14. 6
The Bread of Life Sermon
JOHN 6:27-59
Lasting Food—Food of the Age to Come Life
The Bread of Life Sermon
JOHN 6:27-59
Lasting Food—Food of the Age to Come Life
This sermon was spoken by Jesus while he was in Galilee by the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum.
THE TEXT – JOHN 6:27-34
“Stop working for perishable food, but for lasting food—the food of the age to come life, which the Son of Man will give you; because the Father, even God, has stamped His seal of approval on him.”
28“So what must we do to accomplish the activities that God requires?” they asked. 29“This is the activity that God requires,” replied Jesus: “to give allegiance to the one He has sent. 30So they said to him, “What sign will you perform, so that we may see it and believe you? What can you do? 31Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as it’s written in the Scriptures, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’” (Ps. 78:24). 32I can absolutely assure you,” Jesus responded. “Moses wasn’t the one who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the authentic bread from heaven. 33In fact, the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives the real life to the world.” 34“Master,” they said, “always give us this bread!”
COMMENTS
6:27 “Stop working for perishable food, but for lasting food—the food of the age to come life, which the Son of Man will give you; because the Father, even God, has stamped His seal of approval on him.”
Here Jesus is simply contrasting physical with spiritual food and does not mean that people should not work for their physical food. It is as in Luke 12:29 where he says “stop being overly focused on what you will eat and drink.” Furthermore, this statement in John 6:27 is of a similar contrast to that of his discussion with the woman at the Sychar well and so offering her life-imparting water (John 4:10). So, this lasting spiritual and life-giving food is what only the “Son of Man” can give because he was the one who was sealed as God’s authorized agent at his baptism.
NOTE: The phrase “the Father, even God” is a rendering which follows the syntax presented in the translations of the New Testament by J. B. Rotherham, James Moffatt, William Barclay, Kenneth Wuest, R. F. Weymouth, and J. N. Darby rather than the syntax presented in most versions which give: “God the Father.”
6:29 “This is the activity that God requires, to give allegiance to the one He has sent.”
Just as people must work for their physical daily food so too it takes some effort to work for the life-giving spiritual food and to develop one’s full allegiance to Jesus as “the Son of man”—the fully human Messiah. This work or activity would be that which is prescribed by Jesus himself in all that he sets out for Christians and which is all done in full faith and obedience to him.
6:32-33 “I can absolutely assure you, Moses wasn’t the one who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the authentic bread from heaven. 33In fact, the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives the real life to the world.”
On the day before when Jesus miraculously fed the crowds with physical bread (John 6:10-13) it marked him out as the second Moses just as God through Moses had fed Israel with the manna. However, here Jesus shows that he is, “the bread of God.”
Indeed, as also noted in verses 38, 42, 51, and 58 Jesus’ coming “down from heaven,” is in the same metaphorical way as the physical manna in the time of Moses. In this instance, there was no literal travelling of the bread from heaven and through earth’s atmosphere, but it miraculously appeared on the ground. At Exodus 16:4 Yahweh speaks figuratively that: “I will cause bread to rain down from heaven for you,” but what really happens is that: “When the dew had evaporated, there on the surface of the desert was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground” (Ex. 16:14 CJB). So, just as Jesus is not literal bread he also did not literally come down from heaven, but his “coming down from heaven” as bread means his being God’s provision for everlasting (permanent) life. This contrasts with the bread that came through Moses (John 6:32) the eating of which did not give the Israelites permanent life (verse 49). Here Jesus is also stating that he is now the only channel through which life may be gained and so he supersedes Moses.
Furthermore, as with John 3:13 it is the fully human Jesus (“my flesh”) who “comes down from heaven” and yet a flesh body did not literally descend from heaven because Jesus came into existence only in Mary’s womb (Luke 1:35 and see Matt. 1:1, 18). So, Jesus explains in 6:51 that:
“I am the living bread having come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And indeed the bread which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
Jesus’ Flesh Is the Bread from Heaven
THE TEXT– JOHN 6:35-59
35“I am the bread of the real life,” Jesus replied. “Anyone who comes to me will never go hungry. Indeed, anyone who gives allegiance to me will never be thirsty! 36But I told you: You’ve seen all that I’ve said and done and still you don’t trust me! 37All those the Father gives me will come to me; I will never reject anyone who comes to me. 38Moreover, I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the One who sent me. 39Indeed, this is the will of the One who sent me, that I should not lose anyone that He has given me, but I will raise them up on the last day. 40In fact, this is my Father’s will, that everyone who focuses on the Son and is loyal to him may have life of the age to come; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
41Then the Jews began disagreeably murmuring about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42“Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son,” they said. “We know his father and mother. So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus replied. 44“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day. 45It’s been written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God’ (Isa. 54:13). Everyone who listens and learns from the Father comes to me—46not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God. This one has seen the Father. 47I can absolutely assure you that the person who trusts has life of the age to come. 48I am the bread of that life. 49Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but still died. 50I am the bread that came down from heaven, so that anyone may eat from it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven; anyone who eats this bread will live during the age to come. The bread which I will give for the life of the world is my own flesh.” 52Then the Jews started arguing with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53“I absolutely assure you,” Jesus said to them: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have the real life in yourselves. 54Everyone who continues feeding on my flesh and drinking my blood has the life of the age to come, and I will raise them up on the last day. 55My flesh is genuine food, and my blood is genuine drink. 56Anyone who keeps feeding on my flesh and drinking my blood remains in solidarity with me, and I remain in solidarity with them. 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I truly live because of the Father, so the one feeding on me will truly live because of me. 58I am the bread that came down from heaven, and not like the bread your ancestors ate, but still died. Everyone feeding on this bread will live during the age to come.” 59He said all this while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”
COMMENTS
6:35 “I am the bread of the real life,” Jesus replied. “Anyone who comes to me will never go hungry. Indeed, anyone who gives allegiance to me will never be thirsty!”
Certainly, Jesus is the God-appointed source of life of the age to come. To gain this life a person must come to Jesus and appropriate him to oneself by faith and in full trust in him and with full allegiance to him.
6:36-38 “But I told you: You’ve seen all that I’ve said and done and still you don’t trust me! 37All those the Father gives me will come to me; I will never reject anyone who comes to me. 38Moreover, I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the One who sent me.”
For all Jesus’ miraculous works many still did not believe in him; but for those who do believe, he undertakes to fully care for their spiritual well-being. So, whatever choices people make, even if their choice is to remain blind, this will not frustrate God’s plan of salvation. In fact, the “all” in verse 37 is singular denoting the sum-total of believers, but the “anyone” references each individual member to focus on the individual care that they will receive from Jesus.
Interestingly, similar statements of things that figuratively “come down from heaven” are: ‘“…test me please in this,’ says Yahweh of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour forth for you an overflowing blessing”’ (Mal. 3:10). However, no one would logically understand this to mean that God opens literal windows in heaven and literally pours blessings onto people from heaven. In fact:
“Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above. These gifts come down from the Father, the creator of the heavenly lights, in whose character there is no change at all” (Jas. 1:17 CEB).
Also, “the wisdom from above is first pure, then...” (Jas. 3:17). Furthermore, Jesus asks: “...was the baptism of John from heaven, or from humans?” (Luke 20:4 DLNT). The Common English Bible correctly interprets this as: “Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin?” So, of course, there were no baptisms literally in heaven that could come down to earth, but rather John’s commissioning to do a work of baptizing came from God. Indeed, all ‘descending’ language in the Gospel of John can be seen as expressed in Jewish figurative terms and so with reference to Jesus it means his commissioning by God for him to act as God’s agent.
Lastly, we see from his words in verse 38 that Jesus showed that his will is separate from God’s will although he harmonizes it with that of God and so showing his subordination to his Father.
6:39-40 “Indeed, this is the will of the One who sent me, that I should not lose anyone that He has given me, but I will raise them up on the last day. 40In fact, this is my Father’s will, that everyone who focuses on the Son and is loyal to him may have life of the age to come; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
This sending of Jesus is in the same sense that all others were sent by God, namely as commissioned by Him. Examples are: Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5-10), John the Baptist (John 1:6), and the disciples (John 20:21). Additionally, because the Apostle Paul noted that, “God sent forth His Son—having come from a woman…” (Gal. 4:4) there would be a contradiction if the sending forth of the Son was from a literal pre-existence. Indeed, the phrase, “having come from a woman” qualifies the thought that “God sent forth His Son.” Similarly, Romans 8:3; 1 John 4:9 and 14 all speak of God sending his son in the sense of commissioning him for the work he was to do. So, Rengstorf in The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says, “Linguistically there is no support for the thesis that in Galatians 4:4 the ex in exapostellien indicates that prior to the sending, the one sent was in the presence of the one who sent him” (Vol. 1, p. 406).
Additionally, Jesus was raised up and then sent as described in the book of Acts by the Apostle Peter saying, “God, having raised-up His Servant, sent Him forth to you first…” (Acts 3:26 DLNT). So, no pre-existing being was raised up in heaven and then sent down to earth. The sending or commissioning came after Jesus was raised up at birth just as Jeremiah was raised up at the time of his birth to become a prophet sent to God’s people.
Twice here Jesus emphasizes the ‘raising up’ of Christians and that this will be on the last day of this present age and so in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6). Again, it is loyalty to Jesus that is required as the Father’s will so that a person can be resurrected at that time.
6:41-42 “Then the Jews began disagreeably murmuring about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42“Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son,” they said. “We know his father and mother. So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Here the term “the Jews” refers to the Jewish congregation leaders in Capernaum and likely in the Synagogue by this time. Although these religious leaders called Jesus “Joseph’s Son” he is called “Mary’s son” in Mark 6:3. In that culture it was very unusual for any Jew to be noted as a mother’s son and indicates that Mark recognized that Jesus’ real Father was, in fact, God Himself (Luke 1:32, 35) and so to emphasize the virgin birth (Matt. 1:18, 23).
Just as the manna from heaven did not literally travel from God’s location, but miraculously appeared on the ground (Ex. 16:14), so too with Jesus who was “flesh” (vs. 51) and did not travel from God’s location but was miraculously fathered in Mary’s womb by God (Luke 1:35).
NOTE: For those who argue against the virgin birth please see Appendix C The Virginal Conception of Jesus in my book The True Origin of “the Son of God.”
6:43-44 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus replied. 44“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day.”
For the third time in this sermon Jesus emphasized the resurrection. However, this will be only for those who come to Jesus because the Father has drawn them to him. This is not by force but by persuasion—it is by the divine initiative commonly called God’s grace.
6:45-46 “It’s been written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God’ (Isa. 54:13). Everyone who listens and learns from the Father comes to me—46not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God. This one has seen the Father.”
It must be born in mind that sometimes the New Testament writers recontextualized their quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures. So here in John’s quoting from Isaiah 54:13 we see that the text has been reapplied to all who follow Messiah Jesus rather than the reference being to Israelites only.
Also, the verb ‘to see’ as used here and in John 8:38 is in the sense of ‘see with the mind’ i.e., to understand. On the surface, when taken in a quite literalistic way and without their context, these verses appear to teach that Jesus must, at a pre-birth time, have literally been with God and seeing Him. However, the first point to note is that this does not indicate the time and so could be referring to any time, including during his ministry but prior to his utterance of those statements. So, these texts are no proof of literal pre- existence. However, to understand what Jesus really meant we must first examine the context of 6:46 where the verse immediately before i.e., verse 45 quotes Isaiah 54:13. So, verse 45 says:
‘“…And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears from the Father and learns comes to me”
In Greek knowing and seeing are near synonyms according to Kittel and Friedrich’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. The Greek word used here is eoraken as in John 1:18 which links “seeing” God with understanding Him because of Jesus’ “explaining” of Him. Eoraken is from the verb horao and means: to perceive, spiritually perceive, or to become acquainted with by experience e.g.: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9 ESV) as meaning ‘He who has spiritually perceived me has spiritually perceived the Father.’ (Also see John 12:45.) Nevertheless, these verses cannot mean simply physically caught sight of Jesus, but rather it is those who get to know Jesus who will get to know or spiritually perceive the Father. For example, Job did not physically see God, yet after his experience he knew God in a far better, although limited, way than before. His conclusion was that: “I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You” (Job 42:5 CSB). Evidently, Job’s understanding was not of the same depth as was Jesus’ “seeing” of the Father. As John 1:18 notes Jesus explained the Father and so he said: “I speak the things that I have seen with the Father” (John 8:38).
So, it is really supposition on the part of those who believe in a Jesus who had literally pre-existed to think that he was referring to the physical “seeing” of the Father at some time prior to his coming into existence in Mary’s womb. During almost thirty years of life Jesus was “seeing” the Father and, in fact, he used the present tense when stating that:
“…the Son can do nothing from Himself except something He sees (Gk blepo) the Father doing. For whatever things that One is doing... (present participle)” (John 5:19 DLNT).
NOTE: Blepo is translated as “see” in most versions. Also The Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words informs us that blepo: “is near to horao in meaning”...and that...“it also represents intellectual functions.”
There is no logical reason to understand that John 6:46 concerns any pre-existent literal ‘seeing’ of the Father by Jesus. He sees or understands the Father while he is on earth, according to these passages. So, one should not jump to the conclusion that Jesus’ ‘seeing’ the Father means that Jesus literally pre-existed; otherwise, one would logically have to imagine that Isaiah pre-existed because he said “I saw the Lord sitting on a high and raised throne” as well as saying “for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!” (Isa. 6:1, 5 LEB). In this instance the “seeing” was by means of a vision and not by physically seeing Yahweh.
6:47 “I can absolutely assure you that the person who trusts has life of the age to come.”
This statement of “has life” is in the sense that the future life of the age to come is in prospect. This is shown in verse 40 where it is the Father’s will that believers, “may have life of the age to come.” However, the true Christian is now living life as if he/she is in that Kingdom now.
6:48-50 “I am the bread of that life. 49Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but still died. 50I am the bread that came down from heaven, so that anyone may eat [“chew” Gk trogein] from it and not die.”
Although the Israelites were physically sustained in the wilderness by the manna, Jesus contrasts their failure to be delivered from the power of death when eating the manna with his truly life-giving bread which is himself. With this bread Jesus gives spiritual life now and will give literal permanent life to his loyal and obedient followers at his return.
6:51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; anyone who eats this bread will live during the age to come. The bread which I will give for the life of the world is my own flesh.”
As noted earlier, Jesus is not an intangible spirit-being who literally descends from heaven, but one who simply originated with God inasmuch as he was fathered by God at his conception and birth (Luke 1:35). In emphasizing this fact Jesus in John 3:13 shows that he is “the Son of Man” i.e., a human which is the same as stated here when Jesus speaks of “my own flesh” which “comes down from heaven” and yet a flesh body did not literally descend from heaven. So, in using the term “my flesh” Jesus is using sacrificial language as a focus on his voluntary forthcoming death. In fact, John the Baptist had designated Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) This is a vicarious sacrifice because Jesus makes this sacrifice, “so that the world should be saved through him” (John 3:17).
6:52-55 “Then the Jews started arguing with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53“I absolutely assure you,” Jesus said to them: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have the real life in yourselves. 54Everyone who continues feeding on my flesh and drinking my blood has the life of the age to come, and I will raise them up on the last day. 55My flesh is genuine food, and my blood is genuine drink.”
The members of this Jewish synagogue were shocked at Jesus’ metaphor of eating “his flesh and blood” even though they realized he was speaking metaphorically. To them this was still an offensive way to speak in view of the prohibition on such things as eating blood (Lev. 17:10-14). Even so they still could not work out what Jesus really meant by this statement. In fact, the meaning of the metaphor was simply that for anyone who sought for the real life they must come to Jesus and appropriate him by faith and complete obedience.
Even more shocking to these Jews in the statement that his “flesh is genuine food, and my blood is genuine drink” was the implication that he was greater than Moses who was the agent for providing the manna. This meant that Jesus was uniquely associated with God and was able to give his disciples the life of the age to come by means of resurrection on the last day of this present age.
6:56 “Anyone who keeps feeding on my flesh and drinking my blood remains in solidarity with me, and I remain in solidarity with them.”
Jesus continues this metaphor to show his union with and solidarity with his true disciples who had appropriated him as a mutual indwelling. They were now a body incorporated in him as the head of the body. Certainly, to “keep feeding on [Jesus’] flesh and drinking [his] blood” requires not only faith but also their obedience. They would cherish his words as being their spiritual, life-giving food.
6:57 “Just as the living Father sent me, and I truly live because of the Father, so the one feeding on me will truly live because of me.”
Again, Jesus shows his subordination to the Father because he is dependent upon him. This is a clear case that Jesus is never co-equal with the Father. Even after his resurrection to derived immortality Jesus “lives because of God’s power” (2 Cor. 13:4).
This being “sent” i.e., God’s commissioning of Jesus so that Jesus indwells his body of disciples confirms his promise that these ones “will truly live” as well as receive the true life by means of resurrection to immortality. This is because Jesus now has the full authority to impart that life to his faithful and obedient followers.
6:58 “I am the bread that came down from heaven, and not like the bread your ancestors ate, but still died. Everyone feeding on this bread will live during the age to come.”
In giving this contrast with the manna which sustained Israelites only for a limited time, Jesus shows the permanence of the “bread” that he gives as the sacrificial “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
Although the Lord’s supper is not in view here there is added meaning given to it by all that Jesus says here.
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John 6:60 and 66 show that even the nominal disciples were shocked at Jesus’ metaphor of eating “his flesh and blood” even though they also realized he was speaking metaphorically and so many left off following him.
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Goodmorning, Walter and Debbie, what in Ray’s reasoning doesn’t seem right to you? What is your counter argument based on John 6?
