Bread of Life

John 6:1-40

Hungry (1-9)

What are you like when you get hungry? When I’m hungry, I become restless and I find it hard to concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m thinking about the next meal. I start thinking about what I’m going to eat next. In fact, while I was writing this introduction, I went off and got my breakfast because I began to realise that I was hungry, and I knew it would distract me until I had something to eat and satiate that empty feeling. Hunger is what causes most of us to do whatever we need to do to get ready for our next meal.

Today in chapter 6 of John’s gospel Jesus declares himself to the bread of life and says that whoever comes to him will never grow hungry and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty. The fact that we all experience what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty is one of the reasons I think Jesus uses these common experiences to describe our great need to come to him.

Although many of us have probably never know what it is to be truly hungry, we all have experienced hunger and thirst to some extent, and we know that we need to eat to go on living. Today we want to look at what it means for Jesus to be the bread of life and for us to never be hungry.

• 5000 plus hungry people

This chapter begins with 5000 plus hungry people who needed to be fed. Because of the miraculous signs (the healings) that Jesus had been performing in Galilee and Judea people followed Jesus around to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Mark’s gospel tells us that saw Jesus and the disciples leaving in boat and that they ran on foot ahead of him (Mark 6:33). This would have most likely been around the northern end of the lake because from the gospel of Luke we know that it was in the vicinity of Bethsaida (see Luke 9:10) in the area we know today as the Golan Heights.

By the end of the day there were at least 5000 hungry men and it’s speculated that it could have been twice that number with the women and children who would have been there. Whatever the case, because of the passage of time, Jesus knew that the crowd needed to be feed.

• The disciples had no idea what to do with that many hungry people

Jesus asked Philip about where they could buy food for that many people. It might have seem the obvious question to ask Philip considering he was from Bethsaida, but we are also told that Jesus was testing him. Philip replied that even if they had 200 denarii (which our NIV has tried to put into perspective for us by saying it was more than a half year’s wages) that it wouldn’t buy enough bread to even give everyone just a bite. Andrew then pointed out that among them there was a boy with five small barley loaves and two fish, but what good would that be among so many people? From the point of view of the disciples, it was impossible to feed that many hungry people.

Jesus fed the hungry (10-15)

But while the disciples didn’t know what could be done, Jesus had always known that he was going to feed the hungry. We are told that he sat everyone down on the grass and with those five small barley loaves and two fish cocktails he fed everyone.

• He fed everyone

He fed all those 5000 hungry men. He fed all the women that were there that day but didn’t get counted. He fed all the children that had come without their lunches. All of them ate and no one missed out.

• They were all filled

And all were filled. No one went hungry. They ate as much as they wanted.  It wasn’t a fancy restaurant where the plates were big, and the serves were small and you leave the restaurant still feeling hungry. It was all you can eat buffet where you can keep coming back for more. We are told that they ate as much as they wanted. It was a belt loosening feed that left them completely satiated (not hungry) and one where there were even lots of leftovers.

• There were lots of leftovers

When everyone had enough to eat, they gathered all the left-over pieces of barley loaves together and there were twelve baskets of leftovers. How significant was it that there were twelve baskets? It’s hard to know. Some suggest that it wasn’t an accident that there twelve and not eleven or thirteen baskets as there were twelve tribes of Israel. The number might have implied in a symbolic way that Jesus could supply enough for all the twelve of the tribes of Israel. Whatever the case the 12 baskets showed the abundance of the provision. There was more than enough for everyone. No one needed to go hungry that day.

• It was a miraculous sign (14-15)

The feeding of the 5000 for John was clearly another miraculous sign. These people had followed Jesus because they had seen the miraculous signs that Jesus had performed on the sick (v2) and now, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee they got to see another miraculous sign.

That’s what John refers to it as in verse 14. It’s third of seven signs that John specifically recounts in this gospel so that we might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, The Son of God and by believing you might have life in his name (20:31). On the day the crowd saw Jesus gives thanks for a little boy’s lunch and then they saw him feed more than 5000 people with it. Each one of them got to eat as much bread and fish as they wanted. It was another sign that revealed the glory of Jesus so that they might put their faith in him (cf. 2:11).

Unfortunately, again the people didn’t put their faith in him. Although they saw the signs these people refused to trust Jesus the way that they ought to have. They saw him as the Prophet that Moses had promised (Deut. 18:15-19). But even though, they saw him as Prophet like Moses, like the people in Moses day, they would not truly listen to him. Instead of listening to him they were making their own plans to make him king by force (the sort of king they wanted, not the one that Jesus came to be). And Jesus knew this and withdrew further up into the mountains by himself.

The wrong sort of food (25-26)

I don’t know about you but often when I am hungry I go looking for the wrong sort of food. It usually happens on a Friday when I’m trying to write the talk for Sunday. If I am at home and I am working at my desk after a while I start to get hungry. I’m soon out in the kitchen going through the cupboards or the refrigerator looking for the wrong sort of food. I’m looking for the comfort food. I go looking for little bit of chocolate or a biscuit, not an apple or banana or a carrot.

In the passage today this is what Jesus accused the crowd of looking for. They were coming to him for the wrong sort of food. After they discovered that he and his disciples had left during the night they went back to Capernaum in search of Jesus and this is what Jesus explained to them.

John 6:26 -27

Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’^[1]

• Don’t work for food that spoils (26).

Jesus warned them not to work for food that spoils or perishes. The crowds were coming to Jesus not because they had seen the signs and wanted to believe and follow Jesus, but because they had eaten the loaves had their bellies filled.  They were coming to him without really coming for or to him.

They were coming for the things that he might have been able to give them – things that they wanted. It was the next day and they were hungry again. It was just the bread that they were coming for. They wanted him to take care of their immediate needs. They wanted him to fill their bellies. In the same way they wanted him to be their king to fight the fights that they wanted to win. Moses had freed them and had brought them out of Egypt, and they probably wanted Jesus to free them from the Romans. They wanted all this without really wanting the life that he had come to give them.

Foods that spoil are the materialistic titbits that we long to fill our bellies with. We fill our lives with things that just don’t last as though they are what really matters most. It might be more success in our career or chasing after our happiness or more money or having kids that do well in their studies and fulfil all our expectations and make us feel proud.

Unfortunately, sometimes people come to Jesus because they think that he can help them with these things so that their lives can be what they want them to be. They are only interested in Jesus because of things that they think that he can give them. They want him to make their lives here and now more comfortable or convenient or successful. Unfortunately, sometimes Christians can even promote this kind of Jesus – the Jesus who makes you richer or prosperous or successful or happy.

But Jesus rebuked those who came to him with own their materialistic dreams and told them not to work for the food that spoils but to labour for a different kind of food.

Food that endures

Don’t work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Only the Son of Man has God the Father’s seal of approval. He is the one that God has authorised in this world to give this food so that we might live the life God intended us to live. You can’t get it from anyone else. There are no other distributers. He is the only one authorized to distribute food that endures for he is the only one who the Father has granted to have life in himself.

• You must believe in the one that God has sent (28-29)

But how do we receive this food so that we might live?  This is what is explained in verses 28 to 29. We must believe in the one that God has sent.

John 6:28-29

²⁸Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?  ²⁹Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Only one thing is required to receive the food which last is to believe in him. You must welcome the one God has sent into the world so that you might have life. As John wrote in the prologue of his gospel…

John 1:11-13

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

• Jesus is the bread of life (32-40)

You must believe in Jesus for he is the bread of life. He is the true bread from heaven. He is the food that does not spoil but endures to eternal life. For as he explains in verse 33, he is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. In verses 35 to 36 just in case that was not clear enough he spelt it out for them.

John 6:35-36

Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

You must come to him and believe in him. He is the bread of life. He is the true bread. He is the bread from heaven. He is the bread that God gives to us so that we live and never go hungry. As he told the woman at the well in chapter 4, he is the one who gives the water that means that they will never thirst. He is more than just a prophet like Moses.

The signs in the gospel make this clear. In this chapter alone, he not only miraculously feed the five thousand, but on the way back to Capernaum he came to the disciples walking on the water. The disciples were terrified for no ordinary man does something like this. All these signs were pointing to the fact that he is the one who has come from heaven, the Son of God who is the life and light of this world. This is what crowd did not understand. They were still looking for food that spoils and overlooking the one who is the bread from heaven.

What are we trying to fill up on?

There is a warning to all of us here about what it is that we are filling up on or wanting to fill our bellies with.

• Don’t work for food that spoils it ultimately doesn’t satisfy

Don’t work for food that spoils. It won’t fill you up. It doesn’t matter how much of it you manage to eat you will always be hungry. It’s like when you are on diet. You might be able to eat as much lettuce as you like but it doesn’t matter how much lettuce you eat it never really fills you up. Your always hungry. I’ll like “Alone” which is a survival show where people are dropped all alone into the wilderness with minimal gear and no food. They might wild celery but it doesn’t matter wild celery they find it won’t sustain them. It doesn’t fill them up or supply what they need.

This is how it is with food that doesn’t last, that is perishing. It doesn’t satisfy you in the long term. It will ultimately let you down. Those who think that money is going to fill them up never have enough of it. It doesn’t fill their bellies. Wealth will let you down. Those who are looking for success in their career or their work will never find that it really does fill the aching hole in their lives. They can never have enough success or else they spend their whole lives trying to hold on to it to detriment of everything else. These things ultimately don’t satisfy. They let you down. You end up just as hungry and thirsty as you started out in life.

• Jesus won’t let you down, he alone satisfies

It is Jesus alone who will not let you down. He says that in verses 37 to 40.

John 6:37-39

All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’

He won’t let any who believe in him down. Even on the last day when the lights are going out on this world and everything is coming to an end, he will lose no one but he will raise them up. All who have looked to the Son as the Son of God and believed in him will have eternal life. He won’t fail us for he has come from heaven not to do his own will but the will of the Father. He is the one who gives life back to the world. He is the one who can satisfy us. He is the one that can give life meaning even when we might not have enough on the table to eat and even when our days here are running out. He will never abandon us. He will never drive us away. He remains close. And he will raise us up on the last day.

• Come to him

We are to come to him. It is the one who comes to him who will never go hungry. It is the one who believes in him that will never be thirsty.

Don’t go rummage in the garbage bins of life looking for food that doesn’t last. All of it is perishing. Everything has a use-by date on it. It doesn’t endure. Come to him who is the bread of life, the bread of heaven. He is the food that endures. Come to the one who will give you back life as it meant to be by sharing his life with you. Come to the one who endures and who lives forever and who will be there on the last day to raise you up.

If you have come to him then keep your eyes fixed on him and don’t hanker after what you see everyone else desperately trying to fill up on. It isn’t success that is the answer. It isn’t a perfect house or perfect kids or going on that great holiday or having the new car or the new phone or gaming online or endlessly watching you-tube or that streaming service. These things are never enough. They don’t satisfy our hunger. Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)

[1] Unless otherwise indicated all Scripture readings are taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version (Anglicised Edition, 2011) (Revised and updated edition,). (2011). Hodder & Stoughton.