John 6:35-40. ‘Bread’ – God’s or Ours?
Jesus had just fed five thousand with five loaves and two fish and the following day he is speaking in the Capernaum synagogue and says,
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35
Why does Jesus identify himself as bread?
1. Bread is an essential constituent of life.
In Jesus’ time many ordinary people in Israel could spend three quarters of their income on food. Starvation was often used as a weapon then to force people into surrender, just as Russia has used it to compel people into subjection today. In 1932-33 Stalin ordered his troops to raid villages in Ukraine, the ‘bread-basket of Russia’, and remove their food supplies. By the end of 1933 nearly 25 per cent of the Ukrainian people had starved to death, including 3 million children. Stalin’s largely unknown genocide, repeated in Kazakstan, has only recently been publicised. Without bread people cannot live.
What did Jesus mean when he taught his disciples to pray,
“Give us today our daily bread’ Matthew 6:11
Was he just talking about our physical needs? This phrase is placed in the context of our spiritual lives. Just before this comes the prayer about establishing God’s kingdom on earth,
“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
In the next phrase, the emphasis is also on spiritual issues,
“Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12
Could Jesus’ reference to ‘daily bread’ be talking about our need for a fresh daily relationship with him and not just basic physical food?
This reliance on Jesus and his death as a substitute for our sins was also the focus at the Last Supper when Jesus introduced the communion service.
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.” Matthew 26:26
When Jesus says, ‘I am the bread of life’, he is surely saying that we must live lives that centre on him if we are to be given eternal life. Those who live in Christ will also be deeply satisfied whatever this life throws at us.
2. Ask most people today if they have enough ‘bread’ and they will think you are referring to money.
This association has been present since the 1930s. Similarly the word ‘dough’, the precursor of bread, has been linked to money since the mid 1800s. Money is what many have as their goal in life even though it does not satisfy and love of it is repeatedly warned against in Scripture. Potential church leaders must be screened,
“ . . . not a lover of money . . “ 1 Timothy 3:3
“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” I Timothy 6:10
When people reject the rule of God, their symptoms will be clear,
“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful . . .” 2 Timothy 3:2
The sense of satisfaction comes only from a trust and reliance in a heavenly Father.
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
It is too easy today to make our goal ‘home-made bread’, and try to achieve our own ambitions even though these can never fully satisfy.
In 1967 George Harrison, of the Beatles, was tiring of ‘Beatlemania’ when his wife saw an advertisement placed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Spiritual Regeneration Movement. The Beatles had come to the conclusion that L.S.D. didn’t hold the answers they were looking for, so they went to a camp in Bangor run by Maharishi Yogi and were impressed. The Beatles told him,
“Even from an early age we have been seeking a highly spiritual existence. We tried drugs and that didn’t work.”
Subsequently all the Beatles went to ‘study’ with Maharishi Yogi at his ashram in India. Others there at the time included their families, Mia Farrow and her sister, the folk singer Donovan, and Mike Love of the Beech Boys. They went with idealistic intentions and were due to stay ten weeks but they all left early with various degrees of disillusionment. Paul McCartney said,
“Basically it was just eating, sleeping and spiritual refreshment – with the occasional little lecture by the Maharishi.”
The ashram was far too rudimentary for Ringo Starr and his wife. They detested the spicy food and the flies.
The Beetles left separately, John Lennon leaving within ten days and Paul McCartney only staying one month. There were ugly rumours concerning Maharishi’s sexual misdemeanours and financial greed. This trip was the beginning of the Beatles group fracturing and each going their separate ways. They still had not found real answers to life. Paul McCartney said,
“There was a feeling of, ‘Its great to be famous, its great to be rich – but what is it all for?”
The Maharishi asked John Lennon why he was leaving so early. John replied,
‘If you’re so cosmic, you know why.”
After this visit the unsettled John Lennon wrote a song, originally entitled ‘Maharishi’, but subsequently calling him ‘Sexy Sadie’. It includes the lines,
“Sexy Sadie (or Maharishi), what have you done. You made a fool of everyone.”
The Beatles were clearly seeking the wrong sort of ‘bread’. Today the ashram is a decaying empty relic of the past.
3. People look for satisfaction in so many areas of life.
For some their bread is their status.
T.E.Lawrence, who was later to become famous for leading Bedouin tribes in a successful revolt against their Turkish oppressors during World War 1, was earlier a junior aircraftsman. He was a great friend of Thomas Hardy, the writer, and used often to ride his Brough Superior motorbike to \Hardy’s home in Dorchester. On one occasion this coincided with a visit from the Mayoress of Dorchester. She was a terrible snob and said to her hostess, in French,
“I’ve never sat down at tea with a private soldier before.”
T.E.Lawrence leant forwards and said in perfect French,
“Would you like me to act as interpreter, as Mrs Hardy does not speak French.”
Over time all other breads go stale.
4. Jesus is the bread of life
Jesus is saying that we cannot live without him – an extraordinary claim which John has described so clearly in chapters 5 and 6 of his gospel. John says that Jesus is the embodiment of God who came to satisfy us.
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness his first test was to do with bread.
“The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, go tell these stones to become bread.’” Matthew 4:3
This temptation was to do with Jesus’ physical hunger. However Jesus replies by quoting the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (8:3), saying that man’s real need is spiritual and that the remedy for this need is to be found in what God says in Scripture,
“Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’’” Matthew 4:4
Just as bread is essential for life, so Jesus is the only real answer to life. Jesus is the answer to Isaiah’s question,
“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy. Listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fair.” Isaiah 55:2
5. Salvation – Who is responsible?
A question often asked is, ‘If God is sovereign and has chosen his people, where does freewill and our responsibility come in. In the following passage we have reached, both divine sovereignty and human responsibility co-exist.
35 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. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 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. 40 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.” John 6:35-40
Here there are sentences about our human responsibility to chose the right path,
“Whoever comes to me . . . whoever believes in me.” John 6:35
“ . . . still you do not believe.” John 6:36
“ . . . whoever comes to me . . .” John 6:37b
“ . . . everyone who looks to the Son . . “ John 6:40
Interspersed between these lines about our responsibility come lines emphasising God’s sovereignty.
“ All those the Father gives me will come to me . .” John 6:37
“ . . that I shall lose none of all those he has given me . . .” John 6:39
Clearly Jesus understands that both are true. God is sovereign yet we have responsibilities for our own salvation. This is called an ‘antinomy’. An antinomy is where two seemingly irreconcilable truths are accepted side by side. We see these in physics where light can be proved to be both a wave and particles. Similarly quantum physics has revealed some seemingly irreconcilable facts. The whole Bible is clear that God controls everything yet at the same time man is responsible for the choices he makes.
The temptation is to reject one side or the other.
Some overemphasise human responsibility and consequently everything depends on us to secure converts for Christ. We develop techniques that will attract people to our churches and groups. It leads to certain styles of emotional evangelism. Results are everything so that even what is taught may alter accordingly. Promises of healing, wealth or happiness will abound as these are so attractive to many and draw the crowds.
Others overemphasise divine responsibility and as a consequence are often not very active in evangelism, even if they give lip service to it. William Carey (1761 – 1834) is known as the "father of modern missions." His essay, ‘An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens’, led to the founding of, first, the Baptist Missionary Society and then many others. However he faced much opposition. When he presented his ideas of establishing such a society to reach the world with the gospel, at a Baptist Ministers fraternal, the chairman reportedly said,
“Sit down, young man. When God is pleased to convert the heathen he will do it without your help or mine!”
The Chairman did have some things right. It is only God who saves people. God’s work will continue with or without our help; God is not dependent on us. However the Chairman had forgotten the clear Bible teaching that God’s way of saving people is to send out his servants to tell others the gospel. Christ’s clear command is that we should all be devoting our energies, time and resources to the task of making the gospel about him known to every possible person (such as taught in Matthew 28:19-20).
We must hold to both doctrines strongly for that is the Biblical position. The great Victorian Bible teacher C.H. Spurgeon was once asked, “How do you reconcile the concept of divine sovereignty with human responsibility?” He wisely replied,
“You don’t have to reconcile friends.”
Just as we don’t know how God created the universe or wrote the specific DNA of different species, so there are many things that are God’s secrets that he has neither revealed to us or enabled us to discover.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29
There are several other clear antinomies in Scripture.
At the last supper Jesus explained that his death was both pre-ordained but was also the responsibility of Judas Iscariot, there is both divine sovereignty and human responsibility.
“The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” Luke 22:22
Similarly in Peter’s first sermon at Pentecost he said about Jesus,
“This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead . . .” Acts 2:23-24
God planned that his Son should enter this world and die by crucifixion. Details of his birth, life and death by crucifixion were foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures: the Lord ordained all this for us.
However man is still responsible for the wrongs we do, just as Judas was.
Jesus often stressed this antinomy, that we are both chosen by God but still have to make the decision to come to Christ for ourselves.
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows the Son except the Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal himself.
Come to me, all you who are heavy weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me . . .” Matthew 11:27-29
This is why Jesus has given the Great Commission to all his people,
“Therefore, go, and make disciples of all nations . . . and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 29:19-20
It is Satan who doesn’t want us to comply with our Lord’s wishes. Jim Packer in his wonderful book, ‘Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God’ says,
“The sovereignty of God in grace does not affect anything we have said about the nature and duty of evangelism.”
We have to obey what God has revealed to us even if we cannot fully understand his secret will. God’s way of saving sinners is for them to be invited by God’s servants to come to him.
The book of Acts makes it clear that this is how the apostles understood Jesus’ command. At great cost to themselves they went out into the world to tell people all about Jesus. Jesus himself told a story about the heavenly banquet that will be populated because of the activity of his servants.
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. Matthew 22:1-10
The responsibility for proclaiming the good news about Jesus to others lies in our hands. Paul understood this responsibility very clearly,
“I have become all things to all men so that, by all possible means, I might save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:22
However the responsibility for their salvation ultimately lies in their own hands. Every person must take action, all must repent and turn back to God if we are to be saved. Jesus said,
“Unless you repent, you too will perish.’ Luke 13:5
We cannot know who will respond to our message about Jesus. The apostle Paul didn’t know either but his solution was simple,
“We proclaim him (Jesus), admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom . . .” Colossians 1:28
Christians pray individually and corporately because we believe in God’s sovereignty. We desperately need his Spirit to be at work if the people we talk to are to turn to Christ.
Why do we find it so hard to hold both these related doctrines together? Is it a reluctance to hold to Scripture or an elevation of human logic saying ‘If I cannot understand it I won’t accept it.”
We cannot fully understand how an infinite God became a sinless man, just as we cannot understand our creation from nothing, yet it doesn’t change the fact that both have clearly happened.
BVP
