The Bread From Heaven

 "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." Jhn:6:51

When the Lord God led the people of Israel out from Egypt, the land of their bondage and enslavement, the people of Israel began their forty-year pilgrimage in the Wilderness leading toward their home in the Promised Land. At times, the way could be very difficult, and throughout their pilgrimage they became very much aware of their needs individually and collectively. The people especially became aware of great hunger, the need for food and sustenance.

Often, when the needs of the Children of Israel would not be immediately met, they would become angry and direct their anger toward the Prophet Moses and his brother Aaron whom the Lord had chosen to lead them. 

“In the Wilderness the whole Congregation of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron” Ex: 16:2

God Responds to Human Need

The hunger of the people of Israel, however, did not escape the Lord God’s notice and in spite of their complaining the Lord graciously responded by miraculously providing them food each day in a way and in the form that none had ever seen before.

As the Lord spoke to Moses “I am going to rain bread from Heaven” (Ex: 16:4a)

The Lord’s reason and ultimate goal is stated by God himself for giving this “bread from Heaven”? and resolving Israel’s hunger and need for sustenance.

 “that you will know that I am the Lord your God” (15c)

When the people of Israel found this “bread from Heaven” laying upon the ground they had never seen anything like it and they asked one another “what is it?” or Manna.

The people of Israel would be sustained on this “bread from Heaven”, this Manna, all through their trek to the land promised to them. God had met their needs and dealt with hunger which they had on their journey.

The hunger and need which Israel had is not theirs’s alone, but is the need of all humanity, each and all of us. We all need the “bread from Heaven”, the Manna, the “what is it?” which sustained Israel.

Bread From Heaven

Down through the ages it had become belief of the People of Israel that when the Messiah would appear that he would give them the very same Manna, the bread from Heaven, which their ancestors ate while in the Wilderness pilgrimage. It was this belief in the Manna giving Messiah which serves as the backdrop of Jesus’ discourse with the Jews after the feeding of the five-thousand which is found recorded by the Evangelist St. John in his Gospel account. John:6

In St. John’s account Jesus had fed a crowd of five-thousand hungry people which had come to hear him preach in a wilderness setting. This miracle of Jesus’ of the feeding of the five-thousand with only five loves and two fish caught the attention of the people and fueled their hopes that the Messiah had come, the one who would give them “the Bread from Heaven” the Wilderness Manna.

In Jesus, the Jews had found the one who could provide for their materiel needs, which met their hunger and provide sustenance. These Jews recognized, and knew, that they had needs, a hunger, and they saw in Jesus the means by which these needs could be acquired. They saw Jesus as a means to fulfill their hunger, but for them it was the hunger of the stomach for the Earthly.

The Jews then sought Jesus out but could not find in him in the area where he had fed them. They resolved to cross the Sea of Tiberias (Galilee) and return to Capernaum where they find him in the pulpit of a Synagogue.

“Therefore, when the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor his Disciples, they entered boats and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus.” Jhn: 6:24

 Upon their arrival, they found Jesus and were perplexed as how he had arrived there. Jesus ignores their question and address the motivation and the true reason that the crowd had sought him out.

“the true reason that you are looking for me is not because you saw the signs which I preformed, but because you have eaten the bread and had eaten you fill” (26)

 Jesus understood that this crowd of people only sought him for the immediate benefits which they could gain from him and relieve their hunger in the eating of the bread which Jesus had miraculously given them.

They were correct that Jesus could fulfill their hunger but they only saw their hunger and needs, which was expressed in the eating of bread, from and Earth-bound point of view, to be sustained here and now.

It was the hunger of the stomach or the temporal needs which are secondary to the spiritual hunger of the heart which they, and all humanity, have deep within. This universal which all humanity is born with is hunger of the heart is to know God and know that he is God.

The Jews who sought Jesus were just like their ancestors in the Wilderness, in that they could only see their immediate need of the hunger of the stomach, and they sought out an Earth-bound through solution and complained so bitterly against Moses and Aaron.

Hunger of the Heart

This hunger for bread, that is the sustaining of this life, overshadowed their true hunger for something eternal which they had not come to see. From their Earth-bound perspective they only sought Jesus to gain from and be in the control of him for their own Earthly hunger.

Jesus however directs them to see their greater hunger, and that, this hunger surpasses the hunger of the stomach, it is rather the hunger of heart.

“do not work for the bread that spoils, but for bread that endures to eternal life, which the Son Man will give you. For on him the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (27)

The crowd answers Jesus by asking what did they need to do to obtain bread which would be given to them in a perpetually.

“What work do we have to do?” (28)

Jesus directs them to elevate their view Heavenward to the eternal things of God which are found in his very self, the one on whom “the Father has placed his seal”.  Jesus is telling them that he is the answer to their true hunger of knowing the Great God. He, is what they are truly in need of to fulfill the hunger of the heart and in him is the sources of all that they will ever need and is not obtained through their own work or merited in any way.

Jesus is making it clear to them that he is the Messiah the one whom they have awaited and the Holy Scriptures has anticipated and through him we might know our God.

“the work of God is this: believe on the one whom the Father has sent” (29)

The crowd, in a reference to the feeding of their ancestors in receiving the Manna, “the Bread from Heaven” in the Wilderness, asked Jesus for a sign that he is the Messiah the one who they believed would give them “the Bread from Heaven”. They conditioned their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah upon what Jesus could do for them, seemingly having forgotten Jesus feeding them in the wilderness as the ancient Israelites did under Moses.

With their Earth-bound perspective they ask “what sign will you give” then, they remind Jesus of the “Bread from Heaven” which their ancestors ate in the Wilderness, their minds are still on their stomachs and not their hearts.

Jesus answers again pointing to the eternal and the hunger in all human hearts, tells them knowing even that they did grasp the whole reason for which God gave the “Bread from Heaven”, which was so that Israel would come to know that the Lord was God and not just to feed 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.” (32-33)

With their eyes still only upon the Earthly they asked Jesus to “always give us this bread” (34)

Jesus knowing that their focus is upon the hunger of the stomach to the point where they do not see that he is the answer to more than just their Earthly needs, but all the more he is answer to all their needs in this life here and now and on into eternity.

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. 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.” (35-40)

Grumble Like Their Ancestors

Upon hearing Jesus’ words, the crowed of Jews begin to grumble at Jesus just as their ancestors did the Wilderness against Moses seeing Jesus only from an Earthly view. Jesus knew that in spite of the witness of the Holy Scripture they could not see their true need to know their God and it is through him that God is made known.

Jesus is telling them that he is the “Bread from Heaven” which fulfills not only the hunger of the stomach, but the hunger of the Heart in coming to know their God, yet this escaped them. Jesus is telling them; “I am the Messiah who you have been waiting, but more than just giving you Manna which sustains your life only here and now, I am come so that you might know God and have eternal life.”

Their response again is an Earth-bound response.

“how can he say that he came down from Heaven?” (42b)

Jesus’ answer points the crowd to the will of the Father and the reason for which Jesus has come, which is, the very same reason that the Lord gave Israel Manna, so “you will know that I am the Lord your God”, that in sending him and calling us to his Holy Son, and that through and in Jesus we come to know who God is and have eternal life for Jesus is the true “Bread from Heaven”. When we come to see this truth and accept it as such and see Jesus for who he is then the hunger of the human heart is fulfilled.

 “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.” (43-46)

The Manna, “the Bread from Heaven” which was given Israel, and which the Jews believed the Messiah would give again, as miraculous as it was, still only gave life for the temporal, but Jesus the true “Bread from Heaven” gives life eternal all through the giving of himself to and for us.

“Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 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

Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (47-51)

The Jews could not take it take in Jesus’ words, that is, they could not “eat his flesh”, take in that the Great God had come in the flesh in the person of Jesus, so Earth-bound was their view, seeking only the fulfilling of the hunger of the stomach, that is the temporal. They could not see who Jesus is and therefor missed the revelation of the Great God, again recall the reason for the Lord giving Manna, the “Bread from Heaven”, was “you will know that I am the Lord your God” which is the true hunger of every human heart.

The Jews not being able to take in Jesus' words left him they were unable accept that their God was there before them.

"From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him"(66)

The Great God has come to us all in the person of Jesus, who is the true “Bread from Heaven”. When we come to see this, we come to know our God and have the hunger of the heart fulfilled, for God has sent the “Bread from Heaven” so “you will know that I am the Lord your God”.

Benediction: May we each and all, ever have the hunger of the heart fulfilled through Jesus the true Bread from Heaven and come to know our God, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

Rev. Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma