That You May Have LifeSample

Jesus: The Bread of Life

As John states in his Gospel, the purpose of his writing is that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing, we may have life in his name. In John 6, we encounter one aspect of this life: satisfaction. Jesus satisfies us so that we can rest from our striving. For anyone who is unfulfilled in life, empty, hungry for more, Jesus claims to hold the answer. Let’s explore this gift of satisfaction.

In John 6, Jesus is talking to a crowd of 5,000. He states that he is the bread of life and asks the people to believe in and eat of him. “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,” he says in verse 54. Now, this is one of Jesus’s most controversial and hard-to-understand statements. What does it mean to eat of Jesus, and why does it lead to satisfaction?

Simply put, to eat of Christ is to identify with him and become one with Him, just as food and drink become a part of us when ingested. To identify with Jesus is to accept his life, death, and resurrection as our own - to believe that his death paid in full the penalty for our sin and that his perfect righteousness has been credited to us.

In John 6:27, Jesus says, “Do not work for the food that perishes.” The pursuit of a “perfect family,” of public praise and admiration, of physical comfort - none of it will satisfy. But instead, as Jesus continues in verse 27, “Work for the food that endures to eternal life.” What is this work? Jesus lays it out in John 6:29: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Jesus calls us to believe that we are one with him and that his life, death, and resurrection on our behalf are enough. The work is to rest. The labor is to stop laboring and trust.

“Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst,” Jesus says in John 6:35. When we identify with Christ, when we eat of him, satisfaction fills the core emptiness that gapes inside each one of us. Like bread fills our ache for hunger, Christ fulfills all our longings. Assured that we are enough in him, we find ourselves freed from our striving.

I think about how often my life reflects a lack of this satisfaction in Christ. My most common pitfall is thinking… If I could just achieve recognition from others that the work I do is important, then I’d be enough. I just need a few thousand more streams of my music, a couple hundred more Instagram followers, and a few more testimonies of how my work has impacted someone.

What is it for you that falsely holds the promise of satisfaction? An ideal marriage? Your dream house? Belonging to a certain social group? Attaining a standard of physical beauty or career success?

What would change if we really believed we were already enough in Jesus? That whatever we are looking for - approval, acceptance, love - we already have in Christ before God? Because, in Christ, our sins have been removed, and His perfect life has been credited to us, we have nothing left to gain! All the devotion and love of the Father is already unconditionally ours!

There’s a verse in an old hymn by Henry Lyte that says,

“Soul, then know thy full salvation Rise o’er sin and fear and care

Joy to find in every station, Something still to do or bear.

Think what Spirit dwells within thee, Think what Father’s smiles are thine,

Think that Jesus died to win thee, Child of heaven, canst thou repine.”

“Repine” isn’t a word we use often today, but it means to feel discontent. I love how Henry Lyte, just like the John 6 passage, leads us to counter discontentment. He says, “Think what Father’s smiles are thine.” Do you ever think about God smiling on you? Because we are in Christ, God gazes upon us with an adoration so infinite and unconditional we couldn’t even begin to comprehend it! The more we grasp this reality… the more we stop looking for contentment in things that were never meant to deliver it and that have constantly left us unsatisfied… the more we rest in the Father’s smile, the more we find ourselves freed from striving and blessed with satisfaction.