The Bread of God Gives Life

A study of John 6:28-34

“Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, 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 from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.””

 John 6:28–34 (ESV)

Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:

-Works: “ἔργα”, “erga”; noun, accusative, plural, neuter | direct object of the dependent clause – an act, thing done, a good deed, noble action; the works required and approved by God.

-You Believe: “πιστεύητε”, “pisteuēte”; verb, present, active, subjunctive, second person, plural | finite verb – to have a faith directed unto, believing or in faith to give oneself up to, Jesus; a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah — the divinely appointed author of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God, conjoined with obedience to Christ.

-Has Sent: “ἀπέστειλεν”, “apesteilen”; verb, aorist, active, indicative, third person, singular | finite verb – send, send out, to order (one) to go to a place appointed.

-Sign: “σημεῖον”, “sēmeion”; noun, accusative, singular, neuter | predicatory accusative – a sign, miracle, i.e. an unusual occurrence, transcending the common course of nature; of miracles and wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which men prove that the cause they are pleading is God’s.

-Fathers (v.31) : “πατέρες”, “pateres”; noun, nominative, plural, masculine | subject – ancestors, the founders of a race or tribe, forefathers.

-Manna: “μάννα”, “manna”; noun, accusative, singular, neuter | direct object – manna = “what is it”, the food that nourished the Israelites for forty years in the wilderness.

-Moses: “Μωϋσῆς”, “Mōusēs”; noun, nominative, singular, masculine | proper name – Moses = “drawing out”, the legislator of the Jewish people and in a certain sense the founder of the Jewish religion. He wrote the first five books of the Bible, commonly referred to as the Books of Moses.

-Father (v.32): “πατήρ”, “patēr”; noun, nominative, singular, masculine | subject of the dependent clause – God is called the Father; the Father of Jesus Christ, as one whom God has united to himself in the closest bond of love and intimacy, made acquainted with his purposes, appointed to explain and carry out among men the plan of salvation, and made to share also in his own divine nature. Also, of Christians who have been born again as children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

-Who Comes Down: “καταβαίνων”, “katabainōn”; verb, present, active, participle, singular, nominative, masculine | substantival participle – come down, go down, descend; also of celestial beings coming down to earth.

-Life: “ζωὴν”, “zōēn”; life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last forever.

-The World: “τῷ κόσμῳ”, “tō kosmō”; noun, dative, singular, masculine | indirect object of the dependent clause – the inhabitants of the world, the human race.

-Sir: “Κύριε”, “Kyrie”; noun, vocative, singular, masculine | vocative – Lord, master, sir; he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has the power of deciding.

-Give: “δὸς”, “dos”; verb, aorist, active, imperative, second person, singular | finite verb – give, grant, supply furnish.

-Always: “πάντοτε”, “pantote”; adverb | temporal adverb – at all times, always.

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

In this passage, a crowd of people asked Jesus what they needed to do in order to do the works of God. Jesus responded by telling them the work of God is to believe in the One He has sent. The people then asked for a miraculous sign to prove God had sent Him, similar to the way God provided manna in the wilderness for their ancestors centuries earlier (They were comparing Jesus’ miracle of feeding thousands of people once, to the manna which fed millions of people for 40 years). Jesus then tells them it is God the Father who provides the “true bread from heaven,” and in so doing He corrected their incorrect idea that Moses somehow provided the manna. He then went on to say that the Bread of God is He “who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” After they heard this, the people said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Implication (what does this mean to us):

This passage takes place the day after Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 men, plus thousands more women and children with only 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Also, unbeknownst to the crowd, it takes place after the previous night when Jesus walked to His disciples on the water of the Sea of Galilee after they had struggled for hours in a very strong wind, making little progress. Jesus came to them on the water, and even though they were miles from shore, once He got in the boat with them, they immediately arrived at the shore to which they were traveling. The next day, when the people realized Jesus had somehow crossed the Sea of Galilee with His disciples, they traveled to Capernaum where they found Him and asked Him how and when He got there. Instead of answering their question, Jesus told them why they came looking for Him. After they had eaten their fill of the loaves the previous day, they came looking for Him because they wanted Him to be a Messiah that gave them physical bread everyday and overthrew the Romans. They were thinking in only temporary material terms, not eternal spiritual terms. For this reason, in the verse previous to these Jesus tells the people not to work for food that perishes, but instead to work for the food that endures to eternal life, which is only available from Him, the Messianic Son of Man.

In addition to telling them not to work for food that perishes, Jesus also stresses the fact that God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him, and in response the people ask, in verse 28, “What must we be doing to do the works of God?”. The people seemed to understand Jesus is talking about eternal life at this point, but they thought it is something they can get from God by doing something. And they also thought Jesus was talking about the type of work they needed to do to get what they wanted. So they essentially asked, “Ok, so what do we need to do then to get what we want from God?”. They thought they could meet any challenge God put before them, even the challenge of obtaining eternal life. They did not understand that eternal life is a gift to be received from Jesus alone. We don’t deserve it, and we can’t earn it.

In this case Jesus directly answered their question, although it was probably not what they expected. We are not required to do anything except to “…believe in Him (Jesus, God the Son) who He (God the Father) has sent.” So, the work of God, in other words, what God requires of us, is faith. Jesus does not only want our obedience. He does want that because He knows what is best for us and He loves us. But even more than that, because He loves us, He wants us to love and trust Him. He wants to have a close, personal relationship with us built on trust and love. And He wants us to believe in Him who was sent.

John continually presents the theme of “sentness” in this gospel. From the first verses in chapter 1, He begins by writing of the coming of the eternally existent, incarnate Word that is Jesus, the God of the universe. And in chapter 3 John writes of Jesus telling Nicodemus that He was sent into the world to save the world, and that people must believe in Him to be saved. So, the work of God which we must all do to be saved is hardly work at all. It is simply to believe in Him who He has sent. It is to have faith in Jesus Christ and the power of His redemptive work accomplished at the cross and the empty tomb to save us.

Obedience is important but it does not save us. After coming to faith in Jesus we grow daily in obedience to Him, by the power of His Spirit in us, because we love Him and have submitted to Him as our Lord God and Savior. This process is called “sanctification.” But salvation happens in an instant and obedience saves no one. Obedience (though imperfect in this world: see 1 John chapter 1) is the result of having been saved. We are only required to believe in Him to be saved, and obedience out of love and reverence follows that belief. The theologian and preacher Alexander Maclaren summed this up well when he said, “The priest says, ‘Rites and ceremonies.’ The thinker says, ‘Culture, education.’ The moralist says, ‘Do this, that, and the other thing,’ and enumerates a whole series of separate acts. Jesus Christ says, ‘One thing is needful…This is the work of God.’”

In response to these words from Jesus, the crowd asked, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?”. By this they meant, “What miracle will you perform to prove God really sent you?”. At this point, the crowd would have included more than just those who were fed miraculously the previous day. In verse 59 of this chapter we find out this discourse took place in the synagogue in Capernaum; and John 6:41 and Matthew 15:1 also make it clear that Jewish leaders were also present to hear this teaching from Jesus. So, as they asked Jesus this, some in the crowd wanted to see more miracles like they witnessed the previous day, and those who missed it wanted to see it for themselves. However, Matthew 14:34-36 tells us that after the boat landed, and prior to coming to the synagogue to teach, Jesus healed many sick people who were brought to Him from the town of Capernaum. From this it is clear that these people had all already either experienced/witnessed miraculous signs for themselves or had the opportunity to speak to thousands of other people who had. So, why are they asking for more?

The second part of their statement, in verse 31, helps to answer this question. In verse 31 the people also said, “…Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” After the miraculous feeding the previous day, and the miraculous healings and inspired teaching, it seems some people were starting to consider the possibility that Jesus could be the promised prophet that Moses (John 6:14) prophesied of in Deuteronomy 18:15-22. The people were aware of this prophecy and they also saw the similarity between the manna from heaven in Exodus 16, and the bread Jesus provided them with. The difference being, the manna in Exodus was miraculously given from heaven, but it also spoiled like regular food. However, Jesus has just told them about food that “endures to eternal life.” So, in light of this, the people are saying that if Jesus claims to be the promised One, that is far greater than Moses, who has come, then He should also perform a far greater miracle than the manna in the wilderness journey of Exodus.

We should also note that it is very likely the people are misusing Scripture in a way to try to manipulate Jesus into giving them more of what they want, which is, miraculous food to eat from heaven. They were still, by and large, focused only on their temporary material needs, and not on their eternal, spiritual needs. Regardless of the purity or impurity of their motives, their question does provide Jesus an opportunity to explain some very important things. First, it seems the people had put too much emphasis on Moses in the miracle of the manna. Moses was a human servant of Yahweh, the one true God (Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh), and the manna, or bread from heaven, was provided by God, not Moses. And, the people’s request for a greater miraculous sign than the ones performed by Yahweh, through Moses, was standing right before them. Or as Jesus puts it, “…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.”

Jesus is the “true bread from heaven” and the “Bread of God.” He is the “food that endures to eternal life.” They asked for a greater sign than those performed by God through Moses, and Jesus is that sign. He is Yahweh incarnate, God in the flesh. He is fully God and fully human. And in addition to this, the greater work that He did was to make Himself known to us and provide us with His Word and eternal life through faith in Him. Jesus constantly says and does things to cause the people around Him to lift their eyes up from their temporal, physical needs, to see and understand that they, and we, all have far more significant spiritual needs. Jesus does provide for the physical needs of His children, and He will remake the physical universe for us to inhabit with Him one day (Rev. 21), but all of that is subordinate to the spiritual. We cannot have access to His kingdom and new creation unless we are cleansed of our sin, because Jesus will not tolerate sin and its corrupting influence in the new heavens and new earth. More bread or freedom from Roman oppression would not have done these people any eternal good. Jesus came to provide us with eternal satisfaction that can only be found in Him.

Again, this true Bread from heaven and the Bread of God is Jesus Christ, and He died and rose again to pay the debt we owe for our sin and to restore us to relationship with Him. This free gift is available to everyone, no matter where they are from, what they have done or what they look like. Jesus loves everyone and He wants everyone to accept His freely offered gift of salvation from sin and suffering, and for eternal, glorious life as it was always meant to be.

The people in this passage, still not quite understanding Jesus, responded to this statement by saying, “Sir, give us this bread always.” The word “Kyrie” in the original Greek is rightly translated here as “Sir” instead of “Lord”. The people still viewed Jesus as a prophet and teacher, but not as God in the flesh. Their response is similar to the woman at the well who said, “Sir, give me this water…”. She, and many people from her city, soon came to understand Jesus to be the Savior of the world, but much of this crowd will not. They still do not understand or accept what Jesus is saying, and in the following verses, Jesus will make the meaning of His words much more explicit.

Response (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

This passage should cause us to consider how we think of Jesus. Even if we do recognize Him as the Son of God, do we understand He is the Bread of Life? Do we see that we need Him infinitely more than food and shelter for today? It is right to bring our needs and requests for physical provision to Jesus, but we must keep those desires in their proper place. Our greatest need is to have our sin forgiven and to be restored to a relationship with the God who made us and loves us so much He died a torturous, shameful death to redeem us to Himself. Jesus is the Food that endures to eternal life. He left the perfect splendor of heaven to live and die with us in the dirt because of His love for us. Is He now not worth trusting in the middle of difficult and painful circumstances? He has not withheld even His own blood from us, so how can we not fall at His feet in worship and adoration? He is our very life. Apart from Him we are nothing; worse than nothing. Apart from Him we are rightly and justly condemned to the eternal punishment we deserve for our sin.

But Jesus paid the penalty we deserve on our behalf, and now the only work we must do can hardly be called work at all. According to Jesus, all that is required of us is to “believe in Him who He has sent.” All that is required of us to receive this Bread of God, that is Jesus Christ and His freely offered salvation, is to have faith in Him and the sufficiency of His redemptive work (1 John 2:1-2).

“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)

Self Reflection:

1. Do I desire the gifts of Jesus more than Jesus Himself? Am I more concerned with my temporary physical needs than my eternal spiritual needs?

2. How can I grow in faith in Jesus day by day? What sort of habits of spiritual formation can I implement to grow in my relationship with Jesus?

3. Have I made a daily practice of spending time with Jesus in prayer and Bible study? Works like these don’t save me, but having been saved and coming to love Jesus, how can I rightly prioritize focused time with Him each day? No relationship grows when it is neglected.