Eternal Food

The Point of the Gospel

The Bread of Life {John}

The crowd found Jesus across the lake and asked when he got there. They knew he hadn’t left on the boat. Jesus said, “You are looking for me because you were fed. Don’t work for food that doesn’t last, rather for food that lasts into eternal life. God the Father has sanctioned the Son of Man to give you this food.”

The people asked what God required of them. Jesus said, “Believe the one he sent to you.” They asked for a miraculous sign by which they might believe him. Jesus said, “Your forefathers ate the manna God gave them in the desert and still died. My Father now gives you the true bread from heaven—he who comes to give life to the world.

“Sir,” they said, “give us this bread.”

Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Come to me and never go hungry, believe in me and never go thirsty. Yet you see me and don’t believe. Any who do will not be driven away. I came to fulfill the Father’s will, which is to keep everyone he has given me and raise them on the last day. He wishes all who believe in the Son to have eternal life.

Personal Thought: this passage about raising his people on the last day is one of those that make me wonder if the dead don’t go to heaven until Judgment Day.

The Jews doubted, saying, “Isn’t he the son of Joseph and Mary? How can he have come down from heaven?”

“Quit complaining,” Jesus said. “Only those the Father leads to me will I raise on the last day. The Prophets said God would teach everyone. Those who learn his teachings come to me for everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Eat the bread from heaven and you won’t die but live forever. My flesh is this bread, which I give for the life of the world. Unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, life is not in you. Consume this real food and drink and remain in me as I will in you. I live because of the Father and you will live because of me.”