Bread of Life

The phrase “I Am” combined with a great metaphor is used seven times within scripture and they tell a bigger story about who Christ is. In John 6:35, Jesus says “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to met shall never hunger; and he that believed on me shall never thirst.” From reading scripture, we know that Christ does not sugarcoat anything but He also does not use hyperboles. He does not exaggerate His identity or hide His deity and this is a very bold statement.

Because Christ was so honest while on Earth and because He did not downplay His identity, many hated Him for it. They could not stand that He would claim to be God and would display the God in Him wherever He went. Peter did not like when Christ was boldly honest nor did the religious rulers of the day like when He set out to destroy their control and grasp on the masses. Christ uses the phrase “bread of life” to indicate that He is a necessity in life. So many simply use bread as a way of generally speaking of food and here Christ, by comparing Himself to bread, states that we cannot live without Him.

Bread is a staple food and most everyone eats it. It’s one of the most essential foods that we have on Earth which is a perfect analogy as we cannot live without Christ. Literally, if we deny Christ and reject His deity, our eternal resting place will not be a desirable one. In the Israelite’s journey through the dessert, we are told Christ rained down bread from Heaven: “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not” (Exodus 16:4).

We see this also with the young boy who brings to Christ two fish and five loaves of bread. Christ accuses the crowd of ignoring the miraculous signs that were right in front of them and explains to them: “Labour not for the meat which perishet, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,; which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed “(John 6:17). What we see here is very similar to today where people are so focused on one thing they forget about the Savior who is right there. This happened in Christ’s time as they were focused on food and missed out that Christ was there and today, we are focused on so many issues and events that we do realize that Christ is right there in front of us.

When Christ said that He is the bread of life, He was not referring to the physical state but the spiritual aspect of our lives. Yes, we do need Christ everyday of our lives as we cannot walk or talk or eat without Him and as true as this is, He Christ is referring to a person’s spiritual life and their eternal soul. Christ is saying that He is the essential part of our lives, like food, and with Him, we shall never go hungry or be thirsty and it’s because of the bread (Christ) that we are able to receive eternal salvation: Furthermore, we know that the desire for eternal life is put our hearts by Christ but we cannot earn our way into Heaven: “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).