After the miracles of healing, after the miracle of feeding the multitude, after the miracle of walking on the water, Jesus was again surrounded by a crowd hungry for him. For the conversation he had with them, see John 6:24-34. That conversation is summed in this simple, direct statement by Jesus; the truth his entire age…and ours…hungers and thirsts for.
“Jesus replied, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”
Think of the three words…bread, hunger, thirst.
Bread…see the head of the house who at the beginning of a meal takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and gives it to those at the table. Think of the Last Supper at which bread was given as nourishment for both body and soul…bread as a response to a hunger for more than calories. At the first point of his ministry, while desperately hungry of body under the temptation to let hunger rule him, Jesus rebuked the tempter…’Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Jesus knows God as the only one who can satisfy our deeper hunger…and so he taught his disciples to say, ‘give us this day our daily bread,’ recognizing our constant dependence on God for everything we need to sustain us.
Hunger…Man, indeed, cannot live by bread alone. We hunger on a more fundamental level for those things essential to live as God meant life to be. The existentially hungry, seeing their lack, are those who turn to God on the basis of his promise and are satisfied in Jesus. Jesus here recognizes that when all has been tasted, only that which leads to God satisfies. I testify to this from my own experience. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are not beggars, but are those who find that which satisfies.
God knows we’ve looked elsewhere to satisfy our hunger…to every category of possession…to religiosity (as though religious activity can substitute for a heart fully given to Jesus)…to idols of our own making…another person…a political movement…a philosophy. But Jesus is final and unambiguous. HE IS THE BREAD. Only he can fully satisfy our hunger and thirst for life as God meant us to live.
Thirsty…To crave that without which one will die. No further explanation is necessary.
“I am the bread of life…” And as they heard him they must hear the echo of Exodus 3:14 as Moses stood transfixed before the burning bush, surrounded by the voice of God, given a mission that would demand his life, realizing he didn’t know the one talking to him, asking for his name. “Who are you? Who shall I say sends me?” God’s response? “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you.” Here, as with each successive ‘I am’ in the Gospel of John, we see God further revealing and defining his nature. He is bread for our hunger and water for our thirst.
The crowd surrounding Jesus stands at one with us. Their regard for him did not rest in who he was, but upon what he could do for them. They had faith, but it was faith in the gift and not in the giver.
The whole narrative adds an essential element to our understanding of Jesus as the bread of life. Jesus, as the object of our faith, is not only the one who fulfills our deepest needs and hopes; he surprises us by opening the eyes of our spirits so that we can see what those needs and hopes are. In him we reach deeper, stronger, better, for he is the Lord, not we. We may believe our need to be one thing, then he sees deeper and holds before us, not what we want, but what God wants from us and for us.
Blessed are those who taste and follow. Or, as David said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him…the lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”
Prayer: “Father of feasts and joy, when I think of this good life you have given me, I am humbled and grateful. Your generosity knows no bounds. You take joy in giving to your children. I admire your generosity and hope that it will be reproduced in me. I will follow you all the days of my life; not for all the gifts you give, but for your sheer goodness. Burn the unworthiness out of me that I may fully delight in your presence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”