The bread of life

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." – John 6.48-51

When I was in seminary I took a course called ‘Jesus the Master Teacher.’ Our first assignment was to write a five page paper on the ‘Teaching Techniques of Christ.’ The only resource we were permitted was our Bibles. At the time I only though of our hard the work was. In retrospect I still remember some of the things I found.

One of the things that sticks out in my mind is this passage. Here Jesus employs a least two teaching methods. He knew His learners and based His teaching on what they knew and He used what we now call an ‘object lesson.’

Jesus referred back to the time when God miraculously provided manna for the Jews for forty years while they wandered in the desert. That was great, but eventually those folks all died.

Now Jesus makes His point. ‘Just like that manna was the physical food that sustained those people for forty years I am the spiritual food that will enable you to live forever.’

Today Jesus remains the bread of life. He is the only hope for eternal sustenance.  There is a world hungry for ‘something.’ Not everyone even knows what that something is. But Jesus will fill that void and satisfy that hunger for all those who will turn to Him.