Hungering for spiritual nourishment in Jesus.
by Mike Wallace
Walking in the front door of my home to the culinary smell of freshly baked bread is simply awesome! Fresh-baked whole wheat or honey and olive oil bread will melt into your pallet and win the blue ribbon at the county fair.
I quickly grab the bread knife and slice a huge, thick chunk right out of the middle of the warm bread. Then I squeeze the loaf back together and pretend nothing is missing from the middle. I smear butter on the slice and watch it soak into the bread. Then comes the honey, dripping and gooey, running over the sides as I take my first bite of the bread. Butter and honey run down my chin as I greedily devour the homemade bread and savor the aroma of fresh baking. What a wonderful treat to come home to every day!
Daily bread
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Have we ever thought of Jesus as that first warm slice of freshly baked bread, smothered in butter and honey? He identifies Himself as the Bread of Life (John 6:35). So when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are asking for more than food and income. We are really praying for Jesus to be in us, as He is our daily spiritual Bread of Life. With Jesus in us, we can think and act in accordance with God’s wishes throughout the day.
When Jesus says He is the Bread of Life, He reveals Himself as the great “I Am.” God told Moses His name — “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14) — and then promised to bring Israel to “a land flowing with milk and honey” (v. 17). What a wonderful physical meal God was preparing for Israel. Fresh bread with milk and honey!
But in John 6, Jesus demonstrates His spiritual meal of milk and honey. The chapter starts with the miracle feeding of bread to five thousand followers using five loaves of barley bread and two small fish. After lunch they gathered twelve baskets of leftover fragments. Jesus then spent the night walking across the Sea of Galilee to the town of Capernaum. In Capernaum, Jesus began to transition the people’s thinking from physical bread for nourishment to spiritual bread for everlasting life.
Spiritual hunger
Let’s listen in as Jesus teaches the multitudes His new way of thinking:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (John 6:26, 27).
The people are physically filled. However, Jesus tells them there is something much more important than physical food. They then ask Him for a sign of who He truly is so they will believe in Him: “Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’” (v. 31). The people are still thinking physically instead of spiritually.
Though Jesus showed them He is the Bread of Life, they still do not believe or understand who He is.
Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (vv. 32-35).
Jesus, the Bread of Life. Spiritual hunger fulfilled with the sweet aroma of fresh heavenly bread flowing with the milk and honey of the Lord.
Jesus concludes by giving people the hope of the gospel and true everlasting life: “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (v. 40).
Only in Jesus do we have life:
“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven — not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever” (vv. 57, 58).
Moses and manna
The crowd that had been fed by the five loaves and two fish the day before gathered at the synagogue in Capernaum, but they did not understand what Jesus was offering. More than Moses and physical manna, Jesus was offering the true spiritual Bread of Life: Himself. Those who continue to think and eat physically will die. Those who change and eat His spiritual bread will live forever.
How wonderful it is to come home to a house filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread. Even better is Jesus, our true Bread of Life, who satisfies our spiritual hunger with life forevermore.
