Bread of Life

          Today’s reading in John 6 is very rich in content and I could spend several pages talking about this passage, but I again prefer to let my words be few and let the Words of God speak for themselves.

          The following passage is after the feeding of the 5000 from only two fish and five loafs of barley bread.  It is a statement made by some of the same people that witnessed this miracle in the first place and obviously still did not believe.

30 So they asked him, "What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

32 Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

          Jesus is telling them that the bread that their ancestors received with Moses in the desert only sustained the mortal life, but that He now brings a bread that will sustain their eternal life.

35 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. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."

          Jesus goes on to tell them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have this eternal life.  Obviously this is not meant in a literal fashion, but that the world would condemn Him and put Him to death through flogging and the crucifixion upon the cross.  The world would devour His mortal body.

          Today we remember this event in our communion as we take the bread, which represents His body broken for us, and drink the wine, which represents His blood spilled for the forgiveness of our sins.  Jesus lays this same practice down in the last supper with His disciples.  Think about this next time you take communion.  Read over John 6 and reflect on all this.