John 6:35 - The bread of life

6:35

We now get one of the famous “I am” statements of Jesus, “I am the bread of life”. This the first of seven of these I am statements. Jesus has just said that the Father would give the true bread that gives life, and now He claims to be this “bread”. Jesus is the One who gives us life.

It is important to realise that the gospel calls us to believe in the person of Jesus Christ, not a set of ideas, not a theology, not a philosophy, but the Person of the Son of God. Now that absolutely not to say that theology doesn’t matter, nor that it does not affect our lives. If you know me at all, or have read much of my blog, I hope you realise that I greatly value theology. Moreover, sound doctrine is vital.Those who say things like “I’m just for Jesus”, which is usually an excuse for ignoring something that the Bible says, are completely deluded fools. However, if we try to base our life and our faith on believing a set of precepts rather than trust in the Person of Jesus Christ we will come a cropper. Earlier Jesus has criticised the Pharisees who diligently studied the Scriptures but had completely missed the point. In Revelation the church at Ephesus is criticised for forgetting their first love.

Note also that Jesus says “whoever comes to me ...”. Later on (6:44) He will say “no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him”. We need to hold these two aspects together. There are two very silly versions of Calvinism and Arminianism. On the one hand there is the version that says it is entirely upto the Father, and on the other is the version that says it is entirely up to us. Both are wrong. It is indeed up to the Father, but we have a responsibility. We must go to Jesus.

And when we go to Jesus we will never go hungry, never go thirsty. Now Jesus is talking about spiritual food here, but we can be certain that He will meet our deepest needs. We experience all sorts of things in life, go through all sorts of traumas. We should go to Jesus. And when there is nothing in particular happening in our lives, we should go to Jesus. He is the source of life.

John 6:32-34 - Bread that gives life

6:32-34

Jesus then makes another of His “truly, truly” claims. First He corrects their misunderstanding of  Moses. It was not Moses who had given them the manna from heaven but God Himself (Exodus 16:4). In some ways this was a small mistake to make, but it was now having big consequences, distorting what they were expecting from God. So this was their first mistake. Then we come to the second, and perhaps more important mistake. The people were fixated on the manna, but the manna was only a sign pointing to what was to come, something, or rather someone, much greater. Indeed this was the whole problem for the Jews, they thought the Law was it, when what it was doing was pointing to “it”. Paul in his letters, and the writer of Hebrews make a big play of this on several occasions. So once again we see the consistency of the message in the Bible.

Jesus was the true bread from heaven. He will claim this explicitly in verse 35. For now in verse 33 He says that the bread is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So Jesus is claiming to come from heaven, to be sent by God, which He has already done, and to give life. Again He has already claimed to be able to do this. So the two key aspects of the Messiah are that He is from heaven (or from the Father), and is life giving.

The people then ask to be given that bread. Like the Samaritan woman and the water of life, they want the bread of life.

John 6:29-31 - The works of God

6:29

Jesus replies that the work of God is to believe in Him whom He has sent. This is still the work that God requires of us today. Now believing is not just a mental assent to some facts, nor just an emotional response, rather it is a whole life commitment. Indeed, in John’s gospel there are several references to times when people believed but the faith was only skin deep.

Now Jesus is telling the people that God requires them to believe in Him. Note that it is not to believe in some facts, or some philosophy nor some ideology, it is to believe in Jesus Himself. Our commitment is to a person. Note also the arrogance of this if Jesus is not actually the Son of God, if he was just a man. The deity of Jesus is implicit throughout the gospels.

6:30,31

The people then asked for a sign. This at first seems totally unreasonable, for Jesus had healed people, and fed people miraculously. What more did they want? Well we need to think a little more. They were expecting a prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15) and part of the teaching they had (though this bit wasn’t in the Bible) was that the one like Moses would provide manna from heaven, just as Moses had done. So the situation is that the miracles did indeed show that Jesus was someone special, but what He has just said showed that Jesus was not just claiming to be from God, but was claiming to be the One promised in Deuteronomy, so the people wanted more of a sign than they had already had. And verse 31 shows that this is what they were thinking.

John 6:27,28 - Food that endures

6:27

We think that food is so important, but we need to have a right perspective. Jesus teaches the same sort of thing in Matt 6:25-34. Food does matter, but it is not what life is about. One of the tricks of the enemy is to get us completely focused on our daily needs. He can do this through getting us to worry constantly, he can do this through some forms of so-called prosperity teaching, he can do it in all sorts of ways. Material goods are ultimately worthless. Jesus is also looking ahead to what He will say next. The Jews, based on Deut 18:15, were expecting someone like Moses, and someone who would provide manna from heaven. But the manna, although it came from heaven, perished as well. It lasted only for a time. Jesus was bringing the food that would endure for eternal life. Like the water He promised the Samaritan woman, He was bringing bread that would last forever. And it is Jesus alone who can give us this eternal food., and He can do this because the Father has set His seal upon Jesus.

6:28

There were two crucial elements in what Jesus said in the previous verse: (i) work; and (ii) I will give you. The people focused on the work. They wanted to know what the “works of God” are, although Jesus had not actually mentioned the term “works of God”. In Romans 3:20 Paul declares that no one is justified by “works of the law”. And in 1 John 4:23 John tells us that “this is His commandment, that we believe in the Name of His Son”.

Again, after Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2:37 the people asked “what shall we do”.

John 6:22-26 - Ever seeing, never perceiving

6:22-24

After the feeding of the five thousand, and all the healings, the crowds wanted to see Jesus again. They had tried to work out where He was, but were unable to do so because things didn’t add up. Quite reasonably they had not factored in the possibility of Jesus walking on water! Perhaps this is part of the reason why John records this incident. So the crowds went off to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

6:25

We now come to the real meat of the chapter, or perhaps it should be the real bread. The crowds had finally found Jesus and ask Him when He got there. Remember his walking on the water had confused them to say the least! We need to remember that God does not tell us everything that He does, and He does not always act in the way we think He should, and He also does things that we never imagined He would. So the basis for our confidence is trust in God, knowing His love and goodness, not in our understanding of God. Of course we should seek to understand Him and His word (that is part of the reason I write this stuff!), but knowing Him is the heart of the matter.

6:26

Now this seems a strange thing to say, “you did not seek me because you saw signs”. This seems to run counter to the facts. The reason they were there was because Jesus had fed the five thousand, and prior to that He had healed many people, that was why they were there. So what does Jesus mean? The people were there purely because Jesus had fed them bread. They didn’t care how He had done it. He could have rolled up in a Tesco delivery van and started handing out free pizza’s, they would have been equally happy whether they got the food by natural means or by miraculous means, it was the free food that counted in their eyes! They didn’t really see the miracle, did not think it about its significance. They truly did not see any sign, they just saw bread.  As it says in Isaiah 6:9, they were ever seeing but never perceiving. Two people can see or hear the same thing, and yet see or hear something completely different. We need to be careful about the eyes we see with. If our hearts are full of greed, envy, hate or pride we see something completely different than if our hearts are hearts of faith, hope and love.

John 6:16-21 - Going for a walk

6:16-21

There seem to be two miracles in this section. One is Jesus walking on water, the other is the boat immediately getting to the land they were going to (v21). Sailing in the dark would not be a problem to the disciples, particularly those who were fishermen as it would be something they were used to. The Sea of Galilee was subject to strong winds, so storms did blow up periodically.

Now why has John put this incident in his gospel? Possibly it is just to confirm Jesus’ authority over nature. Note also that the disciples were afraid, they clearly did not expect Jesus to be walking on the water. Jesus tells them not to be afraid. Indeed, “do not be afraid” is an oft repeated phrase in the Bible. From time to time God does things that are beyond our comprehension, and outwith our expectations.

Mark in his account tells us that they thought Jesus was a ghost (Mark 6:45-52). He also tells us that the disciples were completely amazed because they had not understood about the loaves. Jesus has complete authority over nature. Matthew, of course, also tells us about Peter walking on water as well, at least up to a point (Matt 14:22-33). Now the reason that this is not mentioned in Mark is probably because Peter was Mark’s primary source and Peter was not wanting to draw attention to himself, but why doesn’t John mention it?

John 6:12-15 - Leftovers

6:12,13

Jesus then instructed the disciples to gather up what was left. So in this whole episode while the miracle itself is clearly the primary point, we should also note how order plays its part from beginning to end. The people were arranged into groups, the food was distributed, and then everything left over was collected. Just because there is order does not mean there cannot be supernatural intervention, and just because there is supernatural intervention does not mean we do away with order.

6:14,15

The people were amazed at what had happened. There have been some who have suggested that the boy giving the five loaves and fish prompted others to share what they had. There are no grounds for thinking this at all, except a complete rejection of miracles. A miracle had occurred and the people recognised it. They also drew the conclusion that Jesus was special, thinking that He must be the Prophet. The Prophet is prophesied in Deut 18:15-18. There the emphasis is that the people should listen to the Prophet. We also must listen to Jesus.

The people’s recognition might have been thought good, but Jesus knew that there understanding was very incomplete and had serious flaws. The people wanted to make Him king by force. Now why did they want to do this, and why did was Jesus not going to let this happen? They were an oppressed people, the Romans occupied the land, which they would resent, they were probably not all that impressed by their religious leaders either. In their culture and history there was a deeply held belief that God had something better for them, and now they saw their chance to get this freedom. Freedom from Rome, and a leader who was Godly yet somehow far better than any religious leaders they had known.

Jesus knew that there was a far deeper problem and need that all the people had, the sin within their hearts. And the same is true of all of us. There may be times when the circumstances are bad, but the real problem, the biggest problem, is the problem of sin, and like the Jews we can often have little interest in addressing this problem.

Jesus knew what His primary purpose was and was not going to be diverted from it. So He withdrew to a mountain by Himself.