In our last study we were introduced to the Greek phrase, “ego eimi” which is translated simply: I AM. When Jesus approached the boat while walking on water, and the disciples were afraid, Jesus said, “Fear not, I AM.” Whenever Jesus uses this phrase, it is a declaration that He is God, for only God could declare Himself to be eternal. That helps us to understand why only Jesus could say, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” which we will discuss at greater length when we get to John chapter eight. For now, what we can say is that I AM speaks to the past (before Abraham); the present, and the future. Psalm 90:2 is a verse that can help us better understand the I AM declaration:
Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.
Eternity is hard for us to comprehend. Each of us had a beginning, and physically, each of us will have an end. But God is not bound by time and space. He WAS always present, and He IS always present, and He always WILL BE present. God alone is without tense (past, present, or future).
As has been mentioned in earlier commentary, there are seven miracles that John records in his Gospel. Jesus walking on water was the fifth of the seven. Similarly, there are seven I AM claims by Jesus. These are specific claims.
Grammatically, we can classify them similes. Similes make comparisons by saying that something is like something else. In the case of Jesus, we could also call them metaphors. Metaphors make comparisons by saying that something is something else.
Let’s start with a list of the seven I AM’s recorded by John:
1. 1) I AM the Bread of Life (John 6:35)
2. 2) I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12)
3. 3) I AM the Door (John 10:9)
4. 4) I AM the Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
5. 5) I AM the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25-26)
6. 6) I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6)
7. 7) I AM the True Vine (John 15:1-26)
Jesus gives us examples of items we understand, things like bread, doors, and vines, but at the same time, He actually IS the bread. He actually is the door. He actually is the vine. With that, let’s consider the first few verses:
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
The crowd that had been fed and wanted Jesus to be their king are perplexed. They get up after a good night’s rest with their stomachs filled and they find Jesus and the disciples are gone. They talk among themselves and conclude that no one saw Jesus leave. They saw the disciples get into the boat, but Jesus was not with them. They decide to go and see if they can catch up. When they get to the other side, there’s Jesus. They ask the obvious question, “How’d you get here?”
Jesus skips right over their question, and get’s to the heart of the matter: their motive for following him. Jesus wants followers. Remember, He asked James, John, Peter, and Andrew to follow Him. But He wants people to follow Him for the right reasons, so motive matters.
Jesus corrects their faulty motivation. Instead of pursuing food that doesn’t last, they should pursue eternal food. Just as Jesus promised the woman at the well (John 4) eternal water, here He promises those assembled that He can provide eternal food. Sadly, as we shall see later in chapter six, many (most?) of the people do not get it. Why?
Man, as the offspring of Adam, is greedy by nature. The Bible makes it clear that it takes a true change of heart to place the spiritual and serving God over and above the physical and serving ourselves. It begins with our recognizing the need we have for a new heart, and the understanding that we cannot change our heart. Jerimiah says that the (Adamic) heart is “desperately wicked.” Apart from God, our hearts are like stone. Only God can soften and change our heart. Ezekiel 36:26-27 says it this way:
26 And I (God) will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
We are not told how many of “the crowd” made their way to Capernaum, but it stands to reason that it is a smaller group that is standing before Jesus; representing the crowd at large. These representatives do not understand that Jesus is offering to change their hearts. They default to a “works mentality.” They ask, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
If you compare the forty major religions of the world, you will find that Christianity is the ONLY one that proposes salvation by faith. Every other religion is works oriented; if I do enough good the scales will tilt in my favor and God will have to accept me. The world says, “Don’t just stand there, do something.” Christianity says, “Don’t just do something, stand there.” (Ephesians 6:13-14)
Jesus responds to the crowd’s human desire to do something. He tells them the only thing they need to do, the only thing they can do, is to believe in Him, the One God has sent to redeem them.
It becomes obvious that Jesus’ words fly right over their heads based on their next question:
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.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
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.”
The Jews were continuously looking for signs from Jesus in order to validate that He was true. As so many times before, they incorrectly default to Moses. Jesus understands that they are giving Moses credit for producing the manna their forefathers ate to survive in the desert. By inference, they are saying, “Moses performed many signs, including giving the people manna. We believe Moses, but you haven’t done signs like him, so how can we believe you?”
Two problems with their argument. The first is that the people who ate the manna were rebellious and seldom listened to Moses as he led them. Most of them were so hard-hearted and stubborn that they died before entering the promised land. Second, they had forgotten yesterday’s lunch. Apparently, feeding ten to twenty thousand people with five barley loaves and two small fish didn’t qualify as a miracle.
John 12:37-40 sums it up:
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.
38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.”
For a brief moment it seems like the crowd finally understands when they ask Jesus to give them this bread He is talking about, but it becomes all to apparent that they are still thinking physically, not spiritually.
Jesus responds with his first of seven I AM’s: I AM the Bread of Life. This closely parallels what Jesus told the woman at the well back in chapter four. He told her that there was water that was eternal, “You will never thirst.” Here Jesus says, “You will never go hungry.”
There is a promise of the security of the believer in Jesus’ response. When, by faith, we come to Jesus for reconciliation with God, we will NEVER go hungry. But it begins with genuine belief. The crowd seems to be saying, “When we see it, we will believe it.” Jesus says, “When you believe, then you’ll see it.”
When Jesus fed them the day before they all had “their fill.” Think of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Most of us leave the table knowing we could not eat another bite. Then about four or five hours later, a turkey sandwich and a cold glass of milk sound so good. What happened to the, “I can’t eat another bite”?
Yesterday’s feeding is now a distant memory. The crowd is getting hungry again. Food is something we need every day. If we don’t tend to this need, the hunger will grow stronger and stronger to the point where we can think of nothing else. It is probably the strongest of human desires.
Jesus is saying that God has put inside all humans a need for relationship with Him. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity in the heart of mankind. Whether acknowledged or not, everyone has a desire for eternity. Sadly, many have either suppressed this desire or filled the hole in their hearts with all kinds of things including money, entertainment, career, and friends. The more religious have manufactured some method of working their way to eternity with God.
Jesus refutes this thinking with the clear response that the ONLY way to God is through belief in Jesus, the Son who He sent to redeem mankind. Like the food we must have to survive, Jesus declares that He alone can raise us to eternity with God. We don’t have to work for it. We just need to believe. Have you accepted His free gift? The gift has already been paid for. It cost Jesus His very life, which He gave willingly out of love. Verse 40 makes it clear: ANYONE who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life. Before I became a Christian, I was continually searching for something to fill that void in my heart. I didn’t understand why I was restless and seeking something bigger than myself. When I found Christ (yes, He actually found me!), my searching ended. My hunger, spiritually speaking, was completely satisfied.
You will never hunger or thirst again. That’s the promise that Jesus makes to ALL who will believe.