Jesus the Bread of Life

John 6:8-14, 30-35

GOLDEN TEXT: “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.”—John 6:35

SOME of the multitude who dined on the five loaves and two fishes were evidently very deeply impressed with the miracle, and inspired with great respect for Jesus. A number of them (we cannot suppose very many) concluded that they would follow this Great Teacher, possessed of such wonderful powers, feeling assured that becoming His disciples would at least safeguard them from want.

This, to a poor people, and under the conditions, was evidently quite an inducement. However, when they found the Lord on the other side of the lake, at Capernaum and expressed to Him their interest and how it had led them to follow Him, He told them plainly that theirs was a selfish or mercenary interest, and not the kind that He desired to cultivate; namely, an interest in the truth.

He would have them see that the miracle which He had performed. the blessing of which they had shared, was merely an illustration of a greater gift, of the more valuable Bread of Life—that He, the Son of God, was alone able to give them—and the same is true of us and of all. By way of assuring them that He was able to provide the Bread of Eternal Life as He had shown Himself able to provide the natural food, He declared Himself to be the Son of God; and that the Heavenly Father had sealed Him, marked Him, granted Him the evidences and proofs of sonship in the powers conferred upon Him, The seal was the Holy Spirit, the holy power of God, which, acting through our Lord Jesus, enabled Him to turn the water into wine and to increase the broken barley loaves and two little fishes, so as to feed the multitude.

After some further conversation and in reply to the question how they might work works that would be acceptable to God, Jesus told them that the work most pleasing to God, the only work that could possibly make them acceptable to God, was to believe on Him, the One whom God had sent. His hearers evidently understood exactly what He meant, that the thing most pleasing in God’s sight would be that they should acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, coming into the world according to divine promise, to establish the Kingdom of God, and to begin the blessing of all the families of the earth.

But now they asked a sign of His Messiah ship, instead of realizing that they had already seen the sign, the signet, or seal, of God upon the Lord Jesus, manifested not only in His spirit of love, kindness, generosity, goodness, purity and truth, as well, as in His doctrines, but additionally that they had seen outward manifestations, evidences of the divine power upon Him, as shown, for instance, in the miracle of the day before. This was because they were hard-hearted, as the Scriptures elsewhere express the matter. (Mark 3:5; John 12:40) That is to say, they were in a faithless attitude, not readily impressionable but rather inclined to be skeptical; hence these signs or evidences of the seal of God upon Jesus were not sufficient for them.

The working of skepticism in the minds of our Lord’s auditors is evidenced by their statement. In substance they said, We cannot acknowledge that your miracle was so great or so wonderful as necessarily to imply that you are the Son of God. We remember that Moses exercised power somewhat like this; in fact, he provided bread enough for our forefathers, the whole nation of Israel, for quite a long time in the wilderness, and. that without any loaves or fish to begin with—we refer to the Manna.

Our Lord’s response is that the Manna was not produced by Moses, that he had nothing whatever to do with providing it; that it came directly as a provision of the Heavenly Father, Moses not being even an agent in the matter. And then our Lord pointed out that the Manna given in the wilderness was typical of the true Manna, the true Bread of Eternal Life—Himself and the truth He proclaimed—which He now desired them to receive at His hands.

They did not at first get. the thought that He referred to Himself, but rather were getting a crude and natural thought, that as God had given Manna from heaven that sustained their fathers in the wilderness, so now this Great Teacher, Jesus, was telling them of a still higher class of Manna, the partaking of which would yield eternal life, and hence they exclaimed, “Lord, evermore give us this bread!” Our Lord then explained the figure or parable, declaring in the language of our text, “I am the Bread of Life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.”

All who thus come to Jesus, in the proper attitude of heart, find Him to be indeed a satisfying portion. He who thus believes on the Lord from the heart, recognizing Him as the Son of God, through whom are to be fulfilled all the exceeding great and precious promises of the divine Word, receives such refreshment, such satisfaction, as will never end so long as he maintains his faith.—Rom. 10:10

QUESTIONS:

What is the only true motivating power of Christian discipleship?

How did Jesus summarize that which constitutes the true work of God?

Explain the manner in which Jesus is the true Bread from Heaven.

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