Crumbs || Bread of Life

When I started this blog series, I just started writing about manna from heaven. I didn’t look ahead, I just starting writing for the topic at hand. I did this every time I opened up the document for the next week. Little did I know my theory of #carbsandJesus - comparing our Messiah to complex carbohydrates - would continually be confirmed week-after-week. So here we are week five….and Jesus, in His own way, confirmed this “theory” in His written Word.

In science, when I theory is proven to be true continually, without fail, it is called a “law” - Newton's Law of Gravity or Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment. So let’s dive into proving the BFry’s Theory of Carbs into Jesus’ Law of Carbs (stick with me) through John 6:25-59.

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When they [a crowd following Jesus] found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 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. 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.”

--John 6:25-27

Let’s orient ourselves. Last week, in Matthew, we talked about Jesus and the disciples trying to catch a break in a secluded area, instead the feeding for the 5,000 happens. John 6 opens with the feeding of the 5,000. Afterwards, the disciples decide to finally take their time to relax. They decide to sail around the lake, but a storm hits and so Jesus decides to just walk on out to them on the water (no big deal). When Jesus got to the boat, the 13 of them took off for their seclusion time. But no….the crowd eventually realized that they were MIA and sought them out. This is where we begin.

The crowd followed Jesus and asked Him when He got there. Jesus tells them that they didn’t follow Him because of His miracle (feeding all of them with nothing). He said they followed Him because they were filled.

Jesus advises that we do not work for food that spoils, but for everlasting food. We are to work for non-perishable canned goods? No, He’s talking about parables like storing up treasures for Heaven and not wanting to gain the whole world and losing my soul. Work hard for Heaven and not for earthly “foods.”

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

--John 6:28-34

The crowd is Jewish. The crowd knows (and celebrates) the story of their ancestors in the wilderness eating manna (the raining bread). This story for them is a reminder that even when life His hard, God is God and He will give you a sign to remind you of this. In Jewish culture (pre-New Testament world), an anointed person goes to the holy of holies and speaks to God on everyone else’s behalf. Moses was that person for the Israelites.

Jesus talks about talking to God a lot, so to the crowd He was the “Moses” at the time. But Jesus corrects them and says, “Moses didn’t negotiate on their behalf for the bread. God gave that freely because God provides.

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. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 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. 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.”

--John 6:35-40 [emphasis mine]

The crowd in verse 34 asks to get the bread from God always. Jesus declares (not “says”, not “reminds”, not “responds”...He declares) that He is that bread. He is the non-perishable food to work for. He is the food their desire.

And when He is the one that we work for and the one we desire to devour - He will not just provide, but He will sustain.

I remember the first time my parents and aunt and uncle went to get sushi. When they were done eating sushi, they were still hungry, so they went to Burger King. Later that night the sushi and the BK kicked in. Jesus isn’t the sushi of life - you eat it and leaves you unsatisfied. Jesus, also, isn’t the BK - you need it to fill in the gaps.

Jesus is like bread - you know, fill up on Texas Roadhouse dinner rolls (with the cinnamon butter) before your meal comes.

At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

--John 6:41-59 [emphasis mine]

The manna from Heaven was just the foreshadowing for the "Reigning Bread" - (not pumpernickel) Jesus. Eat of this Bread and you live. Eat of this Bread and you are filled.

You don't have to work for this Bread. All Jesus tells you to do is eat.

Working for the non-perishable Bread of Life, will give you spiritual energy, fuel your faith’s functionality, and leave you full.