Most of us love our bread. Every culture on earth loves some type of bread. And back in Jesus’ day, bread was a very important food. However, for them they couldn’t just run down to the grocery store and buy a loaf of bread. Each family made their own bread. In addition, they didn’t have a convenient oven that they just turned on and set the temperature. Bread was a very laborintensive product and took a lot of effort to make.
Jesus performed a miracle where He fed the 5000 with just 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish. According to John 6, shortly after this the crowds were looking for Jesus and they were wanting more bread (John 6:26). Then they said, Moses supplied manna for the people every day. Do another miracle!
So Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Jesus didn’t say “I am the GIVER of bread.” But He said “I AM the bread.”
The problem was that the crowd had only come looking for Jesus because He had given them bread, what they wanted. They didn’t necessarily want Jesus. What they didn’t understand was that Jesus wasn’t talking about bread as physical food, he was talking about spiritual food.
Just like physical bread, we need nutritious food to sustain our physical life. So we need spiritual food to sustain our spiritual life, which helps us survive in this world and with our struggle with Satan.
He continues discussing this with the crowd. He says: “I am the BREAD OF LIFE. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am THE LIVING BREAD that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:48-52).
Jesus used other metaphors to describe our dependence on Him. He said, “I am the vine,” “I am the door” and “I am the Light.” He was talking about how much we need him. Our spiritual lives depend upon Him. We must remain in Christ.
Therefore, this must be an important part of who we are if we want to be His people. So we ...
