JESUS: The Bread of Life                                                            11-06-05

John 6:30-66 (35)     Audio

If Jesus were simply a human being, we would say that He was one of those people who sometimes get their foot so far into their mouth it’s about impossible to get it back out again.  Jesus was more than just a man, but some of the things He says in John 6 seem almost too strange to believe.  If you are trying to get people to follow you, you don’t say the kind of things we are going to read Jesus saying in this chapter.

The whole chapter seems to be about bread.  At least that’s the way it starts out.  A great crowd of people was following Jesus because of the miracles they had seen Him do.  He had healed sick people – invalids were walking, blind people were seeing, deaf people were hearing.  And He had set people free from their demons.  A man Who could turn water into wine and who could calm raging storms is a man you want to be around.  So the people followed Him.

Jesus looks at the crowds and has compassion on them.  They are on the Eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, far from their homes and any places where they might buy some food.  In that setting, Jesus takes 5 small barley loaves that a boy had not eaten, and a couple of small fish, and miraculously feeds a multitude of 5000 men, plus the women and children.  And they gather up 12 baskets full of leftover bread and fish.  It was a great miracle that shows us that God is not limited by our meager resources.

Not only could Jesus heal the sick, now they found out that He could also feed them.

The next day, the crowds again find Jesus, and He knows that what they are wanting is more bread.  He knows that they did not understand the meaning of yesterday’s miracle.  So He says to them beginning in v.27 (read through v.66).

We read this and in the natural we say: “What a disastrous day.  He starts out talking about manna and ends up talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And many of his disciples find it too much to stomach so they leave Him, no longer following Him.”  What in the world is this all about here in John 6 – “I am the Bread of Life”?

As rice is to the Chinese, and potatoes are to Americans, bread is to the Jews.  Two of their three main national yearly festivals were linked to bread.

The Passover was also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  The Feast of Pentecost was also called the Feast of Harvest, or the Day of First Fruits because loaves of bread made from the new grain were offered on the altar to God.  Bread was central to the life of the Jews.  It was the staple in their diet and satisfied their hunger.

In this passage, Jesus is trying to awaken them to a different kind of hunger, a hunger which bread made from wheat or barley or rye cannot satisfy.  I believe the key to this passage is found in verse 27 (read).

There are two kinds of hunger in us.  There are physical hungers, and spiritual hungers.  The people had just had their physical hunger met as Jesus miraculously fed somewhere around 10,000 people from 5 loaves and two fish. 

And the next day these people ask in v.30 “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?  Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 

“HELLO!  What do you think yesterday was?”  “But that was yesterday.  Manna came every day.  We’re hungry again today.  Can’t you do it again for us?”

Jesus reminds them that it was not Moses who gave them the bread, but God.  And that the true bread is not a wafer of manna that satisfies for a single day, but a Person sent from God Who would give life to the whole world.

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.”  That statement by Jesus sounds much like the question the prophet Isaiah had asked centuries before Jesus came.  Isaiah 55:2

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?”  Why do you give so much effort to material things, and so little effort to spiritual things?

Isaiah’s question, and Jesus command are still very pertinent to us today.  And we will come back to them in a few minutes.

As this passage progresses, there are four distinct groups to which Jesus speaks.  Look at verse 24 (read).  The crowd.  That is the group to which Jesus addresses His comments beginning in v.26.  Other translations use the term “the multitude”. 

They are primarily the crowd Jesus had fed the day before, and it is likely that they are standing somewhere near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

At some point in the narrative, Jesus moves into the synagogue there in Capernaum.  If you have ever been to Israel, you have likely visited this place.  (show photo).

On three different occasions I have had the opportunity to stand in these ruins, either of the synagogue that is spoken of here in John 6, or of a synagogue that was built on the site of the one spoken of here.  They always built new synagogues on the site of the former one if there had been such.

Verse 59 says He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.  When did Jesus move indoors? When did He move away from the crowd and was now talking to this smaller group gathered inside to listen to Jesus’ teaching?  Perhaps in v.41; perhaps in v.52.  But not everything Jesus says in these verses was said to the multitude.

Then in v.60 & 61 the audience changes again (read).  So we have gone from the multitude, to the Jews, now to the disciples.  That term refers to a follower, a learner.  They may have been deeply committed to following Jesus, or just casual followers.  But the Bible here calls them disciples.  Obviously that term is referring to more than the 12, because in v.67 Jesus addresses Himself to that select group. The multitude, the Jews in the Synagogue, the disciples, and finally the 12.

In v.33, in speaking to the multitude, Jesus tells them that the true bread is not manna, or even the miracle bread that they ate yesterday. The true bread is a person.  Did they understand what He was saying here?  Their response was: From now on, give us this bread.

Physical bread so they didn’t have to bake anymore?  Or spiritual bread that would satisfy the hunger of their soul?  Jesus seems to perceive that they still did not understand so He begins to explain: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” (v.35, 38).

“Grumble, grumble, grumble, murmur, murmur, murmur.  Who does He think He is.  We know His mom and dad.  How can He say He has come down from heaven? Grumble, murmur, grumble, murmur.”

So Jesus takes it even further: v.51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

“He’s talking about cannibalism.  He’s talking about something so gross as to be unthinkable.  He can’t be serious!  What He is suggesting is incomprehensible!  Surely He cannot mean what He just said. Give us His flesh to eat?”

So Jesus continues: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food & my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. (53-56).

Why didn’t He just stop?  Even His followers were turned off by such talk.  Why didn’t He explain that He was not talking literally here but figuratively?  More people would have followed Him if He had softened things a bit and been a little less radical.

How do we know that Jesus was not speaking literally here?

The first clue is in the comparison that Jesus makes in v.57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  Jesus did not literally eat the flesh of the Father. The Father had no physical flesh like Jesus did. But there was a spiritual relationship between Jesus and His Father that gave life to Jesus, so our spiritual relationship with Jesus gives life to us.  The comparison shows that Jesus was not speaking literally in this passage.

The other place we find this is in Matthew 26, in the account of the Last Supper.  While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (v.26-29)

As Jesus said those words, His blood still coursed through His veins. The cup which He calls “My blood of the covenant” He later calls “this fruit of the vine”.  As they ate the bread, they were not chewing on His arm.  And in v.63 of John 6 Jesus says: The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.  It’s spirit I am talking about here, not flesh.

So when He speaks here about eating His body and drinking His blood He is obviously speaking symbolically rather than literally.

Look back at v.60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”  A hard teaching – today we have what some have called “The dumbing down of Christianity”, bringing it down to the level where everyone can accept it.

Do you remember when the Rich Young Ruler came to Jesus?  Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the story.  He came asking what good thing he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life.  Jesus knew his heart, knew that his material possessions would keep him from heaven, so He says to the young man: “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor; then come, follow Me.”

It says “At this, the man’s face fell.  He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

Notice what Jesus does not do: He does not run after the man and lower the standard in order to get the man to follow Him.   It was another hard teaching.  Whatever it is that stands between you and God has to go.  No dumbing down of Christianity with Jesus.  He draws the line in the sand and says “If you are going to follow Me, step over the line.”

“But Lord, you ask too much of me.  You ask me to eat Your flesh and drink your blood; you ask me to give up everything that stands between me and You; You ask me to do things that are extremely hard for me to do.  I’m not sure I want to follow You if it means being that radical.”

Jesus will not lower the standard to accommodate you.  You either meet His standard, or like those here in John 6 you turn back and no longer follow Him.  The Amplified Bible says in v.66 Many of His disciples drew back – returned to their old associations – and no longer followed Him.  And Jesus let them go.

It was so easy to follow Jesus when He was giving them food, and healing the sick, and casting out demons.  But when He began to demand things of them (and of us), it begins to separate the true followers of Jesus from those who are along for the free lunch.

I want us to go back now to v.27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  

How much attention are you giving to your spiritual life in comparison to what you give to your physical and material life?

This past Thursday, Pastor Dan Betzer in his radio commentary called “Byline”, which airs on 240 radio stations across the United States said:

Ready? Here’s my question. Why is it that weather never seems to be a factor in attendance to sports activities, but is such a major hassle when it comes to church?

My goodness, I remember watching people in Green Bay sitting there for their beloved Packers in temperatures 20 below zero! Want to try to draw a crowd in a church where the temperate was, say, 40 degrees inside? Or where there was no roof to stop the falling rain?

Down in Florida, we rarely have cold weather and in my town have never had snow. But, boy, let it sprinkle and.... “Well, you know, Maude, those roads can be downright slick with that water on ‘em... better not try to make it out to church today, Darlin’.”

I guess people will still get to the places that are most important in their lives. I can only wonder why Jesus’ followers don’t love Him to the same extent (as football fans love their football team). Just a thought.

Those are some good questions.  Are we as committed to our spiritual life as we are to our favorite sports team?  When we have to make a choice between watching our football team or going to church on a Sunday morning, which do we choose?  When we have to make a choice between having breakfast and having time reading our Bible and praying in the morning, which do we choose?  When we have to make a choice between tithing and having a better car or a better house, which do we choose?  When we have to make a choice between watching TV and spending time in ministry to someone, or spending time interceding for people around us, which do we choose?

Those who choose to work for food that spoils, those who choose to put the material things of life ahead of the spiritual things of life, will be those who will no longer follow Jesus when His demands become too radical.

What do you think Jesus meant when He said Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.  (Matt. 24:12-13).

Why does Hebrews 10:36 say You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

1 Corin. 15:2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Some of you who sit here today are neglecting your spiritual life.  I speak to you as one who speaks God’s truth.  You are in danger! Unless you listen to the Spirit of God speaking to you, there will come a day when you will no longer follow Jesus.

Right now He is not the Bread of Life to you.  You are not eating His flesh and drinking His blood.  You are not spiritually feeding on Him and nourishing your spirit through your relationship with Him.  And the day will come when you turn back to your old life and no longer even make a pretense of following Jesus unless you make some changes.

I am here today to call you to change, to repent and turn from the life you are living and turn to Jesus, fully and completely.  Outwardly you have the appearance of a follower of Jesus, but in your heart you know that is just a façade.  You know you are not committed to obey Him wherever that may lead.  God is calling you to repent, and to renew your commitment to Him today.

But pastor, why are you being so hard on us today?  The people said: This is a hard teaching; who can accept it?  Those who accepted it continued to follow Jesus; those who did not accept it, turned back and no longer followed Him.  Which will it be for you today?