The Bread of Life

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst (John 6:35).

The thread has now taken us to one of the singular peculiarities of the Passover, and one that carried over into Christian observance. Why did the Jews, and later the Corinthian Christians, eat unleavened bread during the seven days of the Passover season?

When Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, it was at the Passover season, and he had to tackle a regrettable problem in the church. A man who was a brother in the church was committing fornication, so openly that it was commonly known in the city. The leadership of the Corinthian church, who knew what was going on, had done nothing about it. Since they would not judge the matter, Paul did.

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord (1 Corinthians 5:3-5 NRSV).

Having judged the leadership of the church as arrogant (“puffed up” in the KJV), Paul goes on to develop the theme of the season. “Your glorying is not good,” he said. “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6).

The NIV uses the word “yeast” instead of “leaven” here, but the Greek word, zume, means “to ferment”. The bread was sourdough. When baking bread, the sourdough baker preserves a small lump of starter. When the time comes to bake a fresh loaf of bread, he takes the starter and works it into the new lump of dough and sets it aside to rise. Before he bakes it, he saves a small lump to start the next loaf of bread. A baker’s starter can sometimes have years of history, and each may have a distinctive taste.

The bread of the Israelites in Egypt was also sourdough, fermented, bread. Perhaps the image of corruption, of souring, was the reason the law did not permit the offering of any sacrifice with leaven.ⁱ So if the lamb is a sacrifice, it must be eaten with unleavened bread. Thus, there is not even nominal corruption connected with the Lord’s sacrifice.

From the idea of fermentation, Paul develops the idea of one corrupt individual corrupting the whole. “Purge out therefore the old leaven,” he said, “that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened” (v. 7). The expression “old leaven” is a reference to the old lump of starter which was used to leaven a new batch of dough. The man who was corrupt was having the effect of souring the whole church (hence, the puffed up leadership). Paul acknowledges that they were unleavened in the matter of ordinary bread (“as you are unleavened”) but that spiritually, they were far from it.

“Therefore let us keep the feast,” Paul continued, “not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (v. 8).

Paul told them to get the man who was sinning out of the church like they had gotten leaven out of their houses. So leaven symbolized corruption, and there was to be no corruption connected with the Lamb of God or his church.

Part of the understanding we are looking for focuses on the curious question of unleavened bread. The impression one gets from Exodus is that it was merely a matter of the haste of the Israelites fleeing Egypt who had no time for their bread to rise. Thus the days of unleavened bread following the Passover were merely commemorative of one aspect of the Exodus from Egypt. But that doesn’t explain why Paul was urging the Gentiles in Corinth to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Egypt had nothing to do with their history. So there had to be more to it than that, especially in the light of what Jesus said on a day early in his ministry.

John, who tells us the story, notes that this was just before the Passover (see John 6:4). Jesus had gone up into a mountain, and he was followed by a great company of people because of the miracles he had done for sick people. It isn’t surprising that Jesus would draw a crowd wherever he went. It was all but impossible for him to get away from crowds.

When he saw so many of them there, so far from anything to eat, he asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” There was no such place, which both of them knew well enough. So Jesus had the people sit down in ranks, and fed the whole multitude of people with only a few loaves and fish. It was a classic example of Middle Eastern hospitality. Jesus had the means to feed them, so feed them he did. But in doing so, he posed a problem for himself.

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone (John 6:14,15 KJV).

At this point, Jesus did his best to get away from these people. They were ready to start a revolution with him as king, and he wanted no part of it. They, for their part were not ready to take no for an answer. He crossed the Sea of Galilee, and they followed.

And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Most saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (vv. 25-27).

Jesus saw through all of this. People who have seen a miracle will only want to see another one. Jesus ignored the question and pointed them away from food to what is really important.

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’” (vv. 28-31).

They were still looking for the miracle, demonstrating that Jesus was right in judging their motives. And, of course, they wanted their bellies filled. Nevertheless, it opened the door for Jesus to clarify a crucial issue that shed light on the approaching Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always” (vv. 32-34).

Now Jesus is ready to make the crucial point: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (v.35). And it is right here that we find a hint of the connection with the Feast of Unleavened Bread which is fast approaching.

But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day (vv. 36-39).

This did not please many of his listeners, for he plainly said that he was the bread that came down from heaven. That can’t be true, they said. We know his father and mother. How can he claim to have come down from heaven?

Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” (vv. 43-47).

And here we approach the mystery of the meaning of the unleavened bread of Passover. Jesus went on to say, “I am that bread of life” (v. 48). Now it may not be immediately apparent, but the command in the law is that you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days. It is not that we must merely abstain from leavened bread, we are to do the positive act of eating unleavened bread (Exodus 12:15). For the Christian, that unleavened bread would symbolize Jesus, the Bread of Life. Because leaven will be seen as a symbol of sin, and because Jesus was sinless, then the bread of life is unleavened.

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” (vv. 49-51).

When I read this passage, I can’t help reflecting on all the years I thought about, read about, sang about, and trusted the blood of Christ to take away my sins. This is fundamental, woven into the fabric of the Christian faith. But I never gave a thought to the flesh of Jesus which he said he would give for the life of the world. I did not grasp the importance of the flesh of Jesus in the New Covenant. It is odd that this has never made it very far into the consciousness of the Christian church. The blood of Christ has made it there. The blood of the Lord is everywhere in Christian hymnals. We all understand this. But Jesus said he would give his flesh for the life of the world, and there is an important distinction here.

The Jews who were listening did not much like this idea. “How,” they wondered, “can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v. 52). Jesus did not stop there, he went on to say something that they should have understood but did not.

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (vv. 53-56).

Anyone should immediately see the connection with the Lord’s Supper in this saying. We take a little wine as a symbol of the blood of Christ, and a little bread as a symbol of his body. This is why, at the Last Supper, Jesus handed them the cup and said, “Take this and drink it. It is my blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:28 NIV).

Even Jesus’ disciples had a problem with this, calling it a hard saying. They should have recognized that this was language symbolic of a covenant, but they seem to have missed it. Some of his disciples went home and ceased to follow Jesus.

Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (vv. 67-69).

What is inescapable in this passage is the connection between the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and the Christian Passover which he will soon thereafter institute with his disciples.

i. “Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning” (Exodus 34:25).

Pam Dewey’s Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion website
features an extensive profile of the Hebrew Roots movement.25
Below are excerpts from two recent emails which site visitors sent
[italic emphasis added].
I’ve been prayerfully asking God to show me the light
as I belong to [a Hebrew Roots synagogue]. Here
lately they’ve been downplaying Jesus and referring
to the New Testament as “The Addendum.” God led
me to your website today. It was like you have been
sitting in our temple because you have addressed all
of my concerns. I have now resigned from the temple
along with another couple who have been feeling the
same as I have. Like we were being smothered.
God Bless you so much for putting this on the web. I
feel free again. . . like a huge weight has been lifted
off of my shoulders. My desire for wanting to learn
more about Jesus was actually leading me away from
his arms. Please keep this site up for others as it saved
me from false teachers.
Just wanted to give you thanks and blessings for the
great overview of the Hebrew Roots movement. My
husband and I were leaders of such a group for almost
4 years until God opened our eyes to the path we were
on about a year and a half ago. We had to leave the
group we started because the other elder would not
agree to recognize the New Covenant as we believed
25Op cit
www.servantofmessiah.org
37
the Bible proclaimed. . .
I found your outline of groups from harmless to the
most dangerous kind [see list above] interesting
because this was a progression our group followed—
beginning well, and finding ourselves eventually in a
very dark place.
The spiritual agony for me was like death, and I cried
out to God. If this was all supposed to be a blessing
and a way to “draw near” to God as we taught, why
were we so dead? I then saw the countless ways we
had diminished Christ in our teaching and practice.
We recognized the anti-christ spirit that had taken
over the minds of people, and which we almost fell
under ourselves. My husband went through a valley
of doubts about Jesus as the Messiah and thankfully
came out. We knew others who did not. . .
We have such joy in Christ now—after a season of
sorrow and repentance for our wayward hearts. We
realized we had been feeding our pride and wanting to
be special rather than truly seeking the truth. We
realized in the end, the glory that Christ deserves we
were diverting to many different places and no one
could have found Him through our testimony.
Thank you for raising awareness about this
movement. So few people realize what it is and it’s
picking people off like flies. . .
We do not mean to imply, by sharing these comments, that all
individuals who become involved in the various branches of the
Hebrew Roots movement will end up like these people. But we have
been watching the movement for over a decade, and found that their
experiences have become more and more common, and should give
cause for serious consideration of the foundational assumptions upon
which many branches of the movement are built. There are signs that
www.servantofmessiah.org
38
can help you evaluate whether a particular ministry may help you to
draw closer to Jesus, or ultimately lead you away from him. We are
convinced that any ministry or group that identifies itself with
Hebrew Roots interests and which promotes any of the following
ideas is undermining the simplicity that is in Jesus:
? Any claim that insists that adopting customs or traditions of
Judaism is necessary to “get closer to God” or “understand
the deep things of God.”
? Any claim that such a ministry or group is revealing
astounding information, unavailable to the average Bible
reader, that will “transform your spiritual life.” (Only Jesus
truly transforms lives.)
? Any claim that insists that Christians must study the
writings of the historical Jewish Rabbis, such as those in
the Talmud, in order to understand the Bible and live godly
lives.
? Any subtle hint or overt claim that the Apostle Paul
attempted to undermine the teachings of Jesus.
? Any subtle hint or overt claim that the New Testament is
inferior to the Old Testament as inspired by God.
? Any subtle hint or overt claim that Jesus of Nazareth was
just a really pious first century Rabbi.
If you notice any of the red flags above in some ministry, we urge
you to remove yourself from its influence.