Episode 4: Jesus the Promised Bread (John 6:22-71)
Saturated with Old Testament Imagery, our passage today follows swift on the heels of Jesus’ extraordinary feeding of the 5000. There are some big verses here today, and some surprising reactions. As ever, we’re chewing over this portion of John’s gospel with a cup of tea and looking at what it looks like to truly apply this to every day life as Christian women.
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Go through the passage and underline repeated words and ideas - how does this help you to see what's at the heart of this dialogue?
How does the beginning of Isaiah 55 enhance your view of Jesus here? Are there any other passages that come to mind in the Old Testament?
What does it look like for you to feed on Jesus this week?
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This episode is sponsored by Crossway.
Crossway is a not-for-profit ministry, publishing gospel-centred, Bible-based content that honours our Saviour and serves his church. For information, click here.
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Felicity: We're enjoying crossway sponsorship of this season and enjoying lots of their
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from Crossway.
Sarah: Welcome to two Sisters and a cup of tea. My name is Sarah. I live in the UK. This is
my sister Felicity and she lives in the States. And today we're cracking on with John and
we're into the rest of chapter six, verses 22 to 71 and flisty. Today we're going to be seeing
that Jesus is the bread of life. But I wonder, he doesn't say he's the biscuit of life. And why
not? Let's discuss that first.
Felicity: Why not? Why are biscuits not in the Bible? Is that what you're asking? I think
there's something about bread that is like all sustaining. I'm not diminishing the value of the
biscuit, but the fact that it sustains me for maybe a five minutes after I've eaten it, rather
than whole day level of sustenance, unless there is a biscuit out there that could do that
job, I think bread is the better picture. I don't know. What do you think?
Sarah: I mean, it's the better picture because he's chosen it. So that is why it's the better
picture, isn't it? But also, as I say to my kids, well, I just did say to one of my children, I was
like, biscuit is a sometimes food and not an everyday food. And he was, no, no, it's an
everyday food. It's not, is it? So for Jesus to say he's sometimes and not an everyday
nourishment would be significant, I think, in a change theology.
Felicity: Yeah. And only good with a cup of tea. I mean, again, that's like conditional to this.
Sarah: Yeah, we think there's a rabbit hole here.
Felicity: Shall I read the actual passage and shall we get into the actual bread of life,
please? So we're John, chapter six, verses 22 through 271. The next day, the crowd that
had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there and
that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but they had gone away alone. Then some
boats from Tiberius landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the
Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were
there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found
him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus
answered, very truly, I tell you, you're looking for me not because you saw the signs I
performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that
spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you. For on
him, God the Father, has placed his seal of approval. Then they asked him, what must we
do? To do the works God requires. Jesus answered, the work of God is this to believe in the
one he has sent? So they asked him, what sign then will you give that we may see it and
believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manor in the wilderness. As it is
written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, very truly, I tell you, it
is not Moses who's given you the bread from heaven. It is my Father who gives you the true
bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and
gives life to the world. Sir, they said, always give us this bread. 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. But as I told you, you have seen me, and still you do not believe. All
those the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never drive
away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who
sent me. 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. 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.
At this, the Jews there began to grumble about him. Because he said, I am the bread that
came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose Father and
mother we know? How can he now say I came down from heaven? Stop grumbling among
yourselves. Jesus answered, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
them. And I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the prophets. They will all be
taught by God. Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No
one has seen the Father except the one who is from God. Only he has seen the Father. Very
truly, I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors
ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from
heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from
heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves. How can
this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is
real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains
in me. And I and them. Just as the living Father sent me. And I live because of the Father,
so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from
heaven. Your ancestors ate Manna and died. But whoever feeds on this bread will live
forever. He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of
disciples said, this is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Aware that his disciples were
grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, does this offend you? Then what? If you see the
Son of Man, ascend to where he was before. The Spirit gives life. The flesh counts for
nothing. The words I have spoken to you, they are full of spirit and life. Yet there are some
of you who do not believe. For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not
believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, this is why I told you that no one can
come to me unless the Father has enabled them. From this time, many of his disciples
turned back and no longer followed him. You do not want to leave too, do you? Jesus
asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy one of
God. Then Jesus replied, have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil. He
meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray
him.
Sarah: Wow. Thank you so much in there. I feel like this is one of those passages where
there are so many pithy sayings, aren't there? There are so many kind of nuggets of gold
that it's quite hard to know where to start. Felicity, where did you start in kind of getting
your head around what is being said here?
Felicity: I think it's really helpful that, as ever, that it comes after the thing before. And so
he's just fed 5000 plus thousands of people with bread and it's a miraculous sign that
we've just seen. And so I feel like these two very clearly go together. We've seen who Jesus
is through the sign and now we're understanding more of who he is in terms of being the
bread of life in this. It's a pretty lengthy dialogue, isn't it? An explanation of what's going on.
And the thing which really kind of helped me to get into the text to begin with was just really
the classic going for the repeated words and phrases and noticing that life just comes up
again and again and again. Life, eternal life, spirit and life, like everything is life.
Sarah: Yeah, I noticed that the life and the living and forever and the eternity kind of theme
alongside the believe. Believe coming to Jesus, believe looking to him, remaining in him,
feeding on him. So those kind of things going together. But I also noticed the trajectory of
people's response towards him. So we kind of had the desire for people to believe and his
request that people just believe and come to him. But also, I don't know whether you
noticed it as we were reading through but how people were responding. In this section
itself, we've got, in verse 41, people began to grumble. In verse 43, grumbling again in
verse 52. Where is it? They began to argue sharply among themselves. In verse 61 we've
got grumbling again. So we've got this kind of trajectory of grumbling, arguing. And then
verse 66, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him after all he's just
said. And then we've got this kind of contrast at the end between Peter who says, wow,
yes, you have the words of eternal life and then the kind of prediction of the betrayal of
Judas. I just think it's really striking that Jesus is talking a lot about believing in him and on
him and yet this kind of undercurrent of grumbling, arguing, deserting him is kind of flowing
alongside him.
Felicity: Yeah, I think that. And that's such a helpful thing to see and to see that the
response is not guaranteed in the sense of it seems so clear. As you were saying, believe in
Jesus. Come to the bread of life, and you will have life. That seems like a no brainer. But the
reality is that the response to the Gospel, to Jesus's declaration of himself, not everyone
will believe. And I think it's so reassuring then to have this little thread of God's sovereignty
kind of running through it when he says, where is it? He said, verse 37. 37. All those the
Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. There's
a kind of that God is definitely in control of this. This is not out of his control. I really
appreciate that in terms of, as I think about, oh, if I tell someone else about Jesus being the
bread of life, this is where life is. You feel like, oh, come on. Yeah, she got it.
Sarah: And it's so simple. They're saying, what do we need to do? And he's like, it's not
about doing all. The only work you do is to believe in the one he sent. It's so simple, isn't it,
what he's requesting of his followers to do, to believe in him? Let's zoom in on then what
he does say about himself. So he says, I am the bread of life. Flisty, where did that take
you? Talk to us about how you kind of delved into that kind of picture.
Felicity: I love with verse 35. That's where the declaration, isn't it? I am the bread of life.
And the next sentence is, whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes
in me will never be thirsty. And there's this idea of satisfaction, of kind of being abundantly
provided for. And isn't food and drink such a great way of showing that? Because we're
talking here about spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst. It's not that everyone who believes in
Jesus is going to know a feast every day, but what we have is a spiritual feast, and a feast
which will actually never run out. Like, you will never be dissatisfied by this, which I know
we talked last time about just dipping our toes into the Old Testament kind of lake. And this,
I think, brings to mind Isaiah 55, verses one to three, where.
Sarah: We should I just read it for us because I just think it's so good. So Isaiah 55, verse
one says this. Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no
money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why
spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me
and eat what is good. And you will delight in the richest of fair. Give ear and come to me.
Listen that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with ye, my faithful love
promised to David. And just that it's so obvious what Jesus is doing when you read
something like that, the way that Jesus is really, he's saying, come here, isn't of, you'll
never go hungry, you'll never thirst. He is the fulfillment of all that is being promised back
then. And he's saying, I'm it. And if you come to me, I love this phrase as well. Whoever
comes to me, I will never drive away. Isn't that just beautiful? And the whoever, like you
helpfully flissy pointed out earlier when we were talking about this before that, back in the
wilderness, in Exodus, the manor was just for Israel at that point. It was just for God's
people. But here it's whoever. The invitation is open wide to whoever. And it is just as much
for us today as it was back for the disciples who were listening there in the moment to
Jesus. And I just.
Felicity: Beautiful it is, isn't it? And I love that. It's not a kind of, you eat this bread and then
that's it. You're kind of on your own. The bread gets you in, into life, if you like. But actually
the bread is the means by which all your spiritual needs will be met forever. That is never
going to end. And that starts now, doesn't it? As we come to Jesus and believe in Jesus
and trust in him and abide in him and eat of his flesh and drink of his kind of the all
consuming nature, the all sustaining nature of what it is to come to him as the bread of life. I
think it's helpful just to kind of clarify the manna thing a bit. So back in Exodus, we do have
this Manna provision. God provides for the people in the desert. And the Jews here are
saying, well, yeah, but you're not Moses. He's saying. Jesus is saying, actually, it wasn't
Moses who provided the manner, it was God. And this is God providing a bigger, better,
longer lasting, eternally providing manner.
Sarah: It does seem extraordinary, doesn't it, that they're watching for a sign. Like they're
saying, come on, give us a sign. He's like, I've literally just fed thousands of people with
bread from heaven, and you're asking for a sign.
Felicity: What is going on?
Sarah: It's just so striking, isn't it? Okay, so let's take this just a bit further then, as we drive
it to our own hearts. In terms of us feeding on Jesus. What's that deuteronomy phrase that
we really enjoyed?
Felicity: This word is my life.
Sarah: Yeah, this word is your life. And no one lives by bread alone, but on the very words
of God. I mean, there's so many places you could go with just this. And I think, yeah, we've
not got much time, but where do we take this for us today in terms of what it looks like to
feed on Jesus as the bread of life?
Felicity: We have it in verse six, chapter six, verse 63. Here the spirit gives life. The flesh
counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you, they are full of the spirit and life. And
so Jesus is saying, I am the bread of life. These words that I am speaking to you, these give
you life. So the means by which we have life is his word, and really persuades me that I
want to be feeding on his word, and not just selectively. I think the bread imagery is just so
all sustaining, and so it makes me think this word is enough for every need I have, every
spiritual need I have is met in here. And the challenge to me this week, one of the
challenges has been where am I tempted to look as a means of filling my needs in another
way? What other kind of promises am I believing that are false promises, actually, in
comparison to this? And that's true for me. And I'm thinking about my unbelieving friends,
and where are they looking to basically avoid death or kind of deal with the death problem?
Yeah, I think that's been one of the challenges for me. What about you? How has it kind of
pushed into your heart and your life this week?
Sarah: I think taking that and kind of flipping it and thinking through, well, what in my life is
dulling my appetite for this bread? What feels more appealing than sitting and feasting on
the very words of God? And I think Kristen was really helpful on this, on just kind of calling
out some of the distractions and some of the kind of deceptions of our culture and of my
own heart in thinking that there is something more glowy and twinkly than feeding on the
very words of life that are spirit and life. And just having that exposed in my heart, that's a
really challenging thing. But it's a good thing because it helps me to see, well, what am I
looking for? Life. Where am I going for life if it's not these words? And if it's not to Christ
himself who promises, as we were saying last week, this is the most attractive thing that he
gives us everything he's never going to drive me away. I'm never going to go hungry. I'm
never going to thirst. He's going to give me all that I need and I don't need to work for it. I
don't need to strive for it. It is here for the taking as I continue to believe on him each and
every day. And just to kind of be able to rest in that and then to be able to really enjoy, even
if my portion today is small, even if it's not as much as I want it to be. Any words that I can
feast, any words that I can kind of consume from this bread of life, then that's a gift from
the Lord, isn't it? We live an extraordinarily privileged age where I can hold the word of life
in my hand. I'm not dependent on anyone else communicating it to me. I can read it in my
own language and I can feast on it. And I just think I need to keep remembering the
privilege of that and enjoying. Enjoying the bread of life. Yeah.
Felicity: And I think that's a really good starting point for it, isn't it? The enjoyment of that,
the privilege of that which would then prompt us to then prioritize it and to hold it out then
as the words of life to others.
Sarah: Yeah.
Felicity: Shall I pray as we think about that? Father, we praise you so much for the words
of life we have here. Thank you. That Jesus is the bread of life and that he calls us to come
and feast. We praise you that in that we have unendingly satisfying eternity. Life is here.
Pray that you persuade us of that more and more. Thrill us with that, delight us in that. Help
us to enjoy that, that we might love to feast on your word. And we pray this in your name.
Amen.
Sarah: Amen. It's good to be feasting on it, isn't it? Does feel very short, like, we have
tackled quite a big chunk of scripture there and there's so much in there, and I just want to
go back and really pull out all the kind of the really big verses and just kind of dwell a bit
more on those.
Felicity: I know even as I was reading it out loud, I was like, wow, this is a lot.
Sarah: I wonder, for those listening, whether there's someone who comes to mind right
now who you think needs to be reminded this week that Jesus is their bread of life and that
when they come to him, he will never drive them away. I wonder who comes to mind that
you could remind them of that precious truth today. And we are praying for you to that end.
We've really enjoyed getting into chapter six. Next week, next Friday, we'll be in chapter
seven. And we look forward to seeing you again then.
Felicity: See you then. Bye bye. This season is sponsored by Crossway
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