THE BREAD OF LIFE

You have fed me from the banquet of Your love

With bread everlasting…….

 

With the exception of the Atonement, there is no sadder time of Jesus’ mortal life than the time He declared Himself to be The Bread of Life. Up to that moment, the Saviour’s popularity amongst the common people was immense and people thronged Him everywhere He went (Matthew 8:1,15:30; Mark 3:8,7:24,8:1; Luke 6:17,12:1) but finding this doctrine too hard to ‘bear’, many of His disciples ‘walked no more with him’ (John 6:66). From the time of this sermon, He was headed for the cross.

 

The sermon of The Bread of Life came on the heels of five loaves and two fishes. By this extraordinary miracle the Saviour ignited the fire of the Messianic prophecy. Hungry for freedom from bondage and oppression suffered for over 700 years, the Jewish nation was ready for deliverance. Having been fed so miraculously, they knew just who would deliver them as they sat on Bethsaida’s hill feasting on the miracle of ‘manna from heaven’. He had to be the one to break the bands of bondage and if He refused to do so they would take Him by force to make Him king (John 6:14,15). They did not expect to be told to ‘eat’ His flesh and ‘drink’ His blood instead (John 6:32-35; 51-58), even if by metaphor. Instead of being miraculously fed from heaven continuously, which would guarantee a life of luxury and ease they expected, they presumed they would be saddled with more laws, forgetting so conveniently the familiar Jewish metaphor of eating for spiritual benefit, to which Christ really referred through His sermon.  And so even the baptised and most converted to the Saviour abandoned Him and thus began the rejection of the common people easily manipulated by the leadership to propel Him to the cross. 

 

Eating the body of Christ as the bread of life extends beyond the sacramental table. It means feasting upon the words of Christ for they will tell us all things what we should do to obtain eternal life (2 Nephi 32:3). We must not only eat but feast, feast with hunger and gladness and eagerness and joy. We must revel and delight in the body that was offered on the altar of sacrifice so that we will never be in bondage to the enemy of all righteousness and we will be able to say, like Peter of old: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life….” (John 6:67,68)…….to whom indeed???

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art by Eva Koleva Timothy)