By: Tim Keller
We are looking in the gospel of John and its description of the miraculous signs. Jesus did many, many miracles; more miracles than recorded in the gospel of John, but John says in the end of the book that "I've chosen the miracles that I have chosen to tell you, because each of these miracles is not only a miracle of some right, but also a symbol; it was also a sign, it symbolizes who Jesus is and what He came to do.
The first part of John 6 talks about the miraculous feeding of the 5000, more than 5000 probably. Back then things were counted by households, so if it's 5000 men, it means 5000 families, so probably more than 5000. He had a small number of loaves and fishes, and he miraculously fed them also until there were all full.
Even though all of the four gospels recount this miracle, which shows how important it is, only John gave us this explanation Jesus gave us, which He actually explains the symbolism. What does it mean? Why did He do it? He says, I fed everyone with physical bread to signify / show that I AM the bread of life. And what I want to do is to meditate on that text, "I am the bread of life." (v. 35) So there are 3 points in this message, "I am the BREAD of life", "I am the bread of LIFE", and "I AM the bread of life".
- When we are stressing in the middle, "I am the BREAD of life", we are looking at what is "bread" mean in general.
- When we are stressing the last word, "I am the bread of LIFE", what is this particular bread that Jesus is giving.
- And when looking at the first two words, "I AM the bread of life.", how is it that Jesus is able to give it, and bring it to us.
"I am the BREAD of life"
First, lets look at what bread signifies in ancient times, esp. to the Israelites. When HE says the word "bread", it meant something, it meant "life" itself, because bread back then was made either of wheat, or barley. It is at a time when people didn't have meat at every meal, it was too expensive. In fact there are lots of, lots of food stuff that you and I have access to that they did not. And therefore, bread was really at the heart of almost every meal, and it became a symbol for food itself. That's the reason Jesus can say in the Lord's Prayer - say to God, "Give us this day our daily bread". Because it meant everything I need to live. But it's not just that. Because to ancient people, the word "bread" is actually meant more important than it is to us, and therefore "bread" is really meant "life" itself. For the Israelites, bread had 2 very, very powerful historical references. First of all, when Jesus says "I am the bread of life", HE was invoking the story about manna. In fact HE literally is talking about the manna here. In the wilderness, when God has brought the children of Israel out of bondage, and HE was taking them into the Promised Land, there were in the desert, and there wasn't any other kind of sort of food there, and they were facing starvation, and then miraculously God began to feed them. And the way manna worked was, in the morning, six days a week, manna, according to eyewitness account, it looked like frost on the ground, it was flaky, and it could be gathered and turned it into cakes, and it had the taste of honey, so it's sweet. So that meant was that manna was represented to the children of Israel, not only sustenance of life, but also savory for it tastes good, so it was satisfying in savory, and strengthening in life giving. But the other reference to the bread in the Old Testament in Israel history was the altar of the show bread in the tabernacle. When God told the children of Israel how to build the tabernacle, which was the place of worship, the place they were related to God, one of the key piece of furniture in the sanctuary was a table, it wasn't a big table, where you offered sacrifices, but it's a small table where you ate food. And on the table, there was always 12 loaves of bread (representing 12 tribes of Israel). Now the priest ate it. When you think of the tabernacle is a wonderful, wonderful aroma of newly baked bread. So what did it mean? It was a symbol. It wasn't just for the priest to eat it. It was a symbolic. Even today, when we offer to take somebody out to eat, or ask them into our home to eat, that's friendly, of course. But in those days, it was even more formally and intensely a sign of friendship. When you broke bread with him, that meant "we are friend." And if there was any kind of opposition, and people came to peace, and there were a truce between formally hostile parties, how was the covenant ratified? Almost always thru a meal, thru breaking bread. And as for God to put bread in HIS sanctuary is a way of saying "I don't want to just be your God, I want to be the friend of your heart." So bread is represented not only of strength and satisfaction, but also love, peace, friendship and fellowship. That's what bread meant in general.
"I am the bread of LIFE"
But Jesus doesn't not just talking about bread, in fact He said "I did miraculously gave physical bread, but as a symbol of the fact that I can give you the bread of life." What was the bread of life? Let's look at verse 27, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." In other words, the bread represents eternal life, obviously the bread gives you physical life, but what HE is talking about was something higher, something deeper, something beyond that, which is spiritual life / eternal life. Now, what is this eternal life? This is one of the main theme of the whole book of John. It is a metaphor for it. There are 3 things we can learn about eternal life from the text here:
1. It's a quality of life. There are 2 Greek words that can be translated "life"; bios, which means physical existence, and zoe, which means quality of life, not just existence. Zoe is what makes life worth living, it is life beyond existing; energy, joy, engagement, being thrilled, being feeling useful, feeling love, ... all the things that take you beyond mere existing into real living. In fact, it literally says in verse 27, "I can give you eternal zoe", not eternal bios. In fact, eternal bios means your current existence, with all your self doubts, with all your emptiness, with all your frustration, just going on forever. There is a word in the Bible for that eternal existence, called hell. But, eternal life is ultimate life, it's radical life. It's joy; it's fulfillment. So eternal life means quality of life.
2. Its quality of life that starts NOW but goes on FOREVER. In verse 27, "eternal life endures", which means when you get eternal life, it goes on forever. But verse 35, which is the key text says, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, who believes in me will never be thirsty." What that means, of course, HE can't be talking about bios, or physical hunger. He can't say, "when you become Christian, when you come to me and believe in me, you will never have to eat food again." That's not true. We still have to eat. So what does He talk about here? What He was saying, that the zoe , the eternal life, starts now. It means that there is a deeper hunger than physical hunger; there is a deeper emptiness than physical starvation and hunger. And we are trying to find things that move us beyond existing into real living. Unless it's Jesus Christ and the"bread" He gave, it will not endure. In fact HE says, "if you look here, for anything else to deal with that spiritual hunger besides me, it will spoil." HE is probably talking about the manna story. Some of you may know that when God began sending manna six days a week, HE told every body, that "You go out and gather enough just for today, and then you wait, and tomorrow I give you more. But don't try to gather more than you need for the day; don't try to store it up, or save it up. Otherwise it will spoil, faster, stink, be filled with worms." That's what happened. Why did God do that? Because God says, "I want you to be looking to me for your life, I don't want you to be looking at the manna. I want you to be trusting me." What probably happened, they were facing starvation, and Moses said God will begin to feed you, and then the manna shows up. Then people think "we better get as much as we possibly can, who knows that's not going to come back tomorrow." Of course it spoilt, because they were not looking to God, they were looking to the manna itself. And this is what Jesus means why HE is referring to this, that everybody in this room is trying to find someway to move from bios to zoe - everybody is trying to move from just existing to life. So we are looking to things that give us meaning, and they are great things. They are manna, in a sense. Just like thinking "I don't wanna just life, I wanna make it different!! I wanna work for social justice!! I wanna get something accomplished!! I wanna have a family!! I want to love people!! I wanna do things!!" These are moving from bios to zoe. But Jesus says, "If you rest your heart in them, if you look to them instead of to me, they will spoil. They will never satisfy that spiritual hunger. You will stay hungry all the time. They will never give what you think they should give you." Nobody would ever says this better than C.S.Lewis in one of his great radio talk that he gave over the BBC during WWII, "Most people, if they really learn how to look into their own hearts, would know what they do want, and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fell in love, when we first think of some foreign countries, or first take up some subjects that excite us. Our longing that no marriage, no travel, and no learning can really satisfy. I am not speaking about what ordinarily would be called an unsuccessful marriages, or trips or so on, I am speaking of even the best possible ones. There is always something we are grasped that in that first moments of longings that just fade away in the reality. The spouse's made a very good spouse. The scenery has been excellent. It has turned out after all to be a really good job. But "it" has evaded us." What's "it"? It is what you are looking for in those things, its satisfaction of spiritual hunger. It's the thing that really moves you from existence to living. And if you want prove that Lewis is right here, just look at the people who are the most successful in their field, whether it's in acting, whether it's business and finance, whether it's government and politics, it does not matter. Go, look at the most successful people, if they are successful enough, read their biographies. If less successful, look at their magazines, or look at their interviews; or even if they are less successful, you know some of them, has their success endured? or has it spoilt? Has it really satisfied them? Has it really brought them from bios to zoe ?? NO! Jesus is the only one that can do that. So, wherever you look to, to bring you from existing to living, Jesus says, it will never give you what you think. It will give you something, the "manna" but it actually will spoil, if you look only what I (Jesus) can give you. And Jesus can give you now. He says, "if you come to me, if you believe in me, you get it now!" That deeper "hunger" begins to be dealt now.
3. It is actually not something that Jesus gives you, it is JESUS Himself. The bread of life is actually not a "thing", but it is a person. He doesn't say I have the bread of life, I can show you the bread of life, or I can take you to where the bread of life is. but HE says "I AM the bread of life." And when He does that, that means uniqueness. It means, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are reconciled to God, and you can have the heart satisfaction, nothing else can give you. Now, what is so unique about this? That HE is the bread of life. That makes Christianity unique in 2 ways: philosophically and religiously. All history of philosophy is nothing but a set of footnotes on Plato. But that doesn't mean that Plato himself was so wonderful. What it means is that the original debates among the earliest philosophers - the basic debate - is it the one? or is it the many? It is the general? or Is it the particular? Is truth objective, basically and we just have to confront to it? Or is it subjective and all of us have our own truth? Is truth really abstract and transcendent, and we are all have to align with it no matter what we like always having that kind of "fit ourselves" to it? Or is truth really nuance and subjective, and personal to every individual when everyone has their own truth. See, the problem, of course, is you either have the coal of abstraction and we have to align to it, or else you've got no truth really. Everybody got their own truth. Nothing's binding us. Nothing's uniting us. And Jesus comes and says, "I AM the divine cosmic truth and reality becomes a person, who walks, and laughs, and cries, and dies, and embraces. I AM the objective becomes subjective, the general becomes the particular, the ideal becomes REAL!" The great ultimate absolute becomes a person you can know and love. Secondly, religion. You realize how unique that makes Christianity a religion. Unlike all the other founders, which basically what they says is "I can show you where the bread is. I can take you to the bread. I can show you the way to the bread. I can show you how to get the bread" And in fact, that's true, if Jesus, Himself, is like the rest, then basically salvation is through your effort. You'd find the bread by bang the five pillars, or the Ten Commandments, or the golden rules, or whatever. And it's basically be a crushing burden, because you have to become somebody. But HE doesn't say "I can show you the way to life". HE says, "I AM life." So, when you know me, you get the salvation. You see, that comes out in the very beginning in the part of the tree when they asked Jesus, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" (v.28) Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." , means I am the LIFE. If you believe in ME, if you believe I have done the works of God. I have done the works what it required, then you have it when you have ME." Every child can have this. You don't have to become a monk. You don't have to come to stages of consciousness. And therefore salvation is by grace, through something that you receive, it is a gift. And therefore, it makes it absolutely unique.
But how can Jesus give us this?
"I AM the bread of life"
When God comes down on Mt. Sinai, there is the life of God, there is the Glory of God, and the mountain was trembling, shaking, and there is fire, smoke, thunder, lightning, and God says not to touch the mountain, because He is great and we are puny, He is holy and pure, and we are flaws and sinful. So how do we get the life of God in us? It might sound like 'how do we get an elephant in a doll house?' And the answer is "You can't!!" This spiritual hunger, how are we going to get God in us? And the answer is through JESUS! Because there are 2 things in Jesus, which He actually tells us:
1. When He says "I AM the bread of life" refers to infinite greatness. John 8, Jesus's debate with the religious leaders, saying "Before Abraham was, I AM". The people who heard it knew exactly what He meant, for they instantly wanted to kill Him. When Moses asked for God's name, God says "I AM who sent you". God is saying, "I" always "AM", I have the beginning and the end, means nothing stops me, "I" depend on nothing, and everything depends on ME, means "I AM" the source of everything. Outside of every mineral, except salt, dies. Bread can't be eaten, unless you break it. So, it is either the bread, or you. When Jesus Christ says "I am the bread of life" means I am GOD becomes breakable; I am GOD becomes vulnerable. I AM DEFINE POWER becomes accessible to you, because "I" have come to go to the cross, die on the cross for your sins.
Outside of mineral, besides salt, when you looking for something, eating for something, you are looking for substitution, something dies that you could live. And in Jesus Christ, Jesus knew that if HE dies that we would live; and if HE lives then we would die, and so HE died. He is the great I AM that becomes a piece of bread that can be broken. And that is the reason why you and I can have the bread of life as a free gift by grace, and to satisfy us to the bottom.
What does it mean practically?
1. "I AM the bread of life" is not just someone to believe in, but "I" should be your life (food) and your strength, not just something you believe abstractly, and like manna you have to gather and feed on me everyday. And you can't just do it once for 5 years, you can't. You have to do it everyday! Just like the manna. You can't save it up! Every single day you have to take me as your food, and make "ME" your life, and strength, so that "I AM" that is your life, joy, the thing that is making live rather than just exist. Because if you rest your heart in anything else, you are going to constantly find it spoils, for it does not endure. For example, are you worried? Make Jesus your life! As you think about that, you will relax, and HE becomes the reality. It is thru prayer, thru the Word! And you have to do that EVERYDAY!
2. HE is especially important to feed on in the wilderness, like manna. If you now are going through a very difficult time, all your food or joy sources have dried up, all the other things that encourage you, that when you can go to HIM. Sometimes you don't realize that JESUS is all you need, until JESUS is all you have. Sometimes, you don't feed on HIM and just believe in some abstract thing, until you feed on HIM when you have no other food source. It is hard to change your diet. But ultimately, if you turn on HIM, HE will feed you in the wilderness.
3. Do you now see that eternal life is a gift that you can only find it in JESUS CHRIST? HE says, how to feed on him ultimately. In vs. 35, you have to come and you believe. How do you believe in BREAD? That is where the metaphor is in. How do you feed on HIM? How do you get this eternal life? "COME TO ME AND BELIEVE IN ME"(v. 35), and there is no other source.
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