I AM... The Bread of Life

I don’t know about you, but I could eat all day and never be full.  I could get an ‘A’ in an exam and want an ‘A*’.  I could have 100 pairs of jeans, but still want more! I never seem to be satisfied or full up with the things of the world.  Unless it’s Christmas and I've just had a giant dinner and ten types of dessert, but even then I'll always have more room for chocolate pretty soon after.
 
It’s funny because the thing that I enjoy most doesn’t seem to fill me up for long.  As I view the world around me, I often see how both my own, and satisfactions of others, are not fully met in things we think will fill us. Usually that happens through our expectations of things to fulfil us, then we find out that in fact, the opposite happens. 
 
Often, when I am met with the thoughts of dissatisfaction with the world, and the things I choose to consume; I am reminded of this ‘I am’ of Jesus.
 
Jesus says that, “He is the bread of life”.  The first time you hear this, it may seem like a pretty unusual thing to hear.  How can Jesus, a person, be the bread of life? What does the bread of life even mean?  When Jesus explains that, “He is the bread of life”,  I think that He does so to let His listeners know, that only he can bring total satisfaction and fulfilment.  That He will fill our souls, our minds, our life, or very being, with complete satisfaction.  That He is the most reliable source for us to come to for satisfaction and provision.
 
When Jesus is sharing this news with his listeners, He does so after He has performed miracles, shared teaching and feeding 5,000 men with just five loaves and two fish.  The people that were around Him at the time possibly were there because they wanted free food (we all love free food, right?).  In John 6:26, Jesus points to this and says to the people, “...very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill”.
At the time when Jesus said this, it was also leading up to Passover.  The people were preparing to remember how God had provided for their ancestors in the past, and now Jesus was showing that He alone would be their provision in the future.  (This blows my mind. Jesus always blows my mind with how He related His parables and teachings to the life of those around Him.) Although we were not there, His teaching, and how Jesus calls Himself, ‘the bread of life’ is still true today.  Jesus first tells the people directly that He is the bread of life in John 6:35.  Not only does Jesus say that He is the bread of life, but he says that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Him will never thirst. What an amazing promise!  That is, when we come to Jesus, He is all that we need, that He will provide, that we need not search anywhere else for our fulfilment because HE has got us covered!
 
I wonder what you may be using as the ‘bread’ of your life today.  I know that we can look to too many things to fulfil us.  Maybe ‘likes’ on Instagram, maybe TikTok fame, good grades, a relationship, the perfect university degree.  Without even realising it, sometimes we can look towards these things as the things that will truly fill us up.  The thing that might really make us feel as if we’re happy or that we’ve ‘made it’.
 
So, I want to challenge us today, to remember that Jesus is the bread of life.  That is truth now and always! Jesus will satisfy every one of our needs when we come into close relationship with Him.  It’s a faith thing. When we have faith in Jesus, and believe in Him, we get to experience this beautiful gift of fulfilment through Christ.
 
I want to challenge us to pray and be thankful that Jesus is the bread of life.  That the deep fulfilment He gives us is not temporary, but for all of eternity.  That only he satisfies.
 
So, it makes sense that I am never filled up for long, with social media attention or a giant Christmas dinner. Because the only thing that can fill me to the brim, and even overflow is the person of Jesus Christ. And all I have to do is trust in Him, I guess that’s free food!
 

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