I am the Bread of Life
John 6:35 (NIV) “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
When the Israelites wandered in the desert, there was nothing for them to eat. Yet, in His great mercy, God provided manna. He didn’t give them an abundance of manna; He gave them only what they needed to get through each day. In John 6 Jesus explained that He was their provision for life, the true and better manna.
John 6:51 (NIV) “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.”
John 6:54 (ESV) “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Exodus 16:4-5 (ESV) Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”
Like finding the manna, everyone who seeks Him will find Him as the Bread of Life.
Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Matthew 6:11(ESV) “Give us this day our daily bread”
Bread demonstrates God’s love and care for his people: God knows what they need, and God provides for them, no matter their circumstances.
When we are hungry, bread satisfies. God provided bread for his people throughout their history, supplying for them in their need when they could not provide for themselves. Perhaps, then, it should be no wonder that at the last supper, Jesus speaks to his disciples—and to us too—“This is my body…take and eat.”
Jesus puts his finger on something no amount of bread will ever be able to satisfy. Bread cannot fill the emptiness of a human soul; Bread cannot satisfy our inner need to be filled…with a sense of meaning and purpose, a sense of belonging, a sense of where we’ve come from, and where we are going one day.
John 6:47-51 (MSG) “I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”