I AM the bread of life.
John 6:45
So much of what happens in the New Testament is set up by what happened in the Old Testament. In the last reflection, we discussed how the name of God was revealed at the burning bush in Exodus 3. After the children of Israel were liberated from bondage in Egypt, they began the slow journey to the Land of Canaan, i.e. the Promised Land. The people were impatient in their wandering. It was a desert. There were hardly any food sources. Some of the people longed to return to Egypt. Yes, they have been slaves there, but they had had food available. The people began to murmur against Moses.
God told Moses that each morning, He would provide food for the people. It was called Manna, and it covered the ground each morning. People were to take enough for that day and no more. They were to take a double portion on Friday, so that they wouldn’t have to work to collect the Manna on the Sabbath. The Manna was bread that came from God in order to sustain the people.
In John 6, Jesus made a long discourse to people who had come to hear Him preach. The would be the first time that He would use the name of God, “I AM,” and He would use it connected to the Manna that fell from heaven in the book of Exodus. The first five books of the Old Testament, are called the Pentateuch, or the Torah, which comprised the Law of Moses. It provided a guide for both religious and ethical living. People went to the temple to hear the Torah being read. Jewish leaders would know the Torah, because they would be the ones reading it, and the regular people would know it because it was read to them so often. Thus, many people would have known the stories of the burning bush and the Manna from heaven.
The people had bread on their minds because earlier in John 6, Jesus had fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, and in some way of thinking, the miracle of the Manna was replicated in the person of Jesus Christ. Hungry people were fed in a miraculous way.
The people asked Jesus “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread form heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.” They said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” (John 6: 28-34)
Jesus has revealed His relationship to the Father. He goes back to God, who provided the Manna, and calls Him “My Father,” which puts Jesus as the Son of the Father, the Son of God. And then Jesus becomes even more bold, using the “I AM” name of God. He continues in John 6:35, “I AM the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and He who believes in Me shall never thirst.” In 6:41, we read The Jews then murmured at Him, because He said “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” In other words, Jesus is calling Himself not only the Son of God, but the physical manifestation of the Manna which came down from heaven. He is what is going to sustain the people.
Jesus then goes one step further. He is not only like the Manna which came down from heaven to sustain the people. He is living bread that if anyone eats it, He will live forever. John 6:48-51: “I AM the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I AM the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, He will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
So much of the Old Testament practices were based on the need for atonement and sacrifice. With every sacrifice of an animal, there was bloodshed. Sometimes the animal that was killed would be eaten, like the Passover Lamb. Despite all the sacrifices, people still died and there was no hope for anything beyond earthly life except consignment to Hades. Jesus was paving the way to salvation, that there was something more coming after earthly life, and that is eternal life. The path to salvation was not going to be sacrifice and atonement. Jesus was going to die on the cross as both sacrifice and atonement, and people would live in Christ by partaking of Him, of His flesh and blood. What Jesus is saying in John 6 sets up the Eucharist, which He would reveal later, and sets up the foundational piece of Orthodox Christianity, the Eucharist.
The Jews questioned the idea of Jesus giving them His flesh to eat. So Jesus continued His teaching: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in Him.” (John 6: 53-56)
Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, Thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment, Who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, Who hast laid the beams of Thy chambers on the waters, Who makest the clouds Thy chariot, Who ridest on the winds of the wind, Who makest the winds Thy messengers, fire and flame Thy ministers. Thou didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken. Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of Thy thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which Thou didst appoint for them. Thou didst set a bound which they should not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. Thou makest springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst. By them the birds of the air have their habitations; they sing among the branches. From Thy lofty abode Thou waterest the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Thy work. Thou dost cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man’s heart. The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon which He planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the badgers. Thou hast made the moon to make the seasons; the sun knows it’s time for setting. Thou makest darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep forth. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they get them away and lie down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy creatures. Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan which Thou didst form to sport in it. These all look to Thee, to give them their food in due season. When Thou givest to them, they gather it us; when Thou openest Thy hand, they are filled with good things. When Thou hidest Thy face, they are dismayed; When Thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created; and Thou renewest the face of the ground. May the glory of the Lord endure forever, may the Lord rejoice in His works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! I will sing of the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord. Psalm 104
The first I AM of Jesus in the New Testament establishes Him as the Son of God, the replacement for the Manna from heaven, a source of eternal life (as opposed to the Manna which only extended earthly life), and sets up the Eucharist as both sustenance in this life and the path to eternal life!
