I Am The Bread of Life
A Sermon by the Rev. Brett D. Buick
Lessons: Exodus 16: 4, 14-15; John 6: 30-35, 51, 58; Apocalypse Explained 899
T
he Lord says in the Gospel of John, “I am the Bread of Life.” Let’s think about
this statement: “I am the Bread of Life.” First think of eating bread. Think
about what it feels like to be very hungry and then to get a piece of nourishing,
filling bread. When you eat that bread, it creates an almost instant sense of
filling you up, doesn’t it? Bread has a sort of fullness to it that is different than
other foods.
Thinking about what it is like to eat a delicious and filling piece of bread
can help us understand why the Lord said He is the Bread of Life. Taking and
eating bread from the Lord corresponds to being filled up with the Lord’s love.
Just as eating bread gives us a feeling of fullness and sustenance, the Lord’s love
is constantly filling us and giving us life. The Lord truly is the Bread of Life,
this is what He does. He feeds us.
Think about all the stories in the Word that involve the Lord feeding
people.
In Exodus we learn about how the Lord gave manna to the Israelites. For
40 years He gave them the bread of heaven so they could survive. (Exodus
16:35) Without this bread from heaven, they would have died as they marched
through the desert on their way to the land of Canaan. Without the Lord’s love,
the human race would perish. Like the Israelites we need the bread of heaven
– the Lord’s love – every day.
In I Samuel, we also learn about the Lord providing bread in a difficult
time. When David and his men were fleeing from Saul who was trying to kill
them, they ate the holy bread, the shewbread of the tabernacle. (I Samuel 21:1-
6) This bread sustained David and his men when they were most in need of
food. And while this bread was reserved for the priests, the Lord, Himself,
when He was on earth hundreds of years later, endorsed this eating of the holy
bread. (Matthew 12:3-4) Just like David and his men were sustained by the
shewbread while they were fleeing from Saul, the Lord’s love will sustain us
when we are fleeing from harm.
42