long as you live, since Jesus lives forever then you are linked together forever. Isn’t that the promise we have from God that he will never leave us or forsake us, that the holy spirit is always present in us, that we exchange our lives for his life and that we live in him and he lives in us, it is the same promise, the same idea it is just expressed in a different way. Jesus talked of bread because bread is what the Jews were concerned with, he wanted to relate this truth to them in a way they could understand and accept just as he wants to relate it to us so that we can understand and accept it. They had a hard time with it just like we do.

It is hard to accept what you cannot explain, it is hard to believe what you cannot fully understand. It is hard for us and it was hard for them, it was even hard for the 12 disciples.

John 6:59–71 NASB95

These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.

Many of those who had followed Jesus and become his disciples left him because they could not understand or accept his words. Jesus recognized this and he even said

John 6:63 NASB95

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

You just can’t come to a saving faith in Jesus without a spiritual element to it, it cannot all be physical, you can’t earn it or deserve it or work for it you have to accept it. Some part of it will always be beyond us because his thoughts are above our thoughts and his ways are above our ways. It can be explained and it can be observed but there will always be an element of salvation that is spiritually discerned and cannot be understood without the intervention of God, therefore no man can come to the father unless the father draws him.

Jesus asked the 12 if they would leave too and Peter gave a great answer. The greatness of his answer was not really in what he said but in what he didn’t say.

John 6:66–69 NASB95

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

Peter did not say don’t worry Jesus we fully understand and we get it so we will follow you because we have it all figured out. Peter did not say we thought about it and it makes sense so we will follow you as long as you continue to explain everything to us so that we can understand it. In fact Peter didn’t say anything like that at all. He said we know that you are the holy one of God and that you have the words of eternal life so where else could we go. Peter didn’t claim to understand it or have it all figured out, he didn’t claim to know what was next or how it all fit together he just said that he knew Jesus was the holy one of God and Jesus had the words of eternal life so he was going to stay since there was no other place or person who had eternal life.

Peter was still confused, Peter was unsure, Peter was struggling but he had seen enough of Jesus to know that Jesus was not confused and Jesus was not unsure of struggling, Peter knew that Jesus understood eternal life and that was enough. Peter would stay.

What about you? Are there things you don’t understand, welcome to the club, are there times you struggle or doubt, welcome to the human race, do some things go over your head and seem to make no sense, do they seem to be too complicated or to other worldly to wrap your head around, welcome to Christianity. So will you you turn away like the crowds and refuse to follow Jesus as soon as something is strange or as soon as there is something you can’t figure out, or will you like Peter admit that we don’t understand it all and we haven’t figured everything out but we know Jesus and no one else has the words of eternal life, so we will follow him and trust that even when we are lost Jesus knows where to go. He will lead us, he will save us, and we will follow him.

It’s a simple decision really. We can’t figure it all out, he knows it all already, so are we going to trust in our own ignorance, or in his wisdom, which one will be the guiding force in your life, the wisdom of God or the confusion of man?