John 6: 25-40

In this worship service, we plan to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. You’ll be given the opportunity to take a piece of bread and a cup of grape juice. You can take and eat, take and drink, remember and believe.

In the Reformed family of churches, we call the LS a sacrament. The bread and the cup are signs – they symbolize the body and blood of Jesus. The bread and the cup are seals – the action of eating and drinking confirms that God nourishes and strengthens our faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

Reading John 6 might help us with the Lord’s Supper because Jesus uses the same imagery when inviting the crowd to put their faith in him as he uses in the Lord’s Supper. The imagery is rather shocking. Early Christians were ostracized b/c of rumours that they ate human flesh and drank blood. Yet, if you’ve read this passage many times or participated in the LS, you might not think twice about the idea of eating Jesus’ flesh or drinking his blood.

Can you tell you how the imagery came alive for me?

Years ago, when my oldest kids were small, a lady admired them in the grocery store. “Ooo!” she cooed, “That baby is so cute, I could eat her with a spoon!” Did she really say she wanted to eat my child? She’s never babysitting for us!

That’s the ew factor that you hear from Jesus’ audience at the end of this discussion. He says:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

John 6:51–52 (NIV)

Later in the chapter, some of Jesus’ followers call this a hard teaching. Some disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus.

So how do we unpack Jesus’ word picture? What is he talking about when he declares to the crowd, “I am the bread of life”?

Remember the context: Jesus is talking to the crowd who crossed the Sea of Galilee, looking for Jesus after he fed 5000 people from 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish. That miracle made the crowd want to crown Jesus king by force. But that’s not the kind of king Jesus was. Roman officials might secure positions of power by giving the mob bread and circuses, not Jesus.

The bread Jesus broke and distributed to the crowd in the wilderness reminded them of manna. Manna: what is it?

Manna is the food God provided for his people in the wilderness. It’s described in the OT book of Numbers:

The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.

Numbers 11:7–8 (NIV)

God’s provision of manna morning after morning taught his people to depend on the Lord on the journey to the Promised Land.

The Jewish crowd is proud their ancestors ate manna. You can hear it in their voices, “OUR ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness.”

The manna sustained God’s people for 40 years in the wilderness. But Jesus offers to serve them “bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Initially that sounds like a good offer to the crowd. “Sir,” they say, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus drops the bombshell, “I am the bread of life.” Later he carries the thought further:

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.

John 6:48–50 (NIV)

We’ve got manna and ancestors who died and Jesus says he is the bread that a person may eat and not die. Maybe you’re confused.

First, let’s deal with the ancestors who died. The OT books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy describe how God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, guided them through the wilderness, preparing them to enter the Land he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Reading those events, you’ll be surprised at how fast God’s people go from being rescued miraculously to grumbling and murmuring against the Lord and their leaders. In fact, it’s their lack of faith in God to fulfill his promises just as they’re poised to enter the Promised Land that makes God turn them around and march them back into the wilderness for 40 years. God leads them to the wilderness until that generation dies off. It’s their kids and grandkids who inherit the Promised Land. Those Jewish ancestors in the wilderness are a little disappointing, aren’t they?

Jesus reminds the Jewish crowds not once, but twice, that their ancestors ate manna and died. Their ancestors lack of faith in God and lack obedience to the God. You expect, with all the miracles they see, daily food to be gathered, the visible presence of God among them, that they’d be more prepared to depend on God to provide what they need. You’d expect them to do things God’s way, to trust his Word and obey his instructions.

Yet, for all the ways God daily provides for our needs, offers his comfort, his reassurances, his sacraments and other signs of his loving and care, we too struggle to do thing God’s way, to trust his Word and obey his instructions.

Righteousness isn’t possible by willpower. We don’t live up to God’s standard. We don’t love God 100% and love neighbour as ourselves.

Disobeying God always leads to death. Failing to trust God and failing live life according to his instructions doesn’t work. The punishment for sin is not just physical death, but an eternity cut off from the goodness, grace, and dependability of God.

Jesus offers a remedy. Jesus offers himself as the bread of life. He’s talking about himself when he describes the true bread from heaven.

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

John 6:32–33(NIV)

Jesus has come from heaven. From pg. 1 of this gospel, John has told us that Jesus is the Word of God by which the world was created. Without him nothing was created that has been created. And now the Word of God has entered his creation with the express purpose of giving eternal life.

Jesus offers himself as the bread of life. Can I put 2 of his statements side-by-side for you?

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

John 6:29 (NIV)

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

John 6:53 (NIV)

Eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking Jesus’ blood is a vivid description of putting faith in Jesus.

The imagery comes in part from sacrifices in the temple. When the Passover lamb is sacrificed and eaten, every Jewish person is invited to participate in the feast and share in the benefits of the offering. Their household did not experience death. When a fellowship offering is sacrificed, everyone who eats the meal enjoys the assurances of fellowship with their Creator and Redeemer.

Eating the sacrificial meal is a participation in God’s assurances, it’s a symbol of being connected. Eating and drinking is a confirmation that you share in all the benefits that God has offered his chosen and dearly loved people.

Jesus’ imagery of eating his flesh and drinking his blood serve the same way. It’s a vivid way of describing faith in Jesus, dependence on Jesus for life.

Your participation in Jesus’ sacrificial death becomes even more tangible when you eat the bread and drink the cup of the LS. It’s a participation in Jesus’ death on the cross and in his resurrection from the grave. The LS is an intense reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice, taking your guilt on the cross and defeating sin and death for your sake. His body is given, his blood is shed for you and for a complete forgiveness of all your sin.

The work of God is to believe in the one he has sent. Faith in Jesus is all that is required to enjoy everlasting life. Life with Jesus is an eternity of trusting God to provide what is needed and living in obedience to his instructions for righteousness, life, and happiness.