It is into this image of the life-sustaining, laborious staple that the Lord Jesus Christ places Himself. He does it, also, in a way that indicates a fulfillment of the Old Testament usage of bread.

As much as bread sustains this mortal life, even so Jesus, the Bread of Life, gives and sustains life. Even more so. For the staple bread that is eaten, that mortal, crusty bread one gets at the supermarket or the restaurant, sustains life only for the day; “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” And despite eating this ordinary bread, everyone dies a little just trying to get it. Eating a slice of Wonderbread or Udi’s will not keep you alive forever—just long enough to get your next slice—but anyone who eats the Bread of Life, who is Jesus, will live forever.

Now, having heard what Jesus said, your mind might jump to the Lord’s Supper. And that’s good; eating Jesus for eternal life should evoke thoughts of the Lord’s Supper, as the benefits of eating the body of Christ and drinking His blood are forgiveness, life, and salvation. But, that’s not what Jesus is getting at here. As much as I put off talk of His Supper last week, I need to hold of on that for yet another week—at least as regards today’s pericope from St. John’s Gospel.

The Lord’s Supper is a very good thing, and I don’t want to make it sound as if I am ignoring it, but as much as it may seem as if John is heading in the direction of the Lord’s Supper in chapter 6, especially with the profound statement Jesus will make in next week’s reading, Jesus is not talking about the Lord’s Supper there. To understand that, it helps to recall what first happened in John 6: Jesus miraculously fed 5000 men plus women and children with but a few small loaves of bread, and ended up with more left over than what He started with. All the talk of bread, manna, and eating in the rest of John 6 flows from that. Furthermore, every bread-y reference from the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in what Jesus has to say in John 6. As Dr. David Scaer put it,

After all, as Dr. Scaer also wrote, “It wasn’t as if part of the Old Testament referred to Jesus and part didn’t. It all did.” Even the bread of the Old Testament: the manna of the wilderness, the unleavened bread of the Passover, the show bread of the Tabernacle and Temple, the grain offerings, and all the other images of bread pointed forward to Jesus who is the Bread of Life.

So, here is a man who performed a miracle for a great number of people, and they sought to make Him king for it, that He would sustain them with miracle bread for the rest of their earthly lives. Jesus took this and, as He so often did, He turned it upside down. In essence, He told the crowds that this staple food is not the important thing when it comes to Him, but that He is; bread sustains life, but Jesus gives life far greater than any earthly bread—even manna from heaven and all the bread of the Hebrew Scriptures—could ever do. Jesus is the Bread of Life—eternal life. Jesus “was their bread of life on their journey through this life and the food that would sustain them in the next. He was the viaticum, the food for the valley between life and death,” as Dr. Scaer wrote.

Listen to how He puts it:

• And 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.”
• “[T]his is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”
• “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
• “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”
• “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”

To put it succinctly, to eat the Bread of Life is to believe in the One whom the Father sent, His Son, Jesus the Christ. To believe in Jesus is to have everlasting life. To have everlasting life is to be raised up from death on the last day. That is to say, “[M]an does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Furthermore, this belief in Jesus, having eternal life, being raised up from death and over death is a free gift from God: “[T]his is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day…No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” The Father gives all to Christ, and His will is that He should lose none of them. No one can come to Jesus and eat of the Bread of Life except that the Father give them to His Son. As St. Paul was inspired to tell St. Timothy, “…God our Savior…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

And what does the Son do? Listen to Him again:

“The bread that I will give is my flesh,” Jesus says. Again, this sounds very much like the Lord’s Supper, and it is well and good that you should hear that, for His Supper is very much connected to what He is saying, and that is, “I will give my flesh for the life of the world.”

However, as much as the gift of faith, forgiveness, life, and salvation are free to you, they did come with a price: the Bread of Life came to offer His flesh—His body—for the life of the world. When He said that, Jesus was pointing forward to the cross where He would take the place of every Old Testament sacrifice for the sin of the world. “Now all those sacrificial animals, the goats, the cattle, the sheep, and the turtle doves, were pushed to the side so that He could stand in the place of every man, woman, and child who ever lived,” Dr. Scaer wrote. God’s grace to you is free to you—the forgiveness He lavishes upon you comes without cost to you, without any merit on your part, all undeserved—but it cost Jesus His life. He gives His flesh for you on the tree of the cross in order that by God-given faith in Him you would have forgiveness, life, and salvation—being raised up at the last day.

What more can I say about bread? Well, there are diet plans and programs which seek to remove bread from what you eat. Now, I’m not going to debate the benefits or consequences of not eating bread, but it suffices to say that just as there exists this plan which gradually removes bread from the cupboard and diet until it is no longer consumed, there are those who approach the Bread of Life with such nonchalance. The Bread of Life is so often left out of one’s diet when life gets hectic and stressful. And in these days of ever growing complaints of being so busy, who doesn’t have hectic and stressful lives?

And it’s an easy diet to justify, as it is perceived that the diet consists of only 1 hour of the Bread of Life a week. “It won’t hurt if I miss this one hour this time,” the excuse goes. Oh, the intent might be good to get back to it next week, but as I have often said, the habit of forsaking the assembly of saints (cf. Hebrews 10:25) quickly and easily grows from the first miss to the second, each time being easier than the previous. Before you know it, you hardly miss the assembly, you hardly miss the Bread of Life, because of the blindness and ignorance of and your being bound to sin.

And if one can easily justify the forsaking of the assembly for a mere hour a week, especially because there is no time for it, then it stands to reason that the personal and familial devotion time as well as group Bible Study time in addition to that mere hour would also be a casualty of the diet against the Bread of Life. It is sad and depressing how poorly these treat and with such low regard these regard the Word of God, that they can so easily push it and Him aside who took their place under the full wrath of God. Such is the nature of sin, so this is not just an issue the nebulous “them” have.

Oh, but it gets worse. Again, I do not mean to debate or criticize the proclamations of modern nutritional science, but it has been said that bread is of little or no nutritional value. Man can survive on a diet of no bread, they say, and this is proven true by the fact that so many survive from one bread-less meal to another. What I do mean to get at is that just as there are those who say, right or wrong, that bread is an evil or non-nutritional food, so are there those who say so of the Bread of Life. This is most evident in the court of public opinion where the teachings of Scripture find themselves at odds with popular social issues, such as creation vs. evolution, abortion, euthanasia, cohabitation, and “homosexual marriage.” “Those are ancient ideals,” these opponents proclaim, “they don’t apply to our modern society. We have evolved past them.” These hear the good news of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, and reject it, just as there are those who reject bread as a staple food. Such is the nature of the heart hardened by sin.

God’s will is that Jesus should lose none that He gave Him, but He does not force salvation on man. If man in His sinful will turns against God, it grieves Him, to be sure, but so be it. Forgiveness is still there for them; Christ died for them as much as for those who believe in Him—He is the Savior of all men, and especially of them that believe. (cf. 1 Timothy 4:10) So, why are some saved and others not? Because those who are not have rejected the Bread of Life. One is saved by grace, but damned by refusal of grace. Such is the nature of foolish sinfulness.

But it is precisely for these sins that Jesus the Bread of Life took your place before the wrath of God. He suffered and died on the cross for these sins, and all sins, so that you would not have to. Now, the Father draws you to Him who is the resurrected Bread of Life, even as He is the Resurrection and the Life. (cf. John 11:25) This is how God’s grace works for and to you. Listen to Jesus:

By these words you are taught that you cannot go to the Father. The One whom the Father sent brings the Father to men, and the Father draws men to Him. It sounds circular, but this is the will and work of God, and it is most gracious: Jesus brings the teachings of the Father from heaven to men; the Father uses these teachings to gather men to Jesus. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “All your children shall be taught by [YHWH].” (Isaiah 54:13a) This is why Jesus would later say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father...” (John 14:9b) “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29) It is all God’s work, and none of yours—God be praised!

Here you are gathered, dear listeners, not come of yourselves, but gathered by the Father. Were it completely up to you, you wouldn’t be here, but the Father of all mercies, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father who sends the Bread of Life has gathered you here. It is as you confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth…”

Yes, dear Baptized, the Father has sent the Spirit that you would be gathered into His most gracious presence. For it is here in His presence that the Bread of Life comes to you to give Himself to you. Jesus, the Bread of Life, has taken your place before the wrath of God, and given you faith that trusts in Him solely for forgiveness, life, and salvation, and which rejoices for His death on your behalf; He has given His flesh for the life the world—for the life of you. Here you are taught by God and brought to Christ, for you receive the Bread of Life in Word and Sacrament, and so you have life and salvation—you will be raised at the last day—because you are forgiven for all of your sins. Praise God from whom all blessings flow…to be continued.