I don’t know if a person should admit to having a favourite book of the Bible, but Mine is undoubtedly the gospel of John. Each of the 4 gospels shows a slightly different aspect of Jesus’ character, and one of John’s aims in writing was to show us that Jesus was and is the Son of God – that he is co-equal with God the Father in every way. That’s why john begins with those famous words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1: 1.) There aren’t any details about Jesus’ birth in John, because he wants us to understand that although Jesus became a man in the natural sense, he has always existed.
In some ways, John is very different from the other 3 gospels, and thus is always studied separately. one of my favourite differences is the way in which John includes the so-called 7 “I am” statements of Jesus. Listed in chronological order, they are “I am the bread of life.” (John 6: 35-58), “I am the light of the world.” (John 8: 12), “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10: 7-9.), “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10: 11-14), “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11: 25), “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14: 6), and “I am the true vine.” (John 15: 1-5). All 7 are worth studying in detail, but during the next 2 weeks we are going to consider just 3.
Firstly, let’s think about Jesus’ statement in John 6 verse 35. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” He continues in verse 37 to promise that he will never reject anyone who comes to him. In verse 39 he says that the will of his Father is that he should not lose even one of those the Father has given him, but that he should raise them up at the last day. Then, in verse 42, the people start grumbling because Jesus said he came down from heaven. They argue that they know who his parents are, so he couldn’t possibly have come from heaven. So after setting them right, in verse 48 Jesus reiterates that he is indeed the bread of life. Next, he talks about how their ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. That was physical bread to sustain their bodies, but even though they were nourished, they still died. Yet the bread from heaven Jesus is talking about is different because it’s spiritual bread. And those who eat of it by accepting him as Lord and Saviour will never die. He then confuses finally still further by declaring that they need to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
The problems arise because his listeners aren’t hearing him with spiritual ears, so they aren’t grasping the true meaning of what he’s saying. However, whenever we celebrate communion as Christians, we do grasp his meaning, because we’re remembering the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord. While we recognise that the bread and wine we partake of are merely emblems meant for remembrance, We know that it was only because of his broken body and his shed blood that we can have eternal life. So in a sense, we do eat of his flesh and drink of his blood.
Turning our minds momentarily to consider physical bread, I’m sure we’d all agree that it’s one of the staple foods of most diets. As a child, I often ate toast for breakfast, then sandwiches for lunch, and possibly a piece of bread and butter with my evening meal. Even in the poorest countries, one of the first things they do if they can obtain the ingredients is to bake bread, because they know it will fill them up. Eating bread isn’t like eating salad. It wouldn’t have had the same affect if Jesus had said “I am the salad of life.” Healthy though it is, salad doesn’t fill our stomachs in the same way bread does.
WE see bread as a necessity. Here in the UK, if there’s even a hint of an impending snowstorm, bread is one of the first things to disappear from the supermarket shelves. We somehow think that as long as we have bread, we won’t starve. I feel we should see Jesus in the same way, because he wants to sustain us and meet all our needs, if we will only let him.
People in this world are hungering and thirsting after all kinds of things – trying to fill that sense of emptiness in all the wrong places. However, what they need is the bread of life. We have that bread, and our responsibility is to share it – to say: “come! Taste and see that the Lord is good. Nothing else is going to satisfy. You’re always going to go away from the table hungry unless you eat of the bread of life.”
Returning to our text from John 6, Jesus reminded his listeners of the manna in the wilderness – miraculous food sent down from heaven, because at that time in Israel’s history, it was all the food God’s people had. There were no choices on the menu, although I’m sure they found inventive ways of preparing the manna.
Similarly for us, there should only be Jesus. He is the bread of life, so let’s feast on him daily, allowing him to fill us up from the inside with his love.
Next, let’s consider what Jesus was teaching in John chapter 11 verse 25, when he said: “I am the resurrection and the life.” To study this statement in its context, we need to remember that it comes in the middle of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
Lazarus was Jesus’ friend. When Jesus visited their family, His sister Martha used to make lovely meals, and Mary loved sitting at Jesus’ feet and drinking in his teaching. So it was natural that when their brother became ill, they sent for Jesus. Surely he would come and heal his good friend.
Yet when Jesus found out Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was, even though he could have reached him fairly quickly. Then a few days later, he told the disciples Lazarus was now dead, so it was time to go. No wonder they were confused!
By the time they arrived at the familiar home, Lazarus had been gone 4 days, and his sisters were in deep mourning. When Martha heard Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. “Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” (John 11: 21-27.”
When we were discussing Jesus as the bread of life, we commented on how he said he would raise those who believed in him up on the last day. Yet here he’s taking things a step further and claiming that he is the resurrection and the life. He is confirming that life and death are completely in his hands. He then goes on to demonstrate that fact powerfully by raising Lazarus back to life, even though he’d been dead 4 days.
However, Lazarus wasn’t the first-person Jesus raised from the dead. There’s a story in Luke’s gospel about a widow’s son. On that occasion, Jesus interrupted the funeral and brought the boy back to life. And who could forget Jairus’ daughter. There were also resurrections in the old testament. Yet although people had been raised from the dead, they were still destined to die again one day. Until Jesus himself died and rose again, there was still a sense of separation between mankind and God. When sin entered the world at Eden, God’s perfect fellowship with man was destroyed. Every time an offense was committed, sacrifices were made, whether that was a bull, a ram, a goat, or even a bird. However, none of these sacrifices could enable a person to obtain eternal life. It took the death and resurrection of God himself in the form of Jesus to do that.
That’s why Jesus could say: “I am the resurrection and the life”. Although people had been raised before, no one had ever raised themselves from the dead. But Jesus did. In John 10 verses 17-18, he says: ““The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
Jesus never lost control of what was happening to him, and all the events of the cross were permitted and orchestrated by him. He chose to come into the world knowing what was in store for him, and he never shrunk back from it. The only way he could become the resurrection and the life, ensuring that we will have eternal life if we believe in him was by giving his life and then taking it back again.
Although our earthly lives will one day come to an end, we won’t really die. We will pass into eternity because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. In 1Corinthians 15: 20-22, Paul says: “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.”