Following the feeding of the 5,000, the crowd was apparently sincere in asking Jesus what they needed to do in order to “do the works of God.” Here is their question:
“What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” (John 6:28).
To which Jesus responded:
“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent (John 6:29).
As usual, the Jewish crowd was looking for something “to do,” but Jesus turned the tables from something “to do” to something “to believe.” That’s exactly what they needed to do. And then the crowd tried to deflect Jesus’ response and asked Him about signs, which if you remember, is the general theme of the Gospel:
“What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat’” (John 6:30-31).
Looking for another sign from heaven (like the feeding of the 5,000) Jesus replied:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33).
Once again, Jesus connects Himself with His Father, telling them that the manna in the wilderness was physical bread to sustain their physical bodies, but there is another bread, a spiritual bread, that gives their bodies spiritual life. Furthermore, Jesus identified Himself as the “true bread” that came down from heaven, and this is the bread that gives “life” to the world.
At this point, the people asked to receive this bread, to which Jesus replied:
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
If we acknowledge Jesus as the One sent from the Father, and ask Him to give us LIFE, His life, then we would never hunger or thirst for any other kind of spiritual food or drink, as He would give us a constant supply of all that we need to sustain the life that He gives us.
Of course, the Jews listening to Jesus did nothing but grumble about Jesus because He said that He was the bread that came down out of heaven. And then Jesus got right to the point:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life, I am the bread of life” (John 6:47-48).
Notice three things in what Jesus said: 1) “believing” in who Jesus is has eternal life (that is, believing that He has come from the Father and is the Father’s Son); 2) the word “has” is in the present tense, in other words, eternal life becomes a possession of the one who possesses LIFE from Jesus, with the “eternal” aspect being an adjective describing the Life that will last for all eternity; and 3) Jesus is the bread of Life.
This is really the message of the gospel – That Jesus came to give us LIFE, His Life, and that this LIFE becomes the possession of the one who believes, and it is a LIFE that will last for eternity. And it’s all about faith, believing that Jesus is who He said He was, that is, the Son of God who came from the Father to give us LIFE. If you haven’t yet asked Him to give you LIFE, then it’s a matter of recognizing your need for a Savior and humbling yourself, letting Him know that you need salvation and desire the gift of LIFE. He will respond immediately.
Next week, we will look at the unexpected response of the crowd after Jesus called Himself the “Bread of Life.” Looking ahead just a bit, they simply “gave up” on Jesus. We’ll look at more details of their response next week.
