Bread Of Life

Dec 17, 2022

My great-grandfather was a man of few words.

A simple man, he had a few things he held onto deeply and tried to teach my sisters and I the same. The first is: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” If the longevity of his life and the rare number of doctor visits he made is any indication, it must be true.

The second is the English Proverb: “Bread is the staff of life”. Grandpa ate at least one slice of bread, smothered with butter and jam, at every meal and also a few slices every afternoon.

Today, we’re looking at Jesus as the “Bread of Life”. John 6:35 says:

“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.’”

- John 6:35

What a powerful statement! Never go hungry, never be thirsty.

As we think about the analogy of Jesus being the bread of life, we can look throughout scripture to see how His original audience would have interpreted that statement.

In the ancient Middle East, bread was a staple part of people’s diets. The Israelites in the desert relied on God for manna, their literal daily bread. In the Tabernacle and later the Temple, “showbread” was in the Holy Place. It reminded the High Priest to teach the Israelites that God was with His people.

When Jesus told His audience, right after feeding the 5,000 by multiplying bread, that He was the bread of life, He overturned traditional Jewish belief. He was telling the audience that He fulfilled much more than any physical need. The manna God provided in the desert only satisfied the people temporarily, but Jesus was offering Himself, through His death and resurrection, as bread that would satisfy eternally.

This Christmas, Jesus is offering the same to us.

He is offering all of Himself to heal not only our physical needs, but our spiritual, mental and emotional needs as well. If you don’t believe He would heal you because you are too broken, He will! He ate with tax collectors and sinners. I love the beautiful picture of the Last Supper, when Jesus used bread to represent His body, broken for all of us, no matter how sinful, to secure our place in heaven.

Do you believe in Jesus? I don’t mean the intellectual assent, knowledge of who He claimed to be and what He did. I’m talking about the heart!

Friends, we can spend our lives saying we follow Jesus, but not really understand what it means to give our heart, our whole being, to Him. It’s similar to the “showbread” in the Temple. The Christianese and the good works are really all for show.

Maybe that old English Proverb that “bread is the staff of life” is much deeper than what grandpa taught. Jesus - His flesh - His life - given for the sins of the world, is our staff of life. As we feed on Him daily by faith, we can be sustained and persevere!