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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This was exactly what I needed today. What spoke to me was how what was freely given was enough. Everyone took what they needed. There was no lack. No shortage. No scarcity. In my life I am so driven by this notion of scarcity; that there isn’t enough success, love, money, or opportunities to go round. That somehow I’ll miss out. It makes me mean, hard and critical. I have this notion that someone else’s good fortune or reward means that there is less for me. That if other’s rise, I must, by necessity, fall. But that’s not the message of Jesus. Here He is quite clearly saying that everyone can take what they need and there’s still more left over. There is enough. Amen.
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I am a Bread girl…
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I have been feeling a lot of guilt and unworthiness lately for the blessings I have received in my life. These passages are a beautiful reminder that yes, God wants us to help and serve others, but he wants us to enjoy our life and blessings along the way!
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As a new Christian who was only saved at the end February this concept is one I have a lot of difficulty understanding and remembering. Even after seeing and praising Him for great things He blessed me with I still revert back to I am enough not He is enough. He is the bread of life and I must collect from Him daily. I pray I will humble myself and submit myself fully to Jesus. For without Him I am nothing.
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Audrey, welcome to the family of God. How exciting that you have been saved! I rejoice for you! Something I heard a pastor say many years ago helped me with the feeling that I wasn’t enough for God. She said, “there is nothing you can do to make God love you more and there is nothing you can do to make God love you less. He loves you completely just as you are’.
Rest in His love, Audrey and know that He is enough for both of you!
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Growing up in St.Louis, there was a wonderful family-owned bakery named Party Pastry. It was one of those places that felt like you were stepping back in time. The aroma of freshly baking bread permeated the place. In fact, because the ovens were so hot, they often had windows open, and the fragrance wafted onto the sidewalk. If you weren’t hungry as you approached the bakery, the aroma would make your mouth water and have you walking through the door.
Jesus tells us, I am the bread of life. He is all we need. His love for us and our love for him will spiritually sustain us. We should have a spiritual hunger everyday, as well as a physical hunger. Turning to the Bible, going to church to worship, praying, and serving are all ways we can nourish ourselves spiritually.
There’s a little analogy in John 6 that I’ve never noticed before. This is when Jesus feeds the 5000 from two fish and five loaves of bread. After everyone has had their full, there still remains enough food to fill 12 baskets. Now, certainly there is significance of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples. But, more significantly, Jesus wanted none of it to go to waste. Now, perhaps he was just being thrifty, but I think there is something more here.
As he enters into yet another debate with those who had just gathered and eaten, Jesus says the following:
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. John 6:39The symbolism of Jesus gathering up the food so none is wasted or lost is certainly a visual of Jesus gathering up all of us so none is loss. No one is a leftover or insignificant. We are all important to him. We are all valued and loved by him.
Isaiah 55:11
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.-
Thank you, Carol for that lovely insight about the 12 baskets. I’d never noticed that before, and, you’re right, it adds such a wonderful dimension to the following passage.
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I love the insight of the other readers in this study. Thank you Carol!
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Thanks be to God who provides for my every need!
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What A truly wonderful and amazing God! I pray that I become more like Jesus, meeting not only the physical but also the spiritual needs of those around me.
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My “annus horribilis” was 2017; truly, it was the darkest year of my life. Thinking back on it now, I feel so much sadness for my younger self. That I felt so hopeless, such despair…. I cried nearly every night for six months straight. I questioned God. Why would He do this to me? Why is this my lot in life? Why am I His example of mediocrity? I was so angry with Him. And yet, I still opened my Bible every day and read. What if I had allowed all that darkness to take hold of me and didn’t read scripture every day? I shudder to think what actions I might have taken…
Bailey mentions our physical needs and that, for better or worse, those needs must be met. And that is certainly true. But 2017 reminds me that our physical needs are not always met how we would like them to be or when we would like them to be. Thank God we have the Bread of Life to sustain us even when our physical world is crashing. Indeed, it was the only way I made it through 2017.
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Thank you for sharing your story. Very encouraging.
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