The Bread of Life // You Are What You Eat (Part 1)

John 6:25-59 is the main text for this blog post - I know it's a long passage, but it's a good one!

The passage starts with Jesus arriving on shore at Capernaum just after he has walked on water to find a group of people waiting for him. - The same group of people who at the start of John chapter 6 Jesus fed with 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread!
Jesus greets this crowd of people by saying 'Very truly I tell you' - There's a lot of 'Very truly I tell yous' in this passage from Jesus, it just means that the next thing he's going to say is (guess what) very true.

"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."

Jesus greets these people by basically saying 'You only came to find me becuase I gave you food, not because you were amazed at my miracle.' Harsh? Maybe. True? Definitely.

Then, straight after Jesus says this, in his next breath he goes on to teach them about Heaven and eternal life. He says; 

"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you."

Jesus tells these people not to work for food that spoils. Whats food that spoils? Every food. Bread gets mouldy, potatoes grow white bits, leftover Chinese gives you food poisoning and milk turns green. But then Jesus talks about working for food that 'endures to eternal life'. What Jesus meant here was don't work for stuff that will spoil, stuff that will rust, stuff that could get stolen from you. But work for God. Live out a life worthy enough for the plan God has created for you. - This will endure to eternal life. 

The crowd of people understand this and then want to know what they need to do to fulfil the work God requires them to do. Jesus answers with 

"The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

Wow, pretty easy right? All I have to do to fulfil the work God requires me to do is believe in Jesus? That might sound pretty easy, but it's actually very hard. As the crowd of people demonstrate in the next few verses. The crowd of people ask for a sign from Jesus so that they will believe him. They even quote some of the Old Testament, they talked about the Israelites and how God gave them manna  from Heaven to eat. 

Jesus goes on to say that this bread - the bread of life - is not from Moses, but directly from God. Then he says 

"For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world."

The crowd get excited by this statement - who wouldn't? And ask Jesus to always give them this bread. 

Then Jesus drops a bombshell. 

"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."

After this Jesus says in the very next verse that there will be people who would have seen Jesus but still wouldn't believe Jesus. Then Jesus says it again at verse 44;

"I am the bread of life."

Lots of the people - especially the Jews - got very angry at this and didn't believe him. Jesus then goes on to say; "unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
We now know this to be communion, but back then it's no wonder the people had some doubt (I know I would have).

This is the end of part one of 'The Bread of Life // You Are What You Eat. - Part two coming soon!

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