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‘Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of Life.’
Joh_6:35
I. There is provided for us all spiritual food.—The multitude had asked for further instruction how they might get miraculous support: ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ And our Lord replied, ‘This is the work most acceptable in the sight of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent’—so believe, as not dictating to Him, but receiving His commands. This was displeasing to them; they saw that He refused to do what His miracle had shown Him capable of doing, viz., of miraculously supporting a force capable of resisting the Romans; and so their feelings towards Him begin to change, and they seek to disparage His work: “What sign shewest Thou then (greater than Moses)—what dost Thou work (above what Moses did)?’ (Joh_6:30). Our Blessed Lord never sought to make partisans. He would simply encourage that faith which would lead honest hearts from things temporal up to things spiritual. He did not, therefore, defend Himself, or seek to maintain His cause; but he proceeded with His Divine instruction: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven (which I exhort you to labour for), but My Father (now) giveth you the true Bread from Heaven (of which the manna was a type); for the Bread of God is He Which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life to the world’ (see also Joh_6:34-35). Therefore, not only is there provided for us spiritual food—i.e. food for our souls—and not only is Christ the Giver of it, but—
II. This spiritual food is Christ Himself.—The Jews murmured at our Lord because He said, ‘I am the Bread of Life’; and they argued the subject, as many persons would do now; because they could not understand, they scoffed, and turned the declaration into ridicule. Now, our Lord would not enter into argument with those who were only seeking reasons to justify themselves in their unbelief. He simply, therefore, repeated His declaration more emphatically, and gave them to understand that He was prepared to teach those who were led to Him by the Father, and had had their eyes opened to discern the mystery: ‘I am the living (or life-giving) Bread; if any man eat (or feed upon) this Bread, he shall live for ever, and the Bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ There is, then, spiritual food provided for us. This food is given to us by Christ our Lord; this spiritual Food is Himself; and now we find that it is His Flesh which He giveth—even that Flesh which He offered once, and once for all, for the sins of men, upon the Cross.
III. How was this received?—Let the infidel mark this, who, when we speak of grace in the Sacraments, asks how grace can come from an affusion of water, or from eating of bread and wine. He regarded not the ‘How?’ of the infidel, but more emphatically still said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you’ (Joh_6:53 et sqq., 57). It was impossible for them then to understand the full import of these words. But this much they could understand—that, having had proof that He could give miraculous food, and that somehow He could confer it upon those who should abide with Him, it was their duty to have acknowledged Him, to have said, ‘We believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and we will stay with Thee to be further instructed in the mysteries of that Kingdom of which Thou art King.’ But when the Kingdom of God (the Church) was established, when our Lord had commissioned His Apostles and their successors, what He did mean was more fully known. To us it is given to know that by union with Him we are united to God, and He thus is the support of the soul; to know that there is Bread from Heaven, and that Christ is that Bread; nay, further, that the Bread, the Sustenance, with which He supplies us, is His Body and Blood, no longer visibly present, but sacramentally received by faith in the Holy Ordinance, called on this very account the ‘Sacrament of His Body and Blood’ (1Co_10:16). This, in the Apostles’ time, was a question which could be only answered in one way: it was an admitted and an acknowledged principle of Christianity, not to be argued upon, but to be believed. And now the answer of the Church is the same.
—
Dean Hook.
THE BREAD OF LIFE
I. Bread is ordained for a great end—to preserve the whole race of mankind.—What would men do if they had not bread? What would souls do without Christ? (Joh_15:5; Act_4:12). He is the Lamb foreordained (1Pe_1:19-20): and prepared of God (Heb_10:5); for the whole world (Joh_1:29).
II. Bread is of universal necessity; all require it, rich and poor, old and young.—So it is of Christ. The king needs (Psa_21:1-7); so does the poor beggar (Luk_18:38). The old look to Him for consolation (Luk_2:25); so do the young (2Ti_3:15). They who have worldly riches are sorrowful without Him (Mat_19:22).
III. Bread has a hidden virtue, which cannot be known unless by taste or experience.—And so we say of Jesus, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psa_34:8; cf. 1Jn_1:1). All who have tried Him delight in Him (Son_2:3; Son_5:1). They desire to have more and more of Him (1Pe_2:2-3).
IV. Bread strengthens and renews life—without it men grow faint and die.—You remember the case of David (Mar_2:25-26). Before Christ came, man was without strength (Rom_5:6); but now in Christ all strength is to be found (Eph_6:10; 2Ti_2:1).
V. Bread also, by renewing strength and preserving life, fits us for work and business.—So Christ tells us distinctly, ‘Without Me ye can do nothing’; but what does His servant Paul say? (Php_4:13). He had learnt by experience that the grace of Christ was sufficient for him in everything (2Co_12:9).
VI. Bread, as it comprehends the greatest of blessings when promised, so the greatest of judgments when denied (Gen_47:13; Luk_15:14). (Look at Amo_8:11). Think how awful it is for man to be without Christ (Eph_2:12; Eph_4:18-19). We shall understand this by reading God’s words to Jerusalem (Eze_4:13; Eze_4:17).
You see, then, how these few simple facts concerning the bread we eat illustrate the great spiritual truths of Jesus as ‘the Bread of Life.’
—
Bishop Rowley Hill.
Illustrations(1) ‘The table of shewbread, bearing the weekly-changed “bread of presence” as an offering from the children of Israel, is a symbol of that spiritual food which is presented to His people by our Lord, Who said, “I am the Bread of life” (Joh_6:35), Who, as “the living Bread” is ever with the Church in her wanderings. As changed every Sabbath, the Shrewbread may also be an illustration of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, in which we “show forth the Lord’s death till He come” (1Co_11:26).’
(2) ‘As soon as the slightest spiritual desire is manifested by any one, however ignorant and weak, he should be at once directed to Christ. It is what our Lord Himself did. As soon as the Jews said, “Lord, evermore give us this bread,” He cried, “I am the Bread of life.” He never “quenched the smoking flax.” ’