Bread from Heaven: Introducing John 6

This week we're looking at John chapter 6, and we begin with some of Jesus' words from that chapter:

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever."

The people of Israel had been rescued from Egypt, and now they were on a long journey through the wilderness on their way to the promised land. God graciously provided food for them—six days a week, manna came from heaven.

The Lord Jesus says that bread, that manna, was a picture of a greater provision: a bread that would sustain life, not just physically, but spiritually; not just here on earth, but forever. He makes it very clear in this section that he is that bread.

His Death Made Possible Our Life

We can be nourished by the bread that is Jesus and receive life only because he died. Jesus said:

"This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world."

His death made possible our life. He took upon himself the judgment of separation from God, the punishment of death that we deserved, so that we can receive an amazing gift that we don't deserve—eternal life, which means life in relationship with God that begins here on earth and continues forever.

Bread Must Be Eaten

But this gift is not automatic. Bread does you no good unless it's eaten.

Imagine you're in the mountains having a long walk—and I guess some of you might be going on holiday to the mountains. You get really, really tired, your energy's going, and you look around in your bag to see if there's anything. Then you discover a Mars bar. Just looking at it won't help you. You need to unwrap it and open it up and then eat it. (I'm not going to do that because I'm dairy-free—it would make me ill!) But you get the point: you can't just look at food. You need to take it and eat it.//

That's what Jesus makes very clear in the next verse:

"Very truly I tell you, 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 them up at the last day."

That language speaks very vividly of faith. Jesus' death does not produce automatic benefit—we need to trust in him. In the language he uses here, to eat his flesh and drink his blood means to depend on his death for us. It's put very vividly, almost cannibalistic in sound, but it's speaking about a trust in his death for us.

Not the Lord's Supper—But a Picture of It

Some people immediately think, "He must be talking about the Lord's Supper, about communion." But that hadn't been instituted at that point—his disciples wouldn't have understood him to be speaking in those terms. No, he's simply saying that we need to trust in his death for us.

But of course, when we receive bread and wine in the context of the Lord's Supper, that's a wonderful visual aid of the kind of faith Jesus is talking about here. Archbishop Cranmer, in the tremendous words of the old prayer book, puts it so well. As the president of the Lord's Supper says:

"The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for you, preserve your body and soul to eternal life."

He's drawing attention at that point back to the moment when Jesus died on the cross. That's what gives us spiritual life—not what's happening on the table in the present. Then, as he takes up the bread, he says:

"Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving."

The feeding isn't automatic. It's not a physical feeding, as if that bit of bread is actually the body of Christ. It's a spiritual feeding—"feed on him in your heart by faith." That's what should be happening as we take the Lord's Supper. We're saying again, "Lord God, just as I need physical food to have life, so I need spiritual food, the death of the Lord Jesus, that I might have spiritual life and friendship with you."

An Everyday Dependence

We all need to express that faith. Maybe you haven't done it yet. You can't have spiritual life without eating—without saying, "Yes, I depend on you, Jesus."

And yes, we continue to nurture that faith and express it, certainly as we take the Lord's Supper. But every day we need to recognise: I depend on Jesus and his death for me. He is my life.

May we delight today in the spiritual life that he made possible through his death for us. Jesus is the bread of life.