My husband and I switched to a low-carb diet several years ago, which means we don’t eat bread. We are actually quite fond of bread, so this was a major adjustment. We used to eat bread every day, and bread is something that makes life a little easier. Think about how easy it is to make toast in the morning and then throw a sandwich in a lunchbox and get on with your day! Bread is life. Occasionally we will allow ourselves a day off from our low carb adherence, and bread is the first thing I want. I recently had a wonderful pretzel roll in a restaurant and I was pretty sure I had expired right there at the table and gone straight to heaven. That roll was a taste of the bread of heaven, I’m telling you!

Bread plays a very important role in the Scriptures. It was something that sustained the people in the desert and in the towns. Bethlehem was known as the “house of bread” and look what it produced! Manna played a huge role in the Exodus story. Elijah gave a poor and desperate widow a miracle of a never-empty jugs of flour and oil so that she would have bread for the rest of her life. (1 Kings 17:7-16). Communion is a sacred act of remembrance where we break the bread just as Jesus’ body was broken, and drink from the cup, remembering his blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of sin.

In his first “I Am” statement in today’s reading, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life. John records seven “I am” statements that help us understand exactly who the son of God is. In Jesus’ time, it was not safe for him to speak too often about being the Messiah, as it riled the authorities. So as their rabbi, their teacher, and the Son of God, Jesus used these seven statements to reveal God to them, beginning with “I am the bread of life.” How clever to speak about something as essential as bread.

Jesus is essential to life.

John 6 (Common English Bible)

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “I assure you that you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate all the food you wanted. ²⁷ Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Human One  will give you. God the Father has confirmed him as his agent to give life.”

The crowd had followed him to Capernaum just after he had fed the 5,000 with bread and fish. Jesus knew exactly what they were asking for. They wanted material bread from him. He was offering spiritual sustenance instead.

²⁸ They asked, “What must we do in order to accomplish what God requires?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “This is what God requires, that you believe in him whom God sent.”

³⁰ They asked, “What miraculous sign will you do, that we can see and believe you? What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

How clever of them to quote Psalm 105 to him. They were hoping to manipulate him into providing daily bread as Moses had in the wilderness in the form of manna. But Jesus wasn’t having it. Bread wasn’t a thing; it was a person.

³² Jesus told them, “I assure you, it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ They said, “Sir,  give us this bread all the time!”

³⁵ Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But I told you that you have seen me and still don’t believe. ³⁷ Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and I won’t send away anyone who comes to me. ³⁸ I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ This is the will of the one who sent me, that I won’t lose anything he has given me, but I will raise it up at the last day. ⁴⁰ This is my Father’s will: that all who see the Son and believe in him will have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

What does this mean to you today? Jesus being the bread of life is a sign of God’s sustaining and providing presence in our lives. It means we will never go spiritually hungry if we fill ourselves from his bread basket. We are assured that if we drink of his Living Water we will never thirst again. This is the word of hope this starving, parched world needs!

And to know that he won’t send anyone away who comes to him is a reminder that there is nothing that can separate anyone from God’s love. All we need to do is come. This is a reminder to the church to keep the doors open to everyone.

So today, when you have a bite of bread, think of Jesus, the bread of life. He is the only one who will fill us, satisfy us, and sustain us. Thanks be to God!

Heavenly Bread