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” (John 6:35).
CONTEXT
A couple of years before Christ’s crucifixion, Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to attend a feast of the Jews and while near the Sheep’s gate of the Temple complex He came upon an invalid at the pool called Bethesda and healed him. This enraged the Jews who sought to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, because healing the man on the Sabbath was a violation of Pharisaic law and second, because Jesus declared Himself equal with God (John 5:18). Jesus continued His ministry and raised the ire of the Jews many more times.
Several months later and about a year before Christ’s crucifixion, during the course of His ministry journeys, Jesus left Jerusalem around the time of the Passover and returned to Galilee where He ministered west of the Sea of Galilee (the “Sea”) in the area of Nazareth and Capernaum. It was there that Jesus sent His twelve disciples on a missionary trip (Luke 9:1-6). Upon their return, Jesus urged His disciples to go to an uninhabited place where they could rest undisturbed. So the disciples, along with Jesus, traveled to the northwest side of the Sea in the vicinity of a place named Bethsaida Julias, a town located on the eastern side of the Sea just southeast of where (Mark 6:31, 32) the northern section of the Jordan River flows into the Sea from the north.
Jesus and His disciples arrived on the northwestern shore of the Sea near the town of Bethsaida Julias. The area consisted of a low grassy plain. Hendricksen describes this lonely area as follows:
On the north-eastern shore of the sea, about a mile south of the town, there is a little plain of rich silt soil. As it was Spring-time when Jesus and his disciples landed here, we are not surprised to read that there was plenty of green grass here (Mark 6:39). A hill actually rises up just behind this plain, so that all the requirements of the account as found in the Gospels are fully met. Accordingly, when the evangelist writes that Jesus went up (into) the hill,[1] those acquainted with the surroundings would know exactly what hill was indicated; those unacquainted could easily guess that there was a hill behind a level stretch of territory along the sea-shore.[2]
The crowd of people that Jesus had been speaking to on the western side of the Sea had seen the signs of Jesus healing people and they sought to go to Jesus on the other side of the Sea. The crowd proceeded to walk around the northern shore of the Sea.
When Jesus and His disciples arrived at the desolate place, Jesus walked up the hill and from His elevated vantage point, He saw a great multitude of people heading His way. He had compassion for them and went down the hill and healed their sick (Matt. 14:14).
In the evening, the disciples came to Jesus to suggest that since there was no place to find food in this desolate place that the people should be sent away to find food. But Jesus said that was unnecessary and they should feed the people (Matt. 14:16). The disciples told Jesus that a boy had only five barley loaves and two fish (Matt. 14:17) and that could not nearly be enough for 5,000 men besides women and children. Nevertheless, Jesus told them to pass out the food they had. Jesus performed the miracle of feeding the 5,000 and there was enough to leave 12 basketfuls in excess (Matt. 14:20).
After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus sent His disciples back across the Sea to Bethsaida (Mark 6:45). John writes that they set out for Capernaum (John 6:17). It appears that this is another “Bethsaida” and these two towns, Capernaum and Bethsaida, were near each other on the west side of the Sea. This Bethsaida is probably the Bethsaida in Galilee referred to in John 12:21 as the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter. Jesus stayed behind and after dismissing the crowd, He went up on the mountain to pray and later joined His disciples in route across the Sea, walking on the Sea to join them (Mark 6:48).
The next day, the crowd still on the western side saw that Jesus and His twelve disciples were not there. When they realized that they were on the eastern shore, they set out for Capernaum.
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
Jesus and His disciples arrived at the plain of Gennesaret between 3am and 6am the morning after the feeding of the five thousand. When the multitude on the eastern side saw that Jesus and His disciples had gone, they all headed to Capernaum by foot and by sea to find Jesus.
When the crowd found Jesus, He reprimanded them by saying that they came because of the food He provided for them rather than coming because of the signs He performed which pointed to Him as the spiritual Messiah and the Son of God (John 6:26).
Jesus follows His reprimand with a command that they should not seek food that is perishable but they should seek the food that endures for eternity and which can only come from the Son of Man (John 6:27). Like the Samaritan woman in vv. 4:13, 14, who heard Jesus speak of the “water” and understood it in a literal sense of physical water, the people assembled before Jesus here took His words literally and not spiritually. Thus, both the Samaritan woman and these people failed to understand what Jesus was teaching.
Jesus used metaphorical language, “water” and “bread,” to teach them that they should seek eternal life by hungering and thirsting for the spiritual bread and water that could be provided to them only by the Son of Man and only if they had faith in him.
The people responded by asking Jesus “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” (v. 6:28). Jesus answered them by saying that the work of God He is speaking of is to believe through faith in the Son whom God sent―Jesus Himself (v. 29). Jesus is not teaching that they must do work to earn eternal life as they worked under the law. He was pointing out that they receive faith as a gift of God and that faith received from God, not of their own merit, was the work God required. They weren’t required to do work but to receive a gracious gift of faith from God.
Then the people asked Jesus for a sign to show He was whom He said He was (v. 30). The people told Jesus that their forefathers were given manna from heaven by Moses (v. 31). But Jesus said that it was not Moses who gave their forefathers manna to eat, but God. He continues stating that the true bread He is talking about is from the Father in heaven (v. 32). Jesus then identifies the “true bread” which was sent by the Father, namely, Jesus Himself (v. 33). Unfortunately, the crowd misunderstood Jesus to be referring to physical nourishment again (v. 34) as had the Samaritan woman. (4:15) before.
In verse 35, Jesus pointedly tells the crowd assembled that He, Jesus, is the bread of life. Actually, the original Greek is in a particular form that means “the life” (τῆς ζωῆς). So verse 35 reads in the Greek “I am the bread of the life.” This means not just any kind of life in a physical sense but a spiritual and eternal life.
Jesus is teaching that just as physical bread provides nutrition that sustains life when it is assimilated into the body through the stomach, in a similar way, Jesus sustains spiritual life by providing spiritual bread and water. Only through faith and the spiritual assimilation of Jesus into the souls of believers do they attain eternal life.
But, unlike bread, Jesus is more than the sustainer of spiritual life. He is the source of the spiritual life. Without the assimilation of Christ into our souls through faith, we are dead. So, this metaphor of the bread seems to fall short of being complete. John Calvin wrote about this.
It ought to be observed, however, that the word bread does not express the quickening power of Christ so fully as we feel it; for bread does not commence life, but nourishes and upholds that life which we already possess. But, through the kindness of Christ, we not only continue to possess life, but have the beginning of life, and therefore the comparison is partly inappropriate; but there is no inconsistency in this, for Christ adapts his style to the circumstances of the discourse which he formerly delivered.
Jesus saw the context of the discussion involving physical nourishment, so He used a metaphor of physical nourishment to teach about the spiritual nourishment that is required to sustain the spiritual life that only comes from Christ. He didn’t use the metaphor of nourishment to teach specifically about the source of their spiritual life too, though this is taught throughout Scripture. The people were talking about physical nourishment so He taught about spiritual nourishment using this metaphor concerning physical nourishment. Nonetheless, as the true bread of life, He is also the source of life.
When a regenerate person comes to Jesus, he or she comes with nothing except sin. As Jonathan Edwards wrote “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Eternal life is possible only by the grace of God alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. And the responsibility for coming to Christ lies exclusively with the individual.
The crowd required a sign acceptable to them before they would believe (v. 30). In response, Jesus tells them that they have already seen Him (i.e., His signs and miracles and teachings) but have not believed (v. 36). He holds them accountable for not believing that He is the spiritual bread that gives and sustains spiritual life. Jesus has already given sufficient signs. He, Himself, is the living bread from heaven and they should see that by everything He has done and taught. But they just couldn’t separate themselves from their literal interpretation.
The Jews grumbled among themselves regarding Jesus stating that He was the bread that came down from heaven. Jesus was speaking in Galilee where many knew Him and they knew His family. They refused to accept Jesus as the bread from heaven for they saw Him as the son of the carpenter Joseph.
But Jesus, speaking in the synagogue at Capernaum, continued by contrasting the manna received by their forefathers with the living bread which is Jesus. He told them that the bread that He would give them, in contrast to the manna eaten by their forefathers, was His flesh and anyone who eats this living bread would not die.
The Jews still disputed His words. They were taken aback that Jesus not only claimed to be from heaven when they all knew Him to be the son of Joseph, but that He then made what they understood to be a preposterous statement that was repulsive to them about them eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Yet Jesus continued to discuss the fact that He was the bread of life eternal and that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have eternal life.
Many of the followers of Jesus found this teaching from Jesus to be a hard saying and found it difficult to listen to and even revolting (v. 60). Jesus knew that some of His followers took offense to this teaching and He then explained the spiritual meaning of His words (vv. 62-64). However, in spite of His explanation of the spiritual meaning, some of His followers decided to leave Him.
The Jews hearing Jesus speak regarding eating His flesh and drinking His blood should have recognized it as a common Hebrew literary technique called a mashal. This technique is used by Jesus to invoke graphic images familiar to His audience, drawing from everyday life to teach a spiritual truth in a similar way that He used parables.
In the end, many, including some who had previously been His followers (v. 66), left Jesus because they took the metaphorical teaching of Jesus regarding the bread of life in a literal sense. This misunderstanding resulted in their failure to spiritually accept Jesus by faith as the true spiritual bread of the life eternal and therefore they did not appropriate and assimilate Christ into their souls.
But the twelve disciples stayed with Jesus (vv. 68, 69) and Jesus continued His ministry in Galilee (v. 7:1).
FINAL THOUGHTS
Jesus chose not to reveal the fullness of His deity initially. The apostle Paul speaks of this in his epistle to the Philippians writing “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8, emphasis added).
Scripture teaches that Jesus was fully God and fully man. As such, He could not divest Himself of His deity. Jesus is God and God is immutable. However, He did conceal His deity for a while. As Calvin wrote in his commentary on Philippians.
Christ, indeed, could not divest himself of Godhead; but he kept it concealed for a time, that it might not be seen, under the weakness of the flesh. Hence he laid aside his glory in the view of men, not by lessening it, but by concealing it…like a vail, by which his divine majesty was concealed.
We see evidence of this at the Wedding at Cana. “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come”” (John 2:3, 4, emphasis added). Again this concealment is evident at the Transfiguration. “And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead” (Matt. 17:9, emphasis added).
As Jesus’ ministry progressed, he eventually revealed his deity first to the 12 disciples and then to the public. After the feeding of the 5000, Jesus clearly reveals his divine nature in earnest and begins His “I Am” statements with the first aspect of His divine nature, I am the bread of life―the source and sustenance of spiritual life eternal.
The apostle John gave us his reasons for writing his gospel “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30, 31). The seven “I Am” statements, which only appear in John’s gospel, are found in chapters 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, and 15. These are Jesus’ statements that describe His essence. They were given by Jesus to inform all people of whom He said He was. He used seven metaphors, each signifying a different aspect of His divine nature.
In each of the seven “I Am” statements, Jesus proclaims His essential character: I am the bread of life (John 6:35), the light of the world (8:12), the gate (10:7), the good shepherd (10:11, 14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way and the truth and the life (14:6), and the true vine (15:1).
[1] The Greek word oros (ὄρος) is translated in most translations as “mountain.” The Greek word is probably from the word ŏrō which means to rise. So, this word in verse 3, oros, may be translated into English as mountain, hill, or mount in the sense of lifting itself above a plain.
[2] William Hendricksen, William New Testament Commentary: John, Chpts 7-21 (Baker Academic 1953), 218.
