Yesterday, Our elder, Jonathan, shared from the passages of John 6-8. You can listen to that on our podcast. Today, I’d like to reflect on Jesus as the bread of life. This was such a difficult thing for the Jews of Jesus’ day to understand that many turned away from Jesus, thinking he was talking about cannibalism. How can we not come away with that idea when we hear someone say, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in my?” That would have been an alarming statement back in Jesus’ day. A statement that would not have a clearer meaning until his disciples experienced the last supper with Jesus, where he explained the meaning of his words. Since Jesus referred to himself as the bread of life, let’s look at how that relates to the components of bread.
Bread Is Broken Before Eating
Normally, when we are gathered together to share a meal where bread is present, we break the bread. In modern times, that normally means cutting it with a knife into slices. But even now, certain breads are still torn. Challah bread, Naan, and other types are torn and eaten. When we tear the bread, we divided it into parts for many people to access.
In a similar way, this is how to understand Jesus as the bread of life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus mentions a couple things about his his fate. In ch. 3, He tells Nicodemus that if the Son of Man is lifted up, he will draw all men to himself. In a similar pattern during the Last Supper, Jesus lifted up the bread, gave thanks and broke it saying, “This is my body which is broken.” Less than 24 hours later, his physical body was beaten and hung on a cross. He was lifted up and broken, thus fulfilling the first aspect of being the bread of life.
Bread Provides Nourishment for the Body
The next part of the process is consuming the bread. When we eat bread, the starches, proteins, and such are broken down in our digestive system. This brings nourishment to our bodies. This nourishment gives us energy to move and act.
The observance of the Last Supper also foreshadowed a major part of the Christian life. When Jesus commanded the disciples to eat, it moved the words of John 6 away from a cannibalistic nature to that of a transcendent or metaphysical one. Jesus was going to become a metaphysical source of nourishment for his followers. Just as he told them at the well with the Samaritan woman, I have food that you do not know of–it is to do the will of my Father. There is a spiritual, life-giving nourishment in doing for the kingdom of heaven. This nourishment comes through Jesus into his followers. Jesus provides spiritual nourishment to all who follow him. We are commanded to observe the Last Supper as means of remembering the source of our nourishment.
Bread Becomes a Part of Us
After we ingest the bread, it becomes a part of us. The minerals, grains, etc, get broken down and absorbed into our cells. Parts of the bread really do become a part of us. In the same way, Jesus becomes a part of us. We see that reflected in Jesus’ high priestly prayer that as He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him, so he asked that his followers become in them. Are we becoming gods then? No! What we are becoming is the spiritual offspring of God the Father. We become adopted into sonship because the Son of God is now a part of us through the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of us. There is a very real presence of Jesus Christ in every believer made real by the Holy Spirit.
So this is how to understand the bread of life teaching that Jesus gave in John ch. 6. His body was broken, like the passover bread. He was lifted up, like he lifted up the bread and gave thanks. He sustains us and has become a part of us through his resurrection and the presence of the Holy Spirit. As bread sustains our physical body, so Jesus sustains is in a spiritual/metaphysical way. The only way to physically live is to get edible food in our bodies. The only way to spiritually live is to get Jesus in our spirits.
I pray this week’s post helps you further experience God’s