Jesus is the Bread of Life

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In a remarkable story, Jesus feed the hungry people at the Sea of Galilee, who came to see Him and to listen to His Words. With only 5 loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus performed a miracle and served about 5 000 men (not including women and children). Its from this passage in the Bible, and from other cross references, I got the inspiration for the name of this blog; Bread4Life.eu

The Bible tells us that many will perish because they have a lack of understanding. That’s why we need the Bread, aka the Word, aka Jesus in order to get eternal LIFE! Feed my sheep was the commandment to Petrus, after Petrus confessed his love to his Master, who appeared in His Body & Spirit, days after the crucifixion.
The “Word” is a typology for Jesus. Typology means a classification based on a comparative study of types (personality or human physique). A typology system groups these types according to how they are similar, and how one thing (as Jesus) can be divided into different types.
Jesus describes himself as the Bread (among other attributes such as the Cornerstone, Light, the Chief Priest, the Son of Man/the Son of God, the last Adam, The Lamb, the Lion. and many more. One famous line is; “I am the Way, The Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14.16.

Bread for Life

We need to eat or least we die, right? But in John chapter 6, Jesus explains that we also need spiritual bread. If we dont have the right mind, knowledge or attitude, He tells us our souls will cease to exist when we finally dies on earth. (We have a body, soul and spirit intermingled)
The people were astound to hear this preaching. And even to this day, many cant understand that we also live in a spiritual world, unseen, and under spiritual laws! For what is spiritual is unseen. It cant be touched, or weight, or measured. Thats why many people cant believe in things they cant see. Things that are seen are physical. Everything that we can see and touch has an expiration date, such as your body, your car, your shoes and everything else which exist in this world like trees, grass, flowers.
Things that are not seen or cant be touched, they exists forever. Like human attributes; feelings (love, fear, hope, envy), personality, intellect. They are rooted in the spiritual rounds. Even if you your personal experiences of feelings gets lost when you die the psycial death, the different spectra of feelings are shared and continued on with the next generation.

Why do you need the bread of Jesus? Lets listen to what he has to say in John 6:25-66 (NIV):
When they (the disciples) 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.”

By faith do we have the right standing before God, and not by our own works

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.” 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.

Faith is confidence in what we cant see, often rejected by those who rely on their own understanding

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.”

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.”

Jesus is the red thread throughout the scriptures, the typology for Bread, Flesh, Blood, Life, Spirit.

“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.

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you, they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.”
For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.
He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
John 6:25-66 (NIV)

To eat the flesh of Jesus, and to drink His blood, its not be taken literaly. The spiritual meaning is to be partakers of Jesus Christ. To eat something, to swallow, is to make a covenant. Its a spiritual contract. In order to receive an eternal life, we need to have faith in the person whom the Father sent to us, as the Substitute for our transgessions.
The spiritual daily bread from Jesus, is for the renewal of our soul, mind and spirit.

End notes:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.

Matthew 6:9-13

In this table below, you can compare the first words in the Bible, in Genesis 1, when God created heaven and earth, light and darkness, and what John 1 has to say when he describes Jesus.
Its not an coincidence how everything is created in God’s image and master plan.