“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51,ESV)
In this week’s gospel reading, we see that the Jews were quite agitated by Jesus’ reference to Himself as the bread of life. They knew He was not talking about cannibalism, but about something that was just as repulsive to them. Bread to them, we must realize, was the symbol of life. The Bible refers to bread as the staff of life (Lev. 26:26; Ezekiel 4:16), the cornerstone of nutrition, that which supported physical life. By calling Himself the Bread of Life, Jesus was saying that He is the cornerstone of life, as indispensable as bread. Jesus was saying is that He is the source of all life, physical and eternal for He is God Himself.
In doing so Jesus reveals that entrance into His Kingdom is not a matter of our choice, but God’s. It is not we who choose God, but God Who draws us to Himself. He gives us the faith we need to believe and obey.
This then is what it means to eat of the bread of Jesus: faith. It is a supernatural act that is effected by God in those who He calls, not something we can work up to. In faith we believe in Jesus as Savior and the source of eternal life. By faith we give Him our life here on earth and place it in His hands. It means sacrifice, surrender, obedience and holy living in the midst of a dark world that is going in the opposite direction. It means following Christ when it hurts to do so, when we face opposition and ridicule from our friends and relatives who see no reward in what we do. Faith takes supernatural power working in us to believe and trust when the physical evidence tells us otherwise.