Bread of Heaven

March 2 Bread of Heaven John 6:41-51

“Your fathers, He declares, did eat the manna… He says that the manna was for their fathers a mortal food which did not exempt them from death. It follows, therefore, that only in Him will souls find that food by which they are fed unto eternal life.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:166

Why do we feel superior when we say, “I knew you as a child”? Is it just chronological arrogance, the assumption that, because we are older, we are wiser? Of course, that arrogance works both ways. There are those who reject ideas just because they are new, just as there are those who ignore older ways simply because they are old. Shouldn’t we be seeking truth, irrespective of whether it is old or new?

Those who grumbled about Jesus were not afflicted by chronological arrogance, but they did have questions about His origins. They knew where He came from, or thought they did; they knew Mary and Joseph; they knew the streets of Nazareth in which He had played as a child. How could such an ordinary boy grow up to make such extraordinary claims? When Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life” it sent shock waves through orthodox Judaism. In using the “I AM,” Jesus deliberately employed the form of the divine name revered by the people of Israel for centuries. By applying the name to Himself, Jesus was making an identification between Himself and the God of Abraham. Their question would come back time and again, and it would lead, ultimately, to the Cross. “Who does he think he is?” It’s a question still being asked today.

Once again there are parallels that can be made with the events of the Exodus. The people of Israel grumbled at the time of Moses. They were not enamored of the never-ending wilderness, and they found manna tiresome after a time. They wondered whether they would not have been better off staying in Egypt. And those who heard Jesus also grumbled. They were unsure about His claims; some people found them offensive. They couldn’t understand how someone, whose parents they knew, could have developed such pretensions of grandeur. So, they grumbled. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit worked in the hearts of those who were receptive, drawing them closer, until their wills conformed to God’s, and they believed. It was, however, not the irresistible magnetism of sovereignty that drew them as much as the tender attraction of His love.

There is another difference between the Exodus experience and that of Jesus’ hearers. When God gave manna in the desert He gave sustenance that lasted only for a day and that cost Him little. But when God gave the Bread of Life He gave Himself in the person of His Son, a gift for eternity, and that cost Him everything. There is a hint of the greatness of the cost at the end of the passage. Jesus said that the Bread of Life, which is God’s gift, is His flesh, which He would give for the life of the world. Here is the irony – those who eat the living Bread will live forever, but the One who offers Himself must die, that they might live.

Whether intentional or not, we hear an echo of the Lord’s Supper in these words. The bread which we break is the symbol of the broken body of our Lord. The living Bread, God’s precious gift, is the body of Christ, given for us and for many for the remission of sins.

For further reading: Psalm 66