by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
When our Lord replied in John 6:35: Ἐγώεἰμιὁἄρτοςτῆςζωῆς· (“I AM the bread of life;”) his words were emphatic. It is like: “okay, so you wanted to always have this bread that comes from Heaven, then let me tell you: ‘I really AM that true bread of life!’” Moreover, in the last part of the verse, the Lord Jesus says further that anyone who comes to him shall never be hungry and the one believing will never ever be thirsty. It was a bold, assertive and self-confident answer. This was followed up by the Lord’s words about their non-belief and about himself coming down from Heaven to do the Father’s will, and not to lose any that the Father gives him and raise them up at the last day (John 6:36-40).
Now, the Ἰουδαῖοι and the other Jews in the crowd who were Galileans began to be openly skeptical because they knew that Jesus was a local boy and they knew his relatives. So how can he now claim to have come down from Heaven? The Lord replied by asking them to stop grumbling among themselves, quoting the Isaiah 54:13 in the process. He tells them to believe in him to have everlasting life (John 6:41-47). And then in John 6:48 he repeats his words:Ἐγώεἰμιὁἄρτοςτῆςζωῆς· (“I AM the bread of life;”). In the next verses, the Lord Jesus explains that in the Exodus, their forefathers ate the manna yet they died. He says that now the bread that comes down from Heaven is here and anyone may eat of it and not die. Then in John 6:51, he announces for the 3rd time: ἐγώεἰμιὁἄρτοςὁζῶνὁἐκτοῦοὐρανοῦ καταβάς· (“I AM the living bread, the (one) having come down from heaven;”). Then the Lord says that this bread was his flesh that will be given for the life of the world. Earlier, the Ἰουδαῖοι and the Galileans disagreed and could not accept that the Lord came down from Heaven. Now pandemonium breaks loose, so to speak. Indeed, how can anyone ask a proper Jew to eat his flesh (John 6:52)?!
But the Lord Jesus did not stop with the metaphor right there and then. He continued! The Gospel of John is quite verbose when the Lord is quoted as teaching in the Capernaum synagogue that his flesh is “true food” and his blood “true drink” and that one must partake of his body and blood in order to have eternal life as the Lord will abide in him (John 6:53-59). Even his disciples were shocked and one result as we previously noted, was that many could not understand this “hard teaching” and so turned away and did not follow the Lord anymore.
Earlier, we saw that there are very numerous occurrences of the word(s) for bread in the Bible. Their high usage speaks of their symbolic significance. We can take a look at some Scriptures that feed into this metaphor our Lord Jesus used.
The Exodus is central to Jewish identity. The Passover with the Feast of Unleavened Bread is one of the 3 major annual religious feasts celebrated by the Jewish people; the other 2 are Weeks/Pentecost and Booths/Tabernacles. . The hurried departure of the Hebrews and their eating unleavened bread because of the 10th plague aids their memory of their great redemption. People then normally ate bread leavened with yeast. But this time, there is no time to lose. Time to go, now! And while they were in the wilderness, God provided them manna (another form of bread) and quail meat to keep them alive. Here are some Old Testament (OT) references (Exodus 12:18; 16:4; 23:15; Leviticus23:6; Numbers28:17; Nehemiah9:15; and Psalms 78:24-25; 105:40) which one can study on this theme.
In the episode in 1 Kings 17:8-16, God sent the prophet Elijah to a Gentile widow in Zarephath, in Sidon. Here, bread (Hebrew לֶ֖חֶם, “lechem”) is asked of the poor widow by Elijah and a miracle of multiplication occurs. The prophet, the widow and her son were continuously fed for many days, as the flour and the oil did not run out during the long drought and resulting famine in the land. God provided them bread literally, to live.
The Lord Jesus’ teaching on prayer (Matthew 6:9-15; Luke 11:2-4) uses the Greek word ἄρτος(bread) in Matthew 6:11:τὸνἄρτονἡμῶντὸνἐπιούσιονδὸςἡμῖνσήμερον· (“our sufficient/necessary bread, may you give us today;”). Note that the Greek adjectiveἐπιούσιος (“epiousios”) is only found in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3 in the same context. Hence there are no other contextual clues to tell scholars its exact meaning. The word does not exist in ancient correspondences and other writings (pagan or Christian) as well. Our lexicons now state that it means God’s provision for sustenance needed for each day (https://biblehub.com/greek/1967.htm). As such, it would roughly be equivalent to asking for manna which would be good only for the day. Hence “daily” is used in most translations. However, the Douay-Rheims Bible version uses “supersubstantial” (taken from the Latin Vulgate).
Here, we can note a difference in the feeding in the wilderness during the Exodus with what the Lord did for the 5,000 (the only miracle recorded in all the 4 Gospels: Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; and John 6:1-15); as well as for the feeding of the 4,000 episode (found only in Matthew 15:29-39 and Mark 8:1-10). In the Exodus account, the Hebrews could only gather enough manna for the day (or two days to include the Sabbath) and any excess would spoil and be thrown away. In the feeding episodes for the 5,000 and the 4,000 no such limitation was seen. In fact they were able to gather 12 basketfuls of leftovers after the 5,000 ate their fill; and 7 basketfuls after the feeding of the 4,000! Indeed, God could provide much more than what we think we need, according to his grace. The Ἰουδαῖοι and the crowd either failed to perceive, or did not want to acknowledge this difference.
From our vantage point today, it is easy for us to say that the Jewish people were so literal and short-sighted and could not or did not want to see the symbolic significance of the Lord’s metaphor of being the “bread of life.” It is plausible that the Lord Jesus had to painstakingly explain this metaphor to his disciples who remained with him. It is not narrated in John’s Gospel but we can infer an analogy with the Lord’s usage of parables in the Synoptic Gospels. He used parables for the Ἰουδαῖοι and the crowd but explained it plainly to his disciples in private. Also, at this point in time the Last Supper had not yet occurred.
The Last Supper (Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14: 1, 12, 22-26; Luke 22:1, 7, 14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26) with his disciples makes it plain for all to see the symbolism of the bread as the body and the wine as the blood of the Messiah. His body was broken like the bread (Greek ἄρτος in the accounts of the Last Supper in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and 1 Corinthians 11) to effect redemption (being the perfect sacrifice) and to grant eternal life to anyone who partakes of it. His blood would be shed and drank as ancients would drink wine as a libation for the sealing of a covenant or treaty; the New Covenant in this case. The Apostle Paul added in the proclamation of the Messiah’s sure return apart from the remembrance of the Lord’s sacrifice.
This theme of the bread as the body of the Messiah is also stated by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 where he points to the cup of blessing as the sharing of the blood of Christ and the broken bread (Greek ἄρτος) as the sharing in the body of Christ. But there is also unity in the body of Messiah since there is one bread (Greek ἄρτος), meaning One Lord and the many (believers) belong to and are one (spiritual) body – his church. For those who want to reflect more on this, Romans 12:4-8;1 Corinthians 12:12-30; and Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:11-22; 4:11-16 would be helpful.
Going back to John 6:35, 48 and 51, we can now see that indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ reveals that he is more than the living bread that came down from heaven. He is the bread that truly gives life! Let us acknowledge his Lordship over our lives and partake of him to have eternal life.
We will continue next week with another “I AM” and a different metaphor.
God bless us all.