John 6:22-71

Michael woke us up just before six today. So I've had the opportunity to study a longer passage of Scripture than I usually would. Which is good, because this whole section centers on one thought. Jesus is the bread from heaven.

 

The crowds who had eaten the bread – who had been witnesses of Jesus' miracle of feeding the five thousand – they looked for Jesus and eventually found Him. Jesus accused them of looking for Him not because they were interested in God's signs to them, but because they wanted more bread to fill their stomachs. He told them to work for food that produces eternal life.

 

In response, they asked what this spiritual work was. And Jesus told them that the work God had for them was to believe in the One God had sent. But they wanted a sign to prove that they should believe in Jesus (as though Jesus had not already given them a sign), like the manna which had come down from heaven in Moses' day. Jesus pointed out that Moses had not given them this bread, but that the Father gave them bread from heaven. He also taught them that the true bread from heaven would produce eternal life in them. When they asked for this bread, Jesus said, "I AM the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst (probably a reference to the living water John has already mentioned)." Jesus satisfies our every need.

 

The Jews were grumbling, and Jesus pointed out their disbelief. The Father had not given them to Jesus, and they would not be among those raised up at the last day. They had to be taught by God – and they were not listening. None of them had seen the Father, and the One who had seen the Father was trying to teach them, but they would not hear.

 

Jesus identified His flesh as the bread from heaven, as true food, and His blood as true drink. His flesh and blood give eternal life to those who eat them.

 

When Jesus' disciples grumbled at these hard words, He chided them for not listening to them as spiritual words. He said that the flesh counts for nothing. In other words, it is not by actually eating Jesus' body and drinking His blood that a person receives eternal life; there is a spiritual reality behind these statements.

 

When Jesus asked the twelve if they wanted to turn away with the others, Simon Peter answered. His response is a model for us all: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."

 

All that Jesus had been teaching is summed up here. Jesus taught that He came from God, bearing God's words, and that hearing and believing God would give eternal life. Peter recognized that Jesus came from God and taught God's words, and having heard, Peter believed in Jesus for eternal life. Peter knew that he could not find eternal life anywhere else.

 

Sadly, there was one among the twelve who had not believed. Jesus knew this and pointed it out. But it is essential for me to believe and to teach that Jesus came from God, and that His teachings are God's teachings, and that there is no eternal life outside of His teachings. The Jews asked Jesus for a sign so that they would believe in Him, a sign as great as the manna from heaven. They had a greater sign standing right there in front of them: Jesus, the bread of life, God in the flesh!