I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
John 6
“For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
There is no mistaking what Jesus is saying: I am sent by God; I came down from heaven; I give life.
The crowd saw the healing; they saw the miracle of the bread and fish; and they suspected that Jesus crossed the lake by some supernatural means. They were drawn to him and sought him eagerly.
But when he started talking about God and claiming that he was sent from God, they balked. It was a step too far.
Is this a problem with miracles, that they draw attention to themselves and away from the one who wrought the miracles? “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.”
No, I do not think so. While it is partly because Jews have been ingrained to reject all other religions, that their God is the only one true God as taught by their elders, I think that the concerns of the day are easier for them to deal with while the concerns of the future, of God and heaven, are far more difficult: We can make you our king, but it is too much to ask us to make you our God.
I do not sense a rebuke from Jesus; instead he was laying down the foundation for the time when they will truly be confronted with the question as to who Jesus is. Believing is a journey and it is a good thing that they are engaging with Jesus.
And so Jesus makes it clear to them: Don’t worry about what works they must do (because how they respond to him will be the primary criterion) or even what signs Jesus will perform so that they will believe (it will be apparent when the resurrection happens); they need to know and believe that Jesus is the God-appointed Bread of Life who will be the source of true and eternal life. All they need is to come to him because he will never reject anyone (works is not the criterion) and he will never lose anyone whom God has allowed him and God has allowed him to have everyone who looks to him and believes in him.
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. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 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. 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.”