Craving the Bread of Life

As a new stay-at-home mom with a newborn to care for, I find myself constantly battling against chronic tunnel vision. It’s easy to get so focused on caring for and bonding with my son that I forget about important things like doing the laundry (never mind folding it), responding to important emails, or even eating meals.

This tunnel vision impacts my spiritual life as well. During the long days and nights of caring for our son, I might sporadically toss up a few quick prayers for strength, energy, or patience when we’re having a rough day, but I neglect to devote time and energy to seeking God in prayer and asking Him to change my heart in areas where I’m struggling with sin. I’m so focused on trying to make it through the day and balance my priorities as a homemaker that I mostly seek God with immediate needs and rarely with a desire for sanctification or worship of the Father.

You don’t have to be a stay-at-home mom (or any kind of mom at all) to feel the same way. Job stress, a hectic schedule, health problems, or even the monotony of the daily grind can cause us to lose sight of the transformative work that Christ has done, and is continuing to do, in our lives through the Holy Spirit. We have been given abundant, eternal life because of the Cross, and yet we plod along, day to day. We seek God for what he can do to make our lives easier now and forget the value of what he has already done.

*“I am the bread of life.” (**John 6:35, 48*)

Today, we’re continuing our study of the the “I Am” statements of Jesus in John, meditating on Jesus’ as our “Bread of Life,” as he describes himself in chapter 6 of this gospel. Like us, the crowds of people Jesus was teaching were so focused on what Jesus could do to improve their daily lives that they couldn’t comprehend the eternal, priceless value of the Gospel.

This teaching took place just after Jesus had miraculously fed the five thousand (6:1-14). The Jewish crowds who had witnessed this miracle were stirred up into a frenzy. They planned to declare Jesus their king, which likely would’ve led to all-out war with the Romans authorities who occupied the land at the time. Jesus and his disciples had evaded the mob and then split up. The disciples started across the Sea of Galilee in a boat first and Jesus followed them, walking on water in the middle of a storm to meet them near the middle. After recovering from their initial shock and fear, the disciples gladly took Jesus into the boat, then found that they had suddenly reached land on the other shore.

The crowd continued to pursue them, however; they caught up with Jesus the next day and began to question him:

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?”

Jesus didn’t even acknowledge their question, but scolded them for materialistic motivations they had for following him:

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.

Instead of recognizing the spiritual significance of the miracle of the bread and fish, the people who had been there were looking for more free food! They were so focused on their stomachs, they couldn’t see how Jesus’ miracle revealed his divine identity.

Jesus continued admonishing them, saying:

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.”

He encouraged them not to focus their earthly efforts on obtaining literal food (which will eventually rot and can only sustain a person for a short time), but to seek eternal “food” from the Son of Man, Jesus. This is not to say that they were to stop working entirely or stop using their earnings to buy bread. Instead, Jesus is encouraging them to their focus from acquiring material security and put their hope in God's eternal provision in Christ.

Once again, the crowd misunderstood what Jesus had said:

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.”

The people mistook Jesus’ reference to “work” to mean that they needed to please God with works in order to earn this eternal sustenance. Jesus corrected them, stating that the “work of God” is to believe in the One he sent: Christ. God offers us the treasure of everlasting life which he freely gives to those who simply believe in the Son and receive the forgiveness of sins that he offers. We will still have to work to put food on the table and a roof over our heads, but our hope and security will be in God's provision, not the labor of our hands.

Finally, the crowd caught on to the fact that Jesus was telling them to believe in him as the one sent from God. Apparently, however, they had been underwhelmed by the feeding of the five thousand, because they immediate demanded more miracles as further "proof" before they would believe in him:

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.’”

The Jews pointed out that miraculous food was nothing new to their people, whose ancestors had eaten manna from Heaven during their wanderings in the wilderness. They challenged Jesus to produce a greater miracle, since feeding a crowd of people for one meal on a single day seemed small compared to an entire nation being fed for 40 years.

Jesus responded:

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.”

Jesus reminded them that the manna their ancestors ate in the wilderness was from God, not from Moses, and that the manna in the wilderness was a sign to point them to the true bread that God would give them from heaven. That true bread came in the form of a person: “he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (Spoiler alert: it's Jesus.)

Of course, the Jews were still thinking with their stomachs, so they thought he was talking about the kind of food that sustains the physical body. Instead, Jesus was offering himself as the eternal nourishment they needed for their bodies and souls:

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.

Jesus taught them that belief in God’s Son leads to eternal life (v. 40), and that the bread he would give to the world was his very flesh: his body, broken on the cross for the sins of the world (v. 50-51). To believe in Jesus and receive his sacrifice on our behalf is to partake of Jesus' flesh and blood and be filled with life and with the Spirit:

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.

Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Christ abiding in us), believers have the opportunity to learn more of God and continue to be sanctified: remade into the image of Christ, God's perfect son. We abide in Christ, filled with the peace and security of our salvation and God's provision for our every need.

When we get stuck living day to day, putting our hope in the fragile security of material plenty, we pass over the abundance God freely offers us. We choose trinkets over treasures. We fail to partake of the hope and security we have been freely given through Christ's death for our sins. We don't crave the Bread of Life.

So how do we break free? Fasting? Service? Meditation on God's Word? How do we change our focus and transform our desires so that we pursue the Bread of Life above all else?

The short answer is: we don't. We simply can't pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and change our hearts by sheer force of will. All the spiritual disciplines in the world will not transform our desires or grow us in godliness if we don't begin by asking the Father to do that work in us. God, through the Holy Spirit, is the one who does this good work in us (Philippians 1:6). The Holy Spirit transforms our sinful desires into godly ones, producing spiritual fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:16-24). Then, and only then, will we be set free from our worldly tunnel vision and begin to desire and seek Jesus, the Bread of Life.

Father, we are too easily distracted by the fleeting security this world offers us. Our hearts desire possessions and status more than they desire you, and we fail to abide in your provision. Holy Spirit, change our desires. Transform our hearts to truly believe in and treasure your Son and the truth of the Gospel. Teach us to abide in you and to trust in Christ as our source of life. Amen.