This Sunday morning, the congregation opened the New Testament to the Gospel of John, chapter 6, from verse 25 to verse 40. A long, demanding passage, where Jesus answers a crowd that had followed him to the other side of the lake. These people had watched him multiply loaves the day before. They come back, hungry in the stomach and with their hearts somewhere else. They are seeking Jesus, but not for who he truly is. And he, patiently, speaks to them of a food that never spoils, of bread come down from heaven, of a life that never ends. If you take the time to pause on this passage, you will see that it concerns you too. Directly.
Outline of the Teaching
- The constant temptation to make Jesus into what he is not
- Jesus, the bread come down from heaven
- The cross: humility for yourself, respect for others
- Eating his flesh, drinking his blood: believing and welcoming him
- Communion, a remembrance of an eternal life already given
1. The Constant Temptation to Make Jesus into What He Is Not
When you read the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), you notice something striking. Jesus lives in a Judea occupied by the Roman Empire, saturated with temples and shrines dedicated to Greek and Roman gods. Roman soldiers are everywhere, officers, idols. And yet Jesus does not utter a single word of condemnation against them. On the contrary, he praises the faith of a Roman centurion who asks him to heal his servant from a distance, without even coming to the house. He says of this pagan man that his faith is greater than anything he has found in Israel.
Where Jesus grows indignant is with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, those believers so sure of themselves, those "whitewashed tombs" as he calls them, who use religion to consider themselves better than others. It is a complete reversal of what the crowd expected.
In John 6, the crowd has just eaten. They are full. They want more. They want to make Jesus a king who will feed them and free them from Rome by force. They are wrong about him, just as people can still be wrong today. When a leader, even today, demands unconditional surrender from a foreign country, when the law of the strongest is held up as a virtue, we find the same illusion: believing that human power, money, the military, domination, can bring peace to the soul. Two thousand years later, people are still reaching for the wrong bread.
2. Jesus, the Bread Come Down from Heaven
Six times in this chapter 6, Jesus repeats, "I have come down from heaven." In verses 33, 38, 41, 42, 50, 58. This is a deliberate hammering point. He wants his hearers to understand that he does not come from below, that he is not the product of a political project, a national dream, a human expectation. He comes from elsewhere. He comes from the Father.
In verses 33 to 35, he declares, "For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world... I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
What Jesus offers you is not first of all material comfort, worldly success, or revenge on those who make you suffer. It is the forgiveness of your sins, a restored relationship with God, eternal life, and a deep peace of soul starting today. If you seek Jesus only for what he might give you to consume, you will miss him. Just like that crowd who, by the end of the chapter, walks away because the word is too hard.
3. The Cross: Humility for Yourself, Respect for Others
The gospel is beautiful for at least two reasons. The first: it lets you honestly acknowledge that you are weak and sinful. Without the cross, human beings find it very hard to apologize, to say "sorry," to admit they were wrong. We prefer to defend ourselves, minimize, blame the other person. But when you understand that Jesus carried your guilt all the way to the cross, that God knows your darkness better than you do and loves you anyway, then you can lay down your weapons. You can become humble again without being crushed.
The second reason: this cross gives you a deep respect for others. Because Jesus' sacrifice is not reserved for Christians. It is offered to everyone, without exception. To East and West alike. To those who believe and to those who do not believe yet. Each person is free to welcome or refuse this gift. And if you have received this gift, you are only one forgiven person among other forgiven people. You cannot look down on someone who does not believe yet. It is not your role to tell them, "You are wrong, you are worth less than me." Your role is to pray, to live with consistency, and to trust the Spirit who is already at work, silently, in the other person's heart.
About twenty years ago, at a summer camp for middle and high schoolers on the island of Izu Oshima, a high school girl came to see the pastor. She was not a believer. She had lost her mother at age ten. Her father drank, her brother hit her when he came home. In the evenings, she walked alone, drawn away by strangers. She said, "I don't like Jesus. But I like the church. There, people look at me with warmth, they speak to me kindly. Can I come even if I don't believe?" The pastor answered, "Of course. God is alive. The very desire to come to church is already Jesus at work in you. Don't rush. Come, stay, and one day you will believe." She replied, "You're the first pastor who hasn't forced me to believe." She told the other young people at the camp that he was "a strange pastor." Maybe so. But God, for his part, was at work.
4. Eating His Flesh, Drinking His Blood: Believing and Welcoming Him
In verses 51 to 58, Jesus uses an image that shocked his listeners and that may still trouble you: "My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink... Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."
This statement is not to be taken literally. Eating the flesh of Jesus, drinking his blood, means welcoming him into your heart. It means believing in him from the inside. Just as food enters your body and sustains your physical life, so Jesus enters your soul and sustains your spiritual life. He becomes your daily sustenance. Without him, your soul withers, even if your body is well fed.
Believing in Jesus is not a box to check. It is a movement of welcome, renewed each day. You open, you eat, you are nourished. Then tomorrow, you start again.
5. Communion, a Remembrance of an Eternal Life Already Given
What Jesus says in John 6 finds its fulfillment on the night of the Last Supper. In Matthew 26:26-28, while his disciples are eating, he takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it, gives it to them, and says, "Take, eat; this is my body." Then he takes the cup: "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
Every time you take communion, you are not performing a simple ritual. You are engraving once again in your heart that Jesus died for you, that he did not stay in death, that he rose again, that he conquered evil, and that through him you are a child of God, loved, promised eternal life. Communion connects you to this invisible but real reality.
And this communion also connects you to those who walked in faith before you. Dr. Hinohara Shigeaki, the great Japanese Christian physician, hospital director and dean of a nursing school, lived past a hundred and five years. In an interview near the end of his life, he was honest: "Dying, yes, that scares me." Yet he was a sincere Christian, whose father had been a pastor, whose wife was already with the Lord. But facing his own death, he felt afraid. What carried him through was not his own courage. It was the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. And he departed peacefully.
Today, the congregation also carries in its heart Sister Yamamoto Mitsu, ninety seven years old, a member of the Yokohama Church, who has just returned to be with the Lord after a battle with cancer. Fifty two years earlier, at age forty five, she already testified, "The joy of the Lord is my strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). A nurse in the Japanese Northern Alps, alone and discouraged, she had come to faith through Christian sisters. She traveled overnight by train to Tokyo to let herself be taken hold of by the Lord. She was baptized in the Tamagawa River. She then opened her home in Yokohama for a prayer group and for children's gatherings. It was in her home that the meetings began which gave birth to the Yokohama church. She was also the one who, one day on the road, stopped two little girls walking past her house and said, "There's a meeting for children, come!" One of those two little girls later became a pastor. A single person who welcomes Jesus produces fruit that overflows across several generations.
Sister Yamamoto lost her eldest son a few years ago. Past the age of ninety, watching your child leave before you is an immense sorrow. And yet, until her final days, she kept repeating, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." That is what the bread of life produces in a soul.
Key Takeaways
- Jesus did not come down from heaven to satisfy your earthly appetites, but to give eternal life to your soul.
- The crowd seeks material bread; Jesus offers a food that never spoils.
- The cross makes you humble without crushing you, and respectful of those who do not believe yet.
- Eating his flesh and drinking his blood means welcoming Jesus into your life, day after day.
- Communion is not a mere memory: it connects your present to the eternal life already begun.
Personal Application
- What "earthly bread" are you seeking from Jesus right now, when he wants first to give you his very self?
- Is there someone in your life you look down on because they do not believe yet? How could you pray for them instead of judging them?
- When did you last ask someone's forgiveness, humbly, without justifying yourself?
- The next time you take communion, what reality do you want to engrave more deeply in your heart?
- Following Sister Yamamoto's example, who could you simply invite today to a Christian gathering?
Verses Cited
- John 6:25-40, the bread of life come down from heaven
- John 6:15, Jesus refuses to be made king by force
- John 6:50-58, eating his flesh, drinking his blood
- Matthew 26:26-28, the institution of communion
- Nehemiah 8:10, the joy of the Lord is your strength
FAQ
Why does the crowd in John 6 ultimately turn away from Jesus?
Because they expected a king who would feed them with bread and free them from Rome. When Jesus refuses that role and speaks of spiritual bread, they are disappointed. They wanted a Christ sized to their own expectations, not a Savior sized to God.
Is eating the flesh of Jesus an image or a reality?
It is a profound image of an inner reality. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood means believing in him, welcoming him, uniting yourself to him by faith. Communion makes this union visible and tangible, as a sign given by Jesus himself on the night of his arrest.
How do I talk about Jesus to someone who is not a believer without offending them?
The way the camp pastor did with the high school girl: without forcing, without contempt, recognizing that the Spirit is already at work. Your role is to welcome, to bear witness through your life, and to pray. The rest belongs to God, who is alive and who loves that person even more than you do.
to take notes and ask questions.