How Is Jesus the Bread of Life?
In John 6:48, we hear the first of Jesus’ seven “I am” statements. Six of these sayings include a predicate nominative—bread (John 6:48), light (John 8:12; 9:5), door (John 10:7, 9), good shepherd (John 10:11, 14), resurrection and life (John 11:25), and the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6 )—which tells us something about the person and work of Jesus. One of these sayings, John 8:58, has no predicate nominative, but stands as Jesus’ ownership of the divine name, “I am,” which the Lord revealed to Moses when the prophet asked to know God’s name (Ex. 3:14). The absolute statement in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” makes it clear that each of the “I am” statements of Jesus is an affirmation of His deity. Because the Jewish religious leaders did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, they judged this statement to be blasphemous. So, “they took up stones to cast at Him” (John 8:59). They understood the truth Jesus proclaimed about His divine nature, but they did not believe Him. As we will see as we examine the first of the “I am” statements, this unbelief is no small matter. Jesus’ words are a matter of life and death.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” during a long conversation He was having with His followers (John 6:48). This discourse came just after the feeding of five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish (John 6:5–14) and occurred just before Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles (John 6:4). Both events provide important context for understanding what it means for Jesus to be the Bread of Life.
At the Feast of Tabernacles, the people celebrated the care that God showed the Israelites in the desert after they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. The desert was not a hospitable place. It was characterized by the lack of resources needed to sustain human life, such as food, water, shade by day, and light by night. Yet, through their journeys in this wasteland, the Lord of all the earth proved to be a generous host, supplying all their needs out of His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19; see 1 Cor. 10:1–4). One of the first miracles of provision was God’s supply of their daily bread. When the people first saw this bread, they did not know what it was, so they called it manna. Psalm 78:23–25 recalls the goodness of the Lord in providing bread in the desert:
Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven
and he rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
Man ate of the bread of the angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
In John 6, the Jews demanded that Jesus prove Himself by performing a miracle like Moses had performed in giving their fathers manna. Jesus corrected them, explaining that it was not Moses, but His Father who gave them the manna. He further explained that He is Himself the manna or bread from heaven that would nourish their souls. The manna was a good gift from God that nourished the bodies of the Israelites for forty years before they entered the promised land. But those who ate the manna died. Jesus said, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54).
When Jesus fed the five thousand, He was reenacting what God had done in the days of Moses to show that He is the Lord who provides. But when the people came looking for Him again, He warned them that they were being driven by the wrong appetite. They were laboring for the food that perishes. Instead, they should labor for the food that endures to everlasting life. Then Jesus explained that He is that Bread of Life.
The language of bread and of eating His flesh and drinking His blood refers clearly to the human nature of Jesus. To believe on Jesus is to receive the sacrifice of His human life. Yet, the “I am” statements also speak of the divine nature of Jesus. So He is not only received by faith in His sacrifice, but also by faith in His indestructible life as God who became incarnate. Eating is a fitting way of describing saving faith because what is eaten gets inside to nourish life and strengthen health. Yet, unlike food for the body, the life of Christ in the believer is not burned up and exhausted by the exercises of love. His eternal life sustains a Godward life forever.