In John 6:32-59 Jesus had been chased by carnival type thrill seekers who had the audacity to ask him to give signs to prove his claims when their very presence before him already did that. Jesus did not come to run a political campaign, make a military effort, or to clear the air for correct theology. He came to be available to those with a need who saw him as a means to satisfy their spiritual emptiness.
Jesus identified himself as food for the hungry soul. In various places of Scripture, he describes himself as the Bread of Life, Bread of God, True Bread from heaven, and the Living Bread. This is the first of seven in which Jesus made claims about himself in the gospel of John. He uses the phrase “I am.” This phrase reminds us of God’s declarations to Moses at the burning bush. There he said, “I am that I am.” Then and now, Jesus offers himself to be our bread; that is if we are hungry in our souls.
We must be hungry. We must believe in Christ. (28, 29) When it comes to satisfying the needs of our soul, we must be careful that we do not make men more than human nor make God less than divine. The challenges for us to avoid seeing Christianity as full of abstracting nice stories but real, authentic, and effective. To take advantage of the spiritual food that is Jesus we must turn away from declaring ourselves that we have no need.
We must prefer spiritual food. As part of accepting the Bread of Life, God must do a special work within us. His Spirit must provide us the gift of faith. To come to him and believe means we no longer trust our old ways. We can go further than that. To be spiritually oriented, a believer must allow his entire way of life to become what God wants and not what we want.
We must appreciate the uniqueness of the Bread that is Jesus. In the Old Testament as the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness, God gave them manna to eat. Today it is actually a symbol for Jesus from when he implemented the Lord’s supper, he said that he needed to be eaten or taken within. He himself was not a symbol. Like the food that we eat that gives life to ourselves, so we take in what our spirit needs. To consume Jesus as the Bread of Life also is to share with others that life-giving nurture that comes from the cross. Who among us will approve this Bread as did the Heavenly Father? Who will take into our spirits the eternal life-giving enrichment of Jesus as God’s bread?
Christian Writer 