John 6:36-40 – Trust Christ to see us through

In verse 35, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life….” This is one of the seven “I am” sayings found in John’s Gospel. It is interesting that He should use bread to refer to Himself. It invites us to stay and reflect on the thought of He being the bread of life. Bread as we know is a staple and daily food in those days. It is a food that will satisfy man’s physical hunger. But we have never taken the time to think about the process for flour to become a loaf of bread. To have a loaf of bread, there must first be the harvesting of the full grown corns. Then the process of turning it into flour. Then the kneading of the flour to make it into a dough before subjecting the dough to the fiery furnace, before it can become a loaf of bread that will sustain life. Christ went through this process to become the bread to sustain our life. He was that grain of corn that fell to the ground and died. He was the grain that became a full grown corn and harvested, grounded to become flour and subjected to divine kneading, before being put into the fiery furnace of God’s wrath. He was truly wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He went through the full nine-yards of God’s holy wrath, the fiery furnace of God, to become our spiritual bread that will sustain us and grant us eternal life. We cannot dispense with this spiritual bread. Let us draw near to this bread and feed on Him. Let us receive the spiritual nourishment that only He can provide. And Let us ever press in to enjoy a deep and intimate fellowship with Him.   

Along with the claim, Jesus said that He is the bread that will truly satisfy our hunger and quench all our thirst. For that to happen, it requires the confidence and faith of coming to Him, and believing and resting on Him alone for our acceptance with God. Think of it this way, the problem is not Christ’s inability to satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst. It is a question of our confidence and faith in Him. Christ is never unwilling to meet our spiritual needs. The issue is: do we come to Him confidently to draw from Him. Remember: It is from Him that we receive grace upon grace. He is the source of grace to eternal life.         

In verse 36, Christ made a diagnosis of the condition of the people. He said, “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.” They had seen His miracle, ate His bread but yet refused to believe. That’s the condition of the depraved heart. Did Christ fail in His mission? Certainly not! The failure lies in the failure to recognize Him. It’s a failure to believe in Him. Note that Christ is confident of what He came to accomplish. So He boldly declared, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” Our Lord is confident that none of those who come and believe in Him will ever be rejected. He alone can sustain and preserve everyone who draws near to believe in Him. He came to fulfil the will of the Father, not His own. The will of the Father is that we might have eternal life, and Christ will help us to the very end. He will raise all believers who come to Him in the great day of the resurrection. Notice in verse 40, it shows our ability to believe in Him is conditioned on our beholding Him. No wonder Paul’s prayer in the letter to the Ephesians was for the mind of our eyes to be enlightened. It is to have the capacity to see the purpose of God and then to believe in Him. Let’s pray for spiritual perceptiveness so that we can see all that God has installed for us and to believe Him unconditionally.