Names of Jesus | Advent DevotionalSample

Tuesday, December 17 John 6:22-51 | Bread of Life Author: David Bibee

The Bible is a book about God’s relationship with humanity, which means that the Bible is a book about food and feasting. From the very first chapter, we’re introduced to the concepts of family, food, agriculture, and harvests—fruitful trees, grains for bread, grapes, and wine, and fruitful families to share it all with. “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food” (Gen. 1:29).

“Feasting,” Peter Leithart has somewhere said, “is the effective sign of life.” When God “rested” on the first Sabbath, we would understand this much better if we thought of God throwing a coronation feast than if we imagined God taking a nap. God celebrated his completed work, and feasting is the image the Bible gives us as the culmination of human dominion and flourishing. God created humanity to be fruitful in marriage, to raise livestock and crops from the fertile ground, sow and reap and share what we have with one another, giving thanks to God, who supplied the rain. There are few things more satisfying than sitting down to a delicious meal, surrounded by the ones we love, grateful for our hard work and the blessings God has given us. Doing just that, day in and day out, would be a life well lived.

When evil reigns, feasting is difficult. Tyrants create scarcity and famines, robbing their people of the fruit of their own labor. Where the wicked reign, the wine and oil run out when God’s judgment falls (Deut. 28:39-40). But God redeems his people, calling them out of bondage, because God intends “to hold a feast” (Ex. 5:1, 10:9).

Bread has been a basic staple in every society, strengthening every nation for the hard work to conquering and taming the harsh wilderness of the early world. But “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). In many places, bread is used as a symbol for speech. Jesus warns the disciples to beware “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matt. 16:6). To eat bread leavened by them is to consume corruption, for they lived in disobedience to God.

However, in our passage, Jesus identifies himself as the true bread that God has sent from heaven: “I am the bread life.” To “eat” of Jesus is to eat the bread of immortality: “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” Comparing himself to the manna that God supplied to Israel in their wanderings after escaping from Egypt, Jesus speaks of himself as the true manna of God, bringing a far greater redemption. Jesus is the Eternal Word of God, the Word through which all things were created, which has taken on flesh. In order to “eat” Jesus, the bread of life, he tells them that they must believe: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”

Jesus came so we might feast again in peace with God and one another. By faith in Christ, we are made one with him and everyone else who calls upon the name of the Lord. Jesus has given himself freely for us, offering us all the abundance of his own inheritance and bidding us to come, eat, and drink at the table prepared for us.

This Advent, may you come to him who offers the bread of life. Come, all you who are hungry. Come, eat, have your fill. Join the feast of God’s kingdom, where love, joy, hope, and peace reign supreme. And may your feasts at home and that buttered bread remind you of the good news of your salvation. Christ Jesus, the bread of life, has come for you. Rejoice!