I Am the Bread of Life

Maundy Thursday

March 20, 2008

John 6:35

"Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’"

Jesus had just fed the five thousand by miraculously dividing five loaves of bread and two fish. The people thought He was exceedingly cool, pulling off that neat trick. They loved having their hungry bellies filled, so they were thinking they’d keep on following Jesus. They suspected that Jesus was the long-awaited Prophet, but they were looking for an earthly king to put a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. And, Jesus knew it.

He left them, going to a mountain for some solitude. The crowd figured out where He had gone. They followed. They asked Him why He left. He told them that He knew that they were only looking for a Burger King, not for a king who would feed them on eternal food.

The Jews bit. They asked Jesus for His special food. They got more than they could swallow: "I am the bread of life," Jesus told them. "He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

Before we progress with the Jews’ reaction, let’s make the point. In beginning His declaration with, "I am," Jesus was giving Himself a name. The name of God is I Am. It’s the name that God gave to Moses, when God visited Moses in the burning bush. It’s the name that tells us that God is eternal, all-being, no beginning and no ending.

Jesus applies this name to Himself to teach us that He is God—He is God, who appeared to Moses as a spirit with voice. Now, He is God, appearing to the Jews as a man with a body.

Because Jesus is God, Jesus is the source of life. That’s why He calls Himself the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; and the Light of the World, and so on. Now, Jesus has another way to teach us how He is absolutely necessary for us to have life—to have life that is connected to God so that life doesn’t end with our death.

Our grumbling, gurgling bellies need to be filled with food. Food is vital to living. Food is fuel. As a car cannot run on an empty tank, so a body cannot run on an empty stomach. And, as the body needs food to live, the spirit needs food to live.

What more basic food is there than bread? Is it any wonder that the Lord Jesus calls Himself bread? If Jesus were the caviar of life, well, how many are privileged to eat caviar? But, bread? Who doesn’t eat bread? Bread is the most basic of foods.

Jesus is telling us: I am the most basic of foods.

Ah, but the Jews had a problem with this. They knew Jesus’ parents, so they questioned that He could be telling the truth about being the Bread of Life, along with this little dazzler: "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 him up at the last day."

And, that’s exactly the reason that you believe in God the Son, Jesus Christ. You are looking for Him to give you eternal life, which includes being resurrected from your own grave, when He returns on what will be the last day of the world as we know it.

As the Jews’ grumbling intensifies, Jesus magnifies His teaching: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

The Jews argued sharply among themselves: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They argued, yet you stake your entire faith on this being true. As we gather, today, to celebrate the meal which Jesus made His Last, we anticipate tomorrow, when He gave up His flesh for the life of the world.

Leaving no loaf unturned, our Lord sharpens the sword so that it will absolutely sever unbelievers from believers: "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

The Lord knew that the sword of His mouth was cutting to the heart. Those, who had followed Him because He filled their bellies, were not leaving in disgust. He asked the Twelve disciples, "Does this offend you? ... You do not want to leave too, do you?" And, Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

You people are here because you believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life. The words of eternal life are never more vivid than in the Lord saying, "I Am the Bread of Life," and they are never more wonderful than in His promising, "Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

You are counting on Jesus Christ telling you the truth. You have placed all of your Easter eggs into the basket of His every word in which He declares Himself to be Bread which satisfies the soul, forever.

The Lord Jesus doesn’t only make claims—claims, which sound outrageous, like eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He backs up His claims with action. He takes the greatest action that a man can take. He lays down His life.

You can’t ask a person to do more for you than to give up His life when He is in the prime of life. This, Jesus does—and then He does more. He proves His every word by taking His life back up again.

The day that you can find another person who sacrifices Himself to death and then raises Himself from the dead and ascends to heaven, that’s the day that you can go to that person and put your faith in him.

Until then—and, it’ll never happen—until then, that leaves Jesus. And, that gives you a faith that says, no, His claims are not outrageous. Quite the opposite, they are mind-bogglingly wonderful.

He has given you the ability to trust that His baptism of you is a baptism into His death and resurrection, so that your death will lead to your own resurrection.

He has given you eyes to see that when you eat and drink the bread and wine of Holy Communion, He fulfills His promise to embody that bread and wine, so that you do exactly as He says you need to do for eternal life: you eat His flesh and drink His blood. And, eating and drinking through the faith that He has placed into your heart, He will fulfill His last and greatest promise in you: "I will raise [you] up at the last day."

The Jesus, whom you follow, is not only some Burger King, who gives you your best life now. He is I Am—the Bread of Life, who gives you perfect life, forever. Amen.