John 6:33

“The bread of God is not mere bread,” Jesus makes his point even more clearly. “The bread is the One who comes down from heaven to give life to the world.” John 6:33 EFP

What was thinly veiled in the previous verse is explicitly stated in this verse:  The bread is a person.  What?  The bread is a person?  The people must have been caught off guard by that statement.  Did Jesus really take that big a jump and expect people to follow him?  Something like “being born again” or “never thirst again”?  Jesus is speaking to those who are searching, the ones who want nothing but a show will have plenty of evidence on which to hang their impenitence and ignorance.

Then Jesus adds a quality to the bread that makes it even more difficult to believe for the one not intending to connect the dots.  The “bread” gives life to the world.  OK.  I get that, the world will not go hungry if God provides bread for the masses.  I get it!  Maybe Jesus is saying that you can’t separate the miracle from the miracle-maker.  Bread does not produce itself. But he says the bread is the one who comes down from heaven… Is he saying he is the bread?  If that’s the case, how does he give life? Jesus is edging closer and closer to the point of decision—a point to which I am brought every day of my life.  Do I believe?  Life?  Light?  Bread?  Living Water?  Healing?  The Word?  All these are titles claimed by Jesus, or ascribed to Jesus by John.  He either is or he is not all these things.  More importantly, either he is or he is not all these things to me.