Jesus: The Bread of Life and Eternal Sustenance

In declaring His identity to the people during His earthly ministry He used a very unusual structure to identify characteristics of His person that are recorded for us. These sayings are recorded for us in John's Gospel, and only in John's Gospel. And these sayings are called the "I am's" of Jesus, because He introduces these statements by the words I am—things like I am the bread of life; I am the light of the world; I am the good shepherd; I am the door, and so on. [00:54:47]

Now in this discussion that Jesus is having with His contemporaries, and they're discussing His identity, and they're asking for some sign that will prove to them the truth of the claims that He had been making about Himself. And they hearken back to the pages of the Old Testament where God manifested His presence with the children of Israel by providing for them food to eat supernaturally. It was the manna that God gave in the wilderness, and so they're saying God gave the people of old a sign. Now what sign are you going to give us to indicate your identity? [02:23:48]

And it's against the backdrop of that question that Jesus answers by saying, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said, well "'Lord, give us this bread always.' And Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. And he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.'" [03:10:49]

Now the thing that we notice that is extraordinary, not only in this I am, but in all of the I am's that are recorded for us in the Gospel of John is the structure of Jesus' statement. Normally in the Greek when somebody wants to say I am, they use the word ego. We get the English word ego, which is our personality or our personal identity. And so that word simply means in Greek, I am. [03:52:49]

But the Greek language has another verb -- form of the verb, to be -- that also can be translated by the English I am. And that is the word eimi. Again, in the Greek, eimi means I am. Now what is strange about this particular statement of Jesus that He doesn't say ego the bread of life, I am the bread of life; nor does He say eimi the bread of life, I am the bread of life, but rather He puts these two verb forms together saying, "Ego, eimi the bread of life." [04:22:49]

So there's a thinly veiled reference back to the sacred name of God when Jesus refers to Himself with this language, ego, eimi. There's something else about the grammar in -- when this structure occurs -- if I were to say I am the bread of life, I am would be the subject or I would be the subject, and bread of life would be the predicate. But when this occurs in the Greek language, that's reversed. So that really, the literal translation then would be the bread of life is I. [06:12:49]

So in any case these statements in the Gospel of John have been used historically to call attention to Jesus' claims for deity, that He self-consciously uses language that is usually associated with divine pronouncements. And, of course, that was not missed by his contemporaries. They were aware of that, and that's what provoked such hostility on many occasions when He talked in this manner. [07:12:49]

And this is the point that is critical for our understanding of Jesus' self-consciousness, that Jesus doesn't say hey, I come from Bethlehem, or I come from Nazareth. Rather, He is saying I come from heaven. I am the one that the Father sent from heaven Himself. I am the true bread, the bread that gives life to all who partake of it. Again, the New Testament is very much concerned about the exaltation of Christ after His death and resurrection, and about His entering into His glory. [09:13:49]

And at the heart of that concept of the exaltation of Christ is His ascension into heaven. And the word ascension does not simply mean going up somewhere, although there are times when the verb to ascend means to go up simply. People ascended to Jerusalem; they went up to Jerusalem. But when the New Testament speaks about the ascension of Jesus, they're not talking simply about a point that's elevated to which Jesus goes. They're talking about His going to a particular place for a particular reason. [09:53:49]

So that His ascension is to go to the right hand of the Father where He then has His coronation as the King of the kings and as the Lord of the lords, and where He enters into the heavenly sanctuary as our great high priest. That's why Jesus can say, "No one ascends into heaven." Now when He says no one ascends into heaven, He's not saying that His people will not follow Him in the resurrection. In fact, we are all promised that sometime we will go up to heaven at the time of our death and so on. [10:26:49]

So when Jesus said no one ascends into heaven, He doesn't mean no one else will go there, He means that no one will ascend in this unique sense that He ascends to that place of cosmic authority. But when He talks about the uniqueness of His ascension what does He say? "No ascends into heaven, except He who has descended from heaven." So that in Jesus' understanding His ascension is linked to His prior descension. When He ascends into heaven, He's merely returning to the place from whence He came in the first place. [11:16:49]

And so here in this discourse, Jesus is calling attention to His heavenly origin, that the place from which He has come is heaven itself. So let's continue then with our examination of the text. When He says "The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world," they say, "Lord give us this bread." And He said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger. He who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet you do not believe. [12:02:49]