30 They said therefore to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, 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 OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.'" 32 Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." 34 They said therefore to Him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." 35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."
Message: The Bread from Heaven
Time: John most likely wrote between A.D. 85 and 90. John's purpose in writing was, "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31)."
What the Lord is Saying: After Jesus has walked on the water, coming to the disciples after he went alone to the mountains, following feeding the multitudes through a miracle, he approaches the multitude again and speaks to them in the synagogue (John 6:59) to hopefully show them through words and direction that following Him is not about gaining personal needs alone. There is a danger in coming to Jesus only to benefit oneself - such as getting healed or getting our needs met with food or finances. Jesus is not simply a Santa Clause or genie that grants wishes. Rather we are to believe in Him. Our food is being focused on the eternal life that He provides.
In life, this is normal. The reason we often do things is fueled by our own selfish desires or needs, but Jesus is wanting us to learn to define our life based upon His ways.
The previous passage is the beginning of a larger message on Jesus, the Bread of Life. This has been called, 'the Bread of Life Discourse.' We need bread to survive. Jesus is going to show us that He is the bread we need to survive.
Going back to what Jesus said prior to verse 30, He was trying to get the multitude to take their focus off of what they expected Jesus to be and see Jesus and hear the message He has come to preach. Jesus is not simply a figure of their political liberation, but to give them life, eternal life. But they still don't get it and respond in verse 30 with "Show us a sign." And they provide an example of the type of sign they are thinking - Bread from heaven in a similar way to the the bread (manna) Moses brought to the people while traveling in the wilderness.
And Jesus basically says, "You are looking at your bread for life." It is me. It is I. So you want a sign, you want something, I am that something that You want.
Jesus back in John 3 talked about being born again. Jesus is continuing to give that message, though stated another way. In John 3 something must happen to the person to be born again: they must be regenerated by the Spirit of God. For a person to understand and come to Jesus, they must be changed by Jesus. [This remains a puzzle to me. Jesus is showing people how they need to come to Him not with their own agendas and yet that coming to Him is only by the Spirit prompting people.] And this food is eternal life.
Once again, I go back to Psalm 23:1 - The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Or I shall not have a need to want. Or I shall lack nothing when the Lord is my shepherd. My shepherd will provide me what I need.
Summary: Jesus tells the multitude that the Father provides the true bread of life that they need and Jesus is this bread, giving us eternal life and therefore, we shall not hunger or thirst again.
Promise: Only Jesus can give us eternal life, reconciling us to our great God.
Prayer: Lord, it is interesting to me how your message of salvation and what we need is so similar throughout the scripture. It is a repeated message that You want me to define my life by what You are telling me is the meaning of life. I am out there often in the world trying to define my world and my ways on what the world tells me is important. And yet once we have this salvation, once I have it, I need to keep coming back to You so that you define in me everyday what I am to know, what You want to impart to me.
Note: If you are interested in other studies/devotions, check out my index of Bible Study's.
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