Hear the word of the Lord:
“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 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."
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "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. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
(John 6:47-59, NIV)
The very people we discussed yesterday who asked Jesus for a sign cannot accept that he is the sign. They begin to grumble against Jesus, unsettled by his proclamation. Their feeling of displacement is common; oftentimes when Jesus reveals who he is to us we are left feeling uneasy or unsettled.
Though the crowd is unable to see that Jesus is the sign and thus believe, Jesus affirms that those who do believe will have the life everlasting. Jesus once again identifies himself - "I am the bread of life." His identity introduces the contrast between what the crowd expects and what Jesus really is. They want a sign like the manna in the desert (even though Jesus has already given them divinely provided breaded), but those who ate manna died. Jesus, the bread which comes down from heaven, is different from the manna that comes down from heaven. The manna could only feed the body, but whoever eats the bread of life receives life everlasting. Just as Jesus taught the crowd to work for food which endures to eternal life rather than food that spoils, he now urges them to eat of his flesh instead of depending on manna from heaven to sustain their bodies.
If you think about it, using the metaphor of bread is jam-packed with meaning. It means that we depend so fully, freely, and openly on God that we cannot survive without Christ, the bread he provides for us. In this metaphor, Christ is our sustenance. He comes down from heaven not only to give us eternal life in heaven when we die but also to invigorate and animate us now. He is our food and our drink - everything that gives us life and keeps us alive.
Without eating Jesus' flesh, we have no life in us. His body and blood truly sustain us. The sacrifice of the Christ on the cross nourishes us like bread and beverage, which we eat and drink in order to remember that sacrifice. When we participate in that meal, Jesus lives and abides in us. He moves in us and through us, just as God moved in and through him.
So not only does the bread of life represent the true sign of God's love for us, it also lives inside us. Unlike the manna, which could not give life everlasting and did not remain within us, Jesus is the ultimate sustenance. In what ways can we depend on Jesus like food or water or air? In what ways can we need him so desperately that nothing else matters without his nourishment?
"I am the bread of life."
Blessings,
Greg
