The Heart of the Matter: Jesus is the Bread of Life, the only way to the Father, and the only One who can sustain us. When we receive Him, He becomes part of us. In doing so, we are gifted a spiritual and eternal life.

Remember back in John 2 where John speaks of the many who were believing in Jesus? Remember that after saying this, He immediately says that in contrast to those people who were believing in Jesus that Jesus Himself was not trusting them as we read in John 2:23–25:

²³Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

²⁴But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people

²⁵and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

We have already seen the lame man at the pool who Jesus healed turn on Jesus giving Him up to the religious Jews who persecuted Him all the more.

Here in these passages John moves us ever deeper into the greater persecution Jesus is now coming up against. This portion of the story will climax in verse 6:66 but more on that later.

John 6:41–42:

⁴¹Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.”

⁴²They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”

Here we see that the Jewish religious party is grumbling. Now this Greek word for grumble is defined as:

1 to murmur, mutter, grumble, say anything against in a low tone. 1a of the cooing of doves. 1b of those who confer secretly together. 1c of those who discontentedly complain.

James Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Woodside Bible Fellowship, 1995).

These Jews were muttering amongst themselves complaining of Jesus and His words in a discontented manner. This is likened to a cooing of doves.

As it was not Jesus’ time yet, the Father in His sovereignty had these Jews on a short leash so-to-speak. Even those who opposed Jesus could not do anything unless it was allowed by God Himself. This should give us pause to think of how the Father is allowing and disallowing things to happen to us (both good and bad things). Nothing happens to us, good or bad, that is not under the strict supervision of God the Father. We can always be confident and at peace knowing that we are right where God has ordained us to be, even at this very moment!

Notice what these Jews were saying about Jesus in verse 41. Basically, this sentence is a simplification (or over-simplification) of the previous verses (vv 35-40) where Jesus explains that He is the bread of life that provides everlasting sustenance for eternal life. But what the Jews heard (or choose to hear) is only the part about saying that He was the bread of life and that He “came down out of heaven”.

After reading verse 42 it seems like these Jews were hanging on to the part Jesus said of Himself that He came down out of heaven. They did not refer to Him as the Son of Man or the Son of God but as the son of Joseph. As His was a miraculous birth, Jesus’ father would not have been Joseph but God. Another telling part of this verse is that they said they “knew” Jesus’ father and mother. However, we know they did not know Jesus’ actual Father. They were blind to who Jesus was.

John 6:43-47:

⁴³Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.

⁴⁴“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

⁴⁵“It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.

⁴⁶“Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.

⁴⁷“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

Jesus proceeds to rebuke these Jews for what they were saying in ignorance. He commands them to stop complaining under their breath. Then He proceeds to explain (yet again) what He means more plainly.

Essentially, we are all originally depraved and slaves to sin. We could no more believe and trust in God under our own strength than to move physical mountains with just a thought. However, the Father draws us to Jesus. What we cannot do on our own the Father does for us. We cannot break the chains of sin that we were bound by, but the Father in His great grace and mercy breaks them for us allowing us to come to Jesus and see Him for who He is…our one and only Savior. Jesus is the only way to know God the Father. Jesus is the only way to peace between us and the Father. We can get a better sense of this through reading Ephesians 1:9–11:

⁹He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him

¹⁰with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him

¹¹also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,

For those of us who know Christ, we can be assured that the Father worked out our salvation according to His perfect will before we were born on this Earth. All of this has come about to glorify God.

Jesus then proceeds (in verse 45) to paraphrase Isaiah 54:13:

¹³“All your sons will be taught of the Lord; And the well-being of your sons will be great.

Yes, God predestines, draws a person, and saves them; however, we should not think that there is nothing for us to do. We should not sit back and just let God do everything. Surely not! God has commanded us to pray and evangelize and teach and preach to others. Jesus explains what Isaiah 54:13 says, thus showing the need for our cooperation in the work of His salvation. We are to teach others because everyone who hears and has learned from God’s word comes to Jesus. So in God’s perfect will He has allowed us to partake with Him in having a small part to play in the salvation of others. But this is not for our glory, but His. It is also for our edification as working with the Spirit of God we come to know the Father as Jesus knows the Father. So you see, yes God is sovereign over all including salvation, but in His wise mercy towards us he allows us to draw nearer to Him as we teach others about Jesus, thereby helping to draw unbelievers chained to sin to our glorious savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In verse 47 again Jesus declares something important to us (as indicated by the “Truly, truly,” phrase). This is a perfect way to summarize all that Jesus had just said. To paraphrase, the person who is and continues in their belief and trust in Jesus shall have life everlasting.

John 6:48–51:

⁴⁸“I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹“Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

⁵⁰“This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

⁵¹“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

Since the Jews and, in fact, the entire crowd could not comprehend what Jesus was speaking of when He said that He was the bread of life, He uses the biblical narrative of the manna from heaven as a kind of foreshadowing of His coming as the perfect bread that gives everlasting life.

Jesus begins by describing the imperfect manna from heaven that God gave to the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. This manna was given daily by God to sustain the Israelites temporarily while they were wandering in the desert. Notice that Jesus says, “and they died.” This manna would only sustain them for a short time. The Israelites needed to go out every morning and gather more for that day. After the day was over, the manna would become rotten and could no longer nourish the people. The manna eventually ceased as it says in Joshua 5:12:

¹²The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.

Just as the law was unable to save so also was the manna. There was something more perfect and more substantial needed. What is needed is Jesus. Manna was temporary. Jesus is permanent. Manna can only sustain life for a short period. Jesus gives everlasting life. Manna succumbed to rot as would be natural for any food. Jesus will remain the same yesterday, today, and forever.

It is interesting to note that when the Israelites saw this manna for the first time they did not know what it was as it says in Exodus 16:15–19:

¹⁵When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.

Jesus was this perfect bread sent by the Father to give life and was available to all. But just as the Israelites did not know what manna was then, here too they did not know who Jesus was even as He stood before them shouting over and over that He was the bread of life.

If you are reading this right now and are not a believer in Jesus, I pray that you will consider Jesus’ message here and not be blinded as were the Jewish people of that time. Jesus gave Himself and His life for you and I. Consider this deeply as He is the only way to know God and to have everlasting life abundantly!

John 6:52–59:

⁵²Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

⁵⁴“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

⁵⁵“For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

⁵⁶“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

⁵⁷“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

⁵⁸“This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

The result of Jesus speaking the words found in verse 51 confused the Jews even more. Jesus drew a direct line between the fact that He was the living bread that came down from heaven (similar to the manna) and the fact that eating this bread would give everlasting life (unlike the manna) and finally that this bread is His flesh that He will give to appease God’s wrath.

The Jews began to argue amongst themselves. This word for “argue” is not just a nice debate between people but a verbal quarrel or a war of words. So these words that Jesus spoke became a fire that swept through these Jews causing them to quarrel intensely with one another. This reminds me of this verse in Matthew 10:34:

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

These Jews were taking this message from Jesus literally. Of course, the law forbade literally eating a person and drinking their blood. What they were missing was that Jesus was not speaking literally or in earthly terms. He was speaking in heavenly terms. This was an analogy. He was basically saying that when you eat earthly food it becomes part of your body. The proteins, fats, and yummy carbs function to build and sustain your body. Likewise, Jesus was stating that we are to receive Him thus making Him part of us. In doing so, we are gifted a spiritual and eternal life.

Think back to when Nicodemus came to Jesus at night and when Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus spoke in non-literal terms with them as well. The second birth was not a literal second birth but a spiritual birth. Likewise, the spiritual water that will quench all thirst is not a water that you physically drink but a spiritual water that only comes from Jesus. Now we hear Jesus speak of the bread of life that sustains eternally. This bread is Jesus. To receive this bread is to receive Jesus and eternal life with Him.