Jesus The Bread Of Life
JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE
JOHN 6:35-46
Jesus hints that we have a far deeper hunger than our physical needs … and he claims only he can meet that need.
The Jews have been looking on Jesus as one who claims to give sustenance. Now comes the startling assertion that he is the sustenance itself. His claim to be the bread of life is the first of the seven “I am” sayings in the Gospel (cf. 8:12; 10.9,11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1). Each of them is a statement about the person of Christ coupled with a consequent promise of what he offers to the believer. The emphatic “I am” may carry overtones of deity (cf. Exodus 3:13f.). This saying is an offer of complete and eternal satisfaction to those who trust in him (cf. 4:14). O taste and see!
The offer to faith reveals as ever the problem of unbelief. Men could see without believing, for true faith depended not upon physical sight but upon the gift of God. The identity of will between Father and Son is such that those given by the Father will be received by the Son and brought to eternal life in the present, and resurrection at the end. The twofold reference to “the last day” (6:39f.) would remind the Jews of the Old Testament concept of the “day of the Lord” (eg Amos 5:18) when God’s purposes would be consummated. Christ’s claim that this was in his control was a further assertion of his deity.
A claim such as this could hardly fail to be disputed. The most obvious objection to it was that this was a local young man of known parentage. It was a preposterous thing for him to say! But Jesus stands his ground concerning his Father’s calling people to him. Living experience of the Father inevitably leads to faith in the Son, though true sight of the Father is reserved for the Son alone (cf. 1:18).
Notes 6:37: the ground of Christian assurance is not a man’s own actions or feelings but the unfailing purpose of God. Nothing less is a safe foundation for life. David Livingstone described this promise as “the words of a perfect gentleman.” 6:39: some connect this with the gathering of the pieces of bread (6:12f.). 6:41: “the Jews”—the scene is in Galilee, but, in every other instance in the Gospel apart from 6:52, they seem to be Judeans. 6:42: as so often in the Gospel they think that they know his origin, but they see it only from the human side (cf. 7:27,41; see also Mark 6:3). Our Lord shows that their misunderstanding was the result of ignorance, firstly, of any genuine work of God in their hearts (6:44), and, secondly, of the Old Testament revelation which, properly understood, would lead to him (6:45).