The Bread of Life
February 12, 2023
Preached by Noah Gwinn
Scripture Reading
22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Today is a big day in America. More specifically, it’s a big day in Pennsylvania. Even more specifically, today is a huge deal for a little town down the road called Philadelphia. If you aren’t aware, tonight, the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 57. I’m sure there are different levels of excitement about the game here this morning. Some watch for the football, some for the halftime show, others for the commercials, and still others just show up to the Super Bowl parties for the food. Regardless, we tune into the Super Bowl because it is a spectacle – it steals our attention and entertains. And every year, we keep coming back for more of this great American spectacle.
We’ll see in our passage this morning that the crowd had tuned into Jesus as we might tune into the Super Bowl. These people who just witnessed Jesus perform the miracle of feeding thousands from a little snack were back and ready for more of the spectacle that had captured their attention. They were ready to be entertained. And if we aren’t careful, we can make the same mistake.
But first, before we get too far, let’s pray and ask God to be our teacher this morning.
Heavenly Father…
INTRODUCTION
Well, if you haven’t been with us for a few weeks, just to get everyone on the same page, we’ve been in John chapter 6. John 6 begins with one of Jesus’ most famous miracles, the feeding of the five thousand. Then, last week we took a look at what comes after the feeding of the five thousand, which, incidentally, is another one of the most famous miracles of Jesus – his walking on water. Which brings us today, and the passage that we’re looking at this morning, as we heard read earlier, is John 6:22-59. This passage has come to be known as “the bread of life discourse” and is really one big conversation between Jesus and the crowd that was present at the feeding of the 5000 just the day before. This morning, as we take a look at this interaction between Jesus and the crowd, I hope we see that despite all of the ways that we get Jesus wrong, he is patient with us, and if we truly come to him, he gives us a grace that will never let us go. For the sake of our time together this morning, we’re going to organize this conversation very simply into two points: the misconceptions and the redirection.
THE MISCONCEPTIONS
First, let’s start by talking about the misconceptions that the crowd had about Jesus. And as we study these misconceptions, I’ll just say that it’s really easy for us to look down on this crowd for the way that they’re totally out to lunch here in terms of who they think Jesus is and what they think he came to do. But when we look at this passage rightly, I think we actually find not just the crowd but ourselvesunder the microscope. We start to see ourselves in the faces of this crowd. The crowd in this passage shows us that our hearts are so blinded by the misconceptions we craft about Jesus that when we are actually met with the real and better Jesus, all we do is grumble. And we’ll see that one by one, Jesus’ answers to these misconceptions get this crowd grumpy, and yet we see beautiful picture of the heart of Jesus. So, what are these misconceptions?
Jesus the Vending Machine
We can see the first one in verses 25-27. Before I read those verses, remember the context: these people were miraculously fed by Jesus, and then the next day they go to find Jesus across the sea. So, with that in mind, I’ll read verses 25-27 for us again.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
So something we learn very quickly about Jesus is that he sees right through us. These people come to him after searching for him and they’re like, “Jesus! When did you get here?” and did you notice that Jesus’ response doesn’t actually answer their question? Instead, he gets at the heart of their motivation. “You’re not actually looking for me” Jesus says in effect, “you’re simply looking for more bread.” You see, these people saw Jesus as a genie. Or maybe better put, these people saw Jesus as a vending machine. They wanted Jesus, but only the vending machine version of Jesus – the kind that you can leave in the lobby or the break room and ignore until you need a snack or something else from him. This sounds super convenient, except for the fact that the vending machine version of Jesus isn’t actually the real Jesus.
What this crowd had done is they’ve seen Jesus put his power on display, and they want to use that power to get what they desire. They wanted Jesus, but they only wanted him insofar as they could use him to get things from him. We can almost think of this as a first century prosperity gospel of sorts, where they want Jesus, sure, but they want him because of what he can offer them. Their health and wealth gospel was more of a food and mood gospel. As long as they got their bread and Jesus kept them happy, they wanted him to stick around. And when they don’t get what they want, they grumble (v. 41). But he cut right to the heart of it and said, “you don’t want me, you want the things I can give you. But those things don’t satisfy. Don’t work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.” He’s saying, “I have so much more for you than what you want from me.”
But let’s not forget, this isn’t just the crowd we’re talking about. These people are a case study of our own hearts. Let me ask you, how much does the attitude of this crowd reflect your view of God? How about your prayer life? Do you want a relationship with God simply because of the temporal, earthly blessings that he can give? If you’re anything like me, it is so easy to treat Jesus not as the one we truly want as much as a steppingstone to what we really want.[1] And when we don’t get what we want from Jesus, we grumble, just like the crowd.
Jesus the Guru
What is the second misconception that these people have about Jesus? Let’s look at verses 28-29.
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
If the last misconception that the crowd had was Jesus as a Vending Machine, this one is Jesus as a Guru. A guru is someone that we might turn to for wisdom, moral teaching, or general life advice. Modern versions of gurus are personal trainers, social media influencers, TED Talkers, leadership coaches, and those sorts of people. I’m sure you are all well aware of the books, podcasts, master class series that promote “10 Steps for a Perfect Marriage” or perfect abs, or perfect conversation, or whatever you’d like to become perfect in. And the people in this crowd are treating Jesus like one of these guys… they’ve got their iPads out, ready to take some notes. “Give us the facts, Jesus! What are the 10 steps to perfectly pleasing God?” It’s like they’re saying, “Okay, okay, we don’t JUST want to get things from you, Jesus. So just tell us, what do we have to do to do godly things?” The modern word for this is legalism. Legalism asks, “how do we do works that can please God (without any regard for Jesus or a relationship with God)? How can I curate my life and my behaviors to make God see me as more righteous, more holy, more worthy of his love?”
And yet Jesus has such patience with these people. They still don’t really want him for him, right? First, they only wanted him for the bread that he could offer them, now they want him for the moral insight he could impart to them. But his patience is astounding. He calmy corrects them. He doesn’t freak out on them about their view of salvation being totally wrong (which it was). He gently answers them to tell them there is nothing they can bring to the equation to please God. He answered them “this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” They’re asking Jesus “what can we bring?” And he says “Only empty hands. Only receive. It’s all you can do.”
What good works do we try to bring before God to earn his favor? We may say we don’t believe in a works-based salvation, but functionally, sometimes we live like it. The gospel is so very simple – believe that the only works that can save you are Jesus’ works, come to Jesus with your hands empty. But we make it so complicated when we keep coming back to him with our hands full. We act like children bringing a parent their latest “art” project. We try to impress God with our feeble attempts at good works, and our hands are too full to receive his grace. We have got to come to him with empty hands today.
Jesus the Magician
So, the misconceptions we’ve seen are Jesus the Vending Machine, Jesus the Guru, and the third misconception that we’ll see that the crowd has of Jesus is Jesus the Magician. This is verses 30-33.
30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Okay, so remember the context. If we’re the crowd, we’ve just observed Jesus feed thousands and thousands of people from basically a lunchable. Less than 24 hours ago. And then, in order to get across the sea of Galilee, Jesus walks on the water. Now here we are, the next day, and these people have the audacity to say, “okay, well if you really are the one who God has sent, we want to see you perform a miracle to prove it. In the past, our great great great great grandparents were given miraculous bread. What do we get?” Again, the patience of Jesus is mind blowing here! They just got miraculous bread! I mean come on! It may have been the last meal they had.
Now, we have the benefit of hindsight here, and as they say, hindsight is always 20/20. Because we have all of this written down for us in the Bible, we can let our eyes float up to the top of the page, see the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, then let our eyes fall down on the page a little bit and see him walking on water, and truly, we can turn to almost any page in the Gospel of John and be met with miraculous stories of the power of Jesus. So, not so fast. Before we begin to think that these people are dumb for having forgotten what has happened in the past few hours, remember that this crowd is revealing something that happens in our own hearts as well.
You’ve probably heard, and maybe even said yourself, something to the effect of, “if only God came down among us, then I’d believe he exists.” Or “I prayed for ______ and it didn’t happen, so I can’t believe in God.” And yet here, these people had God in the flesh walking among them, and they witnessed a miracle literally the day before, and they still didn’t believe, so why would we be any different? If you’re a Christian, you’re in a very similar position to the crowd. We can get so distracted by asking for a big flashy miracle that we forget the miracle that has already happened to us! We are quick to lose faith when we don’t see grand displays of God’s power and yet if you’re a Christian, the Bible describes you as having gone from death to life. If you are a Christian, your personal history with miracles includes your own resurrection! I’m not saying don’t pray for supernatural things to happen. God is a supernatural God who can certainly break into your present situation and change things. But what I am saying is to adopt the posture of humility in your prayers for the miraculous. What I am saying is that if you are a Christian you can pray in faith, knowing that the most miraculous thing that could happen in your life already has happened when you passed from death to life. And you are promised another resurrection in the future. What I’m trying to warn us against is this posture that says to Jesus, “do this miracle, or else… fix this thing, heal this person, or I’m out.” That posture leads to nothing but more grumbling.
But with patience and kindness and grace, Jesus meets these people where they’re at, as he does with us. And in his answer, he shows us himself. He doesn’t play their games, but he turns their gaze to something greater, which we’ll see in just a moment.
THE REDIRECTION
Those are the misconceptions. We so easily see Jesus as a vending machine to get what we want, a guru to impart purely moral teaching so that we can be right with God, and we also see him as a magician to perform miracles on demand. But if those are the misconceptions, what is reality? Who is the real Jesus? Well, following the misconceptions in this passage, we see the redirection. This is how Jesus redirects the crowd. We’ll begin reading in verse 32, which we just looked at, but we’ll read to verse 41.
32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe…. 41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
When I was in high school, my family went on a trip out west, which still today is one of my favorite vacations I’ve ever been on. We flew into Phoenix, Arizona and for 2 or 3 weeks we stopped at National Parks and other really neat places and ended up flying home from Los Angeles. And at each National Park that we’d stop at, we’d all get out of the car, take a picture at the sign at the entry gate, and then pile back into the car and drive into the park. As a 16-year-old I saw it as such a meaningless thing to do, but now I appreciate the photos to remember that time by. But imagine if we had gotten our plane tickets, rented a car, driven to the Grand Canyon, and scrambled out of the car just to take a picture at the entry gate sign, and then hop back in the car, turn around, drive to Zion National Park, scramble out of the car to take a picture at the entry gate sign, then hop back in the car, turn around, drive to Yosemite National Park, scramble out of the car to take a picture at the entry gate sign… You’d tell me I’m missing out, right? You don’t go to the Grand Canyon, or Zion, or Yosemite just to take a picture at the sign. You hardly even notice the sign except to celebrate that you’ve made it to the park!
But what this crowd, and what we tend to do with the signs that Jesus performs is just like what I described. They, and we, get so obsessed with the sign that we can miss what those signs point to. These people had been so enamored with the story of God giving his people bread in the book of Exodus that they missed what that sign might point to. And then when Jesus miraculously provides them with bread, they can’t see past the sign. They’re content to not just take a picture at the sign, but to say, “oh man, where’s another one we can take a photo in front of?”
So, Jesus, in his grace and kindness redirects them. He shows them what they’re missing. He tells them what these signs point to. “This bread you want? It’s supposed to point to the true bread that comes from God. It’s supposed to point you to me. I am the bread of life. The bread you want, it’ll only fill you up until tomorrow, and then you’ll want more. What I have to offer will satisfy forever.” You see, Jesus is teaching them a theology of miracles without them even realizing it. He’s teaching them that the sign is never the main point. The sign is helpful because of what it points to. But it doesn’t stop there. This crowd is so enamored with what God did for their great great great great grandparents, that they recall a story of God’s faithfulness from the book of Exodus. So Jesus speaks to them in a way that they will understand. What is the language that Jesus uses to describe himself? In a way that unmistakably would have reminded them of how God introduced himself to Moses in the burning bush, Jesus says, “I AM the bread of life.” There are 7 times in the book of John that Jesus explicitly says, “I AM ______” and many more that are less explicit. But these “I AM” statements of Jesus are supposed to cause the people he’s speaking to to see Jesus saying, “the God of your fathers, and grandfathers, and great grandfathers? The God whose faithfulness you tell stories of? That’s me.” In the midst of their misconceptions about him, Jesus redirects the crowd to see who he really is – the great I AM. He isn’t just man, he is God. He’s so much bigger than they realize. He isn’t bread that will fill their stomach temporarily. He is the bread of life, that will fill their soul forever.
But unfortunately, that sends them over the edge, because that isn’t the version of the messiah they had concocted for themselves. The real and better Jesus didn’t really seem better to them, because they were too blinded by their misconceptions to see it. Verse 41 shows us their attitude toward Jesus:
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
Just as the Israelites grumbled in the wilderness at the bread that God had sent them (Numbers 11:4-15), the crowd grumbles at the true and better bread from heaven.
CONCLUSION
This story doesn’t necessarily end on a positive note for the crowd. They continue grumbling, and get confused, and then have an argument among themselves about the things that Jesus has said. But this is where you and I have an opportunity to respond differently than the crowd. If we tend toward the same misconceptions about Jesus, what do we do with his redirection? Take a look at verses 37-40.
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
It is here that Jesus himself gives us an invitation. If we believe that he is who he says he is, and not who we make him out to be, he loves to grant new life. If we recognize our misconceptions, how we so often simply see him as a vending machine to give us things we want, a guru to tell us what to do, and a magician to perform tricks for us – if we recognize that those things are our natural impulse and we confess those before him, he will be gracious to receive us. And did you note the beauty and comfort we see in these verses? For all that come to Jesus for him – not what we can get from him, but for him, truly for him – for all those who come to Jesus, he will never let us go. Not only is this security a definitive statement from Jesus, but also he backs it up by saying that the very will of the Father is that not a soul that comes to Jesus will be lost. Not a soul that comes to Jesus will miss out on eternal life with him. Our natural reaction is to put up walls to this kind of love, or to make excuses for this kind of love. Jesus won’t let our excuses stand. When we come to him, he meets us in the midst of our mess, in the midst of our misconceptions, in the midst of our excuses, and in the midst of our baggage. He meets us in our weakness, woundedness, and waywardness. His love for his people cannot be stopped, and his response to any objection that we could throw at him is “I will never cast out.”
“No, wait” we say, cautiously approaching Jesus, “you don’t understand. I’ve really messed up, in all kinds of ways.”
I know, he responds
“You know most of it, sure. Certainly more than what others see. But there’s perversity down inside me that is hidden from everyone.”
I know it all.
“Well… the thing is, it isn’t just my past. It’s my present too.”
I understand.
“But I don’t know if I can break free of this any time soon.”
That’s the kind of person I’m here to help…
“You don’t get it. My offenses aren’t directed toward others, they’re against you.”
Then I am the one most suited to forgive them.
“But the more of the ugliness in me you discover, the sooner you’ll get fed up with me.”
Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.[2]
You see, we put up our defenses to the only one who can say with 100% certainty “I know how deep your sin is, but my love for you is endless. Come to me. I will never cast you out.”
What does it mean to come to Jesus? What does it mean to come to the bread of life? It means laying down your own plan for your life. It means laying down your version of who you think Jesus is and letting him set up shop in your life. A few weeks ago, pastor Benjamin used the image of renovation to illustrate what it means for Jesus to come into your life. When Jesus sets up shop in your life, he begins a renovation project. But the good news – you don’t have to start that project by yourself. You don’t have to get cleaned up before you come to him. You can come to the bread of life this morning.
That image of food that Jesus uses here is very intentional. The thing about food is that it is the very thing that sustains us. Jesus himself sustains us. But the amazing thing about this image, too, is that food isn’t just for our provision, it’s for our enjoyment. Jesus doesn’t just offer himself to us today as merely sustenance and provision, though that would be more than we could ever ask for. The living Jesus offers himself to us to feast on and to enjoy. We have on offer from Jesus this morning, eternal joy in him – eternal satisfaction in him.
Come to the bread of life this morning. Come and feast on him, for he is the only one that can satisfy your deep hunger. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father…
[1] This idea is from Ray Ortlund’s sermon, The Welcoming Heart of Christ.
[2] Adapted from Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund, 63-64.
Sermon Discussion Questions
We talked about 3 ways that we see Jesus wrongly. Do you find that you tend to see Jesus as a vending machine, a guru, or a magician? How does this passage help us see that Jesus is better than we expect?
What does it mean that Jesus is the “bread of life” and how does that change the way you see life with Jesus?
Jesus tells us that he will not cast away anyone that comes to him. How does that encourage you today?
How will you practically feast on Jesus this week?
