Jesus makes much of bread. Bread does a lot of work in the Gospels too. And of course, it feeds the world which is no small task. Truly, bread is more than just wheat, oil, and leaven; for many it represents food in general. Food  can energize, refresh, and bring people together. Eating is a time of pleasure and purpose. Families and friends gather around tables laden with food to talk, laugh, and eat. As they nourish themselves physically, they also are strengthened emotionally and spiritually. It’s a great wonder, too often overlooked, that bread could be the center of such an amazing thing. God seems to hide His greatest treasures in plain sight.

Then we see bread in the most sacred of rituals: communion. Bread rests in the hallowed bowl of the communion dish. Jesus, who is the God of Glory according to Hebrews 1:3 says this of bread: “Take, eat, this is My Body.” (Mark 14:22) That bread was His body. Bread has become God. Of course, not fully God, but what mystery! What a strange plan of God that He would say “Take, eat,” (this bread) “this is My Body.” Jesus says in another place “I am the bread of life.” (Jn. 6:35) God Himself is taking on an incredible identity: the food the world needs to survive. Jesus speaks more on this subject later on in John 6. He explains that even the bread which fell from the sky and fed the Israelites for forty years was not enough to keep them from dying and living unsatisfied. He is the Bread which truly came from Heaven and unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they cannot be His disciples, they cannot have eternal life. Bread is at the gate of Heaven and holds the key to everlasting life.

What is the essence of that bread? What could be the one distinguishing factor? What is the one thing that sets this special bread apart from any other bread? Well, the old saying goes “You are what you eat.” If the bread you eat is Jesus, then Jesus is what you become. Of course, there is only one Jesus and we cannot become Him fully, but we can have His words and ways deep in our soul, to the degree that it even becomes our actions. We live like Jesus because Jesus lives in us. Bread is the vehicle for this mystery to materialize in our life. This is what it means to commune with God. We are to eat of Jesus that we would become like Him. By Jesus becoming our daily food, we become like Him daily.

Practically speaking, it looks like reading your Bible daily. It looks like praying daily. It looks like reading the scripture and praying with other believers. It looks like taking communion at church and upholding the mysterious sacrament where Jesus says “Take, eat, this is My Body.”

But there is more here. Jesus mentions another dimension to His teaching concerning sustenance: the food of doing God’s will. He mentions it in John 4:32. “I have food to eat which you do not know.” He hadn’t eaten for a while it seemed, and He was sitting in the heat of the day next to a well after walking for miles in the desert. What food is He talking about? It seems to be a very sustaining kind of food. He goes on in v.34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” So there is another aspect to the Bread of God: obedience. Not begrudging obedience, but excited obedience based in an anticipation for great things. Jesus says this food of doing God’s will is enough to sustain Him as He is looking at the harvest fields of humanity. He is excited and anticipating the harvest of God and that is sustaining Him physically in that John 4 moment. The woman at the well is telling everyone about the prophecy she received through Jesus. Now all the people have come to the very well where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. Jesus is doing God’s will by preaching the gospel to that crowd. It was food for Jesus and it sustained Him physically.

We would do well not only to hear Jesus’ teaching on bread, but to partake in that bread. We must feast on Jesus. We eat of Jesus by reading His words, believing in Him, praying to Him, taking communion, and obeying His words with an anticipation for great things to come. Praise God for the Bread of Heaven that has come down to Earth!