I Am the Bread of Life
Open Your Bible
John 6:1-15, John 6:22-58, Exodus 16:11-36, Luke 22:19
BY Bailey Gillespie
In the whimsical, little village of Carmel-by-the-Sea, there’s a restaurant called Forge in the Forest. And, yes, it looks exactly like it sounds. It has a courtyard reminiscent of Disneyland’s Pixie Hollow, full of creeping vines and flowers and string lights. One of my students had recommended the place in a food review, so my friend and I pretty much planned our whole trip around having dinner there. After a day of sightseeing and beach-combing, we were way beyond that point of hunger in which you can barely form cohesive sentences. So, as you can imagine, we were giddy after ordering bacon burgers, a balsamic beet salad the size of a hoola-hoop, and chocolate lava cake garnished with raspberries. Of that meal, all I can say is, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”—I’ll just leave it at that.
Before Jesus feeds the five thousand near the Sea of Galilee, He notices the crowd’s physical needs. “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” he asks Philip (John 6:5). Once the disciples spot a young boy with food, Jesus uses five barley loaves and some fish to nourish the crowd’s physical hunger. He knew they wouldn’t be able to listen well if they were starving. This meal was an act of care and an entryway into relationship, where He would begin to nourish them spiritually.
In fact, providing above and beyond for this crowd was enough to convince them that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. When they saw this miracle, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world” (v.14). Throughout Scripture, bread is a common motif used to demonstrate God’s provision and sustenance—whether that’s the Israelites’ “bread from heaven” in the desert (v.31) or a mountainside meal. Jesus goes as far as to tell the disciples that He is the bread of life (v.35).
One of the earliest heresies in the church was the belief that the spiritual realm is good while the material world is evil. But we live in fragile bodies that have needs, and the way of Jesus is distinctly earthy. He walked along the dirt and fed people with fish and broke bread to symbolize His own body (Luke 22:19). Jesus doesn’t neglect the physical world for the spiritual world. This place we live in—a world with cinnamon bark and praying mantises and fresh basil—is the setting God created for us to encounter Him.
We have physical needs and spiritual needs, and Jesus offers to meet these while teaching us a higher way of living. Although our physical needs are great, Jesus is the nourishment that sustains us far beyond just alleviating our hunger pangs. How kind of Him to offer Himself in a way that makes little sense to us on one level, yet is exactly what we need Him to be: our “bread of life” (John 6:35), the only sustenance we will every truly need.
Although there wasn’t anything particularly spiritual about that meal at Forge in the Forest, I felt God’s pleasure as I ate it. The same God who designs intricate plant life so that we can garnish our cake with raspberries also gave Himself up for us out of love. May we always remember that.
32 thoughts on "I Am the Bread of Life"
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How often are we like the crowds, seeking Jesus for blessing or to meet our needs. Jesus said the crowds were not seeking him because they believed but because they wanted Him to meet a specific need. May our hearts not be hard like the crowds but truly seeking God because we desire to know Him and to make Him known.
And I think it’s so crazy that the crowds as Jesus for a sign to prove he is who he says he is after he had JUST fed them by miraculously multiplying the meal. How often do we doubt Gods goodness and care over us after all that He has already done in our lives. How quick we are to forget.
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I love how Jesus weaves the physical and spiritual together. It’s like He’s inviting us to look into the metaphor of the manna. The daily presence that sustains is just that: daily. The children of Israel could not rely on yesterday’s work for today’s sustenance. So too we cannot rely on yesterday’s spiritual food for today. Feasting on His presence is a daily act.
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Just like the manna, I must collect daily.
I obey, He provides.
No matter how much I gather, my stomach is full.
Reliance is hard, but it satisfies in a way our own efforts never will.
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So true. That daily dependence is our lifeline!
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The Lord is good. Partaking in Him is all the sustenance I will ever need. Holy Spirit prompt my heart and mind, burn it within my soul, to remember.
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37Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.
39This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day.
The two truths in these verses that brought my heart to an abrupt stop and made me steer back around for a closer look we’re:
1. God gave me to Christ.
2. I belong to Christ forever.
It is that juxtaposition that is God’s calling card. He gave Christ to the world (me) but He gave me to belong to Christ. God through the Holy Spirit prepared my heart to receive Christ. I did not prepare myself to be given or to receive. If I had, I would be saved by works. My salvation was part of God’s plan. Created by God for God. May I don that lens to see my way through today. And then, Christ will never cast me out or lose me. I am sealed to Him. The bond cannot be severed. I am forever joined to Christ-now, in the spirit by faith and then, face to face! May I feast on the Bread of life and devour every delicious morsel of being known by and loved by Him as I grow to know Him more and love Him more. What a blessing this confidence! -
Jesus is enough. He is all I need. I am so thankful that He loves me enough to take care of my physical needs, but I am more thankful that He takes care of my spiritual needs. He made a way back to God.
My prayer is that nothing gets in the way of that relationship. Protect me, Jesus, from seeking after things that don’t matter, things that are temporary, things that only satisfy for a short time. You are the only food that brings eternal life.-
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Beautifully said Churchmouse and Bailey. Yes, Churchmouse, why wouldn’t we want to leave the wilderness, taste and see that the Lord is good, and partake in His gift. I’m saved, but still find myself in bondage anxiety, and fear. How long will I learn His Word, and not believe His promises? I want to let go and trust. I’m tired of letting the enemy win.
Bailey, I appreciate what you wrote. God has given us a world filled with cinnamon bark, praying mantises, and intricate plant life to decorate your cake. He is so Good, so detailed, and He provided for those people. I need to remember that He still does that today. My pastor said that he is on the Manna Plan. He trusts that God has already provided everything he needs for that day! That is an awesome thought about an Awesome God that is able to do that! Your last thought was for us to never forget that He gave Himself for us out of love! May I really understand the depths of that truth and may it completely and radically change me and all that hear that. I’ve been listening to the Unashamed podcast with the Duck Dynasty family. They preach Jesus and Phil was talking about how meeting Him and truly understanding forgiveness radically changed him in so many ways. It’s a good podcast to check out! Thank you both, Bailey and Churchmouse for your writings.-
Beautifully said, Kristen. Amen!
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The Bread of Life came from the house of bread, Bethlehem. “Beit lechem” in the Hebrew. Bread is the food of sustenance, a basic necessity, of the ‘bread and water’ fame, all we need to live. I would think that if I went to Bethlehem, I would find just that there. At the house of bread I would find that which would sustain me, that which would nourish me, that which would keep me living. My deep hunger is met when I go to Bethlehem for there is Jesus. He is the bread of life, the sustenance I need. And when I partake of this Bread, when I acknowledge that He is the very substance of life, I am given the promise of eternal life. We need not grab our passports and book a trip to Israel however. We go to Bethlehem, the house of bread, when we accept Jesus for Who He says He is, when we acknowledge we are dead in our sin but can have eternal life when we eat of the Bread of Life, when we believe in Him. We don’t need to perform to please Him. We need only believe. He tells us plainly Who He is and why He came. Will we pick up and partake of this manna? Will we leave the wilderness and come into the promised land? Will we taste and see that the Lord is good? Will we share this Bread with other hungry pilgrims? Why wouldn’t we?
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