Advent Season
(Anticipating the Birth of Jesus)
28 Names of Jesus | December 23, 2020
Name #21: “Bread of Life” (John 6:44 – 51)
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:44 – 51).
Who loves to eat? I do! Although, as I get older, I need to constantly remind myself that my metabolism is not what it once was and I cannot eat like I used to. That is, unless I want to suffer the consequences like gaining weight or feeling discomfort. While those days of eating like a teenager are behind me, I still have a need to eat on a regular basis, and I still enjoy it.
In John 6, Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life, but what does that mean? Fortunately, Jesus knows what His audience was thinking, so He explained it by contrasting it with what their ancestors ate while wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. In case you are unfamiliar with manna, it was a sweet bread-like substance that would appear as dew on the ground 6 days a week. The people of Israel were to gather just enough for the day, except on the day before the Sabbath, when they were supposed to take twice as much so they could rest. Those who took more than they were supposed to woke up the next morning with rotten food and those who did not pick up twice as much when they were supposed to had nothing to eat the next day. While we do not know what manna was made of, we do know that it supplied the Israelites with all of the nutrition they needed to survive in the desert.
Now, going back to Jesus calling Himself the Bread of Life — He was telling the people that even though manna was an amazing food from heaven, it still does not compare with Jesus. Jesus further explains that He will die and His death will be for all of mankind. You see, they had to eat manna every day in order to survive, but with Jesus, if you believe in Him, you will live forever! That is a concept that we can find so difficult to understand at times. We are used to eating every day and live in a world where we can never have enough, whether it be food, money, clothes, or any sort of material possessions. Jesus is all we need. We do not need anything else to get to heaven. He is it. He is the Bread of Life.
Christmas is coming up and we have plenty of reasons to celebrate! Christmas is when we remember that Jesus left heaven to be born of a virgin in a stable among animals. Why would He downgrade and leave behind all of the goodness that heaven has to offer? Because He loves us and cares for us more than Himself and His own comfort. He knew that nothing from Earth could provide for the needs of mankind, and so He left heaven to endure pain and suffering so that we, through faith in Him, would be able to spend all of eternity with Him. Who can you tell this week about this amazing story?
Pastor David Guenin