Whoever Eats this Bread Will Live Forever
The Eschatology of John Part 17: John 6 Part 2 and John 7
The hour that is to come or the hour that is?
It turns out the answer is yes.
Bread From Heaven
The people wanted bread. Jesus gave them bread. The people wanted more bread. Jesus offered a better kind of bread. Now the people are angry.
That basically sums up the first half of John 6, but why were they angry?
They were angry because Jesus claimed to be the bread that came down from heaven, and the implications of this are huge.
Immediately the people began to complain by stating the obvious: we know this guy’s mom and dad, so how can he say he came down from heaven? (John 6:42).
Jesus responds,
Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. John 6:43–45
No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them to him. Who is drawn by the Father? Could it be a predetermined group of people? According to the text it is anyone who had heard and learned from the Father. These people, Jesus says, will be raised, or caused to stand, on the last day.
The hour that is coming.
Then there’s a switch.
Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. John 6:46–50
The life Jesus is offering is to believe in Jesus which means to trust in the unique revelation of the Father through Jesus.
The ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they are all dead. If one eats the bread that comes from heaven, that person will not die.
But if they won’t die, why do they need to be raised?
The hour that is coming and now is.
Jesus brings the future into the present. He brings the last day into this day. He brings life in the age to come to this age.
This tension between the present and the future has been evident all throughout John, and the tension is mounting. What will resolve this tension?
Watch what Jesus does here:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. John 6:51
Jesus’s flesh is the bread from heaven. That is, his incarnation, his life, his death, and his resurrection. When we are in Christ and Christ is in us then what is true of Jesus is true of us. His righteousness becomes our righteousness. His death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. We live forever because he lives forever.
When Jesus “tabernacled” among us by taking on flesh (John 1:14), he brought the future into the present. He is God with us. He is the true bread from heaven.
The Bread from Heaven and Mutual Indwelling
After further arguments regarding this enigmatic saying of Jesus, Jesus pushes the imagery further by using shocking and offensive language:
So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day, for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. John 6:53–55
It’s easy to read this passage as a communion text, and in retrospect that might be the case, but slow down a bit and let’s let Jesus explain what’s going on here.
First, eating Jesus’s flesh and drinking his blood are necessary for life. I may get in trouble for saying this, but I doubt that God means us to take this as a reason to view the Eucharist as a transaction between us and God: “we will exchange one pinch of bread and one sip of wine for eternal life, please.”
Next, we see once more the tension between one having eternal life and one waiting to be raised.
Now, let’s see what happens next:
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:56–58
Eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus has to do with abiding in Jesus and Jesus abiding in us. This also means having life through our relationship with Jesus and the Father. It is the relationship, not the flesh and blood, that gives life. One who enters into this relationship, which is deeper than collecting bread in the wilderness, will live forever.
Similarly, participating in breaking bread and drinking the cup of the Lord is beautiful and life-giving, but it points to a deeper kind of life that is beyond eating and drinking.
For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17
If Jesus isn’t talking about actually eating his flesh and drinking his blood here, then what does he have in mind?
Eat My Words
Thankfully the disciples were there to ask what is on all of our minds:
“This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” John 6:60
Here is Jesus’s response:
It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. John 6:63
What gives life? The Spirit. All through John, this has been the case. From the baptism of the Holy Spirit in John 1 and John 3 to the water of life offered to the Samaritan woman in John 4, the emphasis has been on the work of the Spirit.
We have then, here, a Trinitarian view on resurrection: the Father gives life to those whom he draws to the Son through the Spirit. When we hear the word of the Lord and listen, we take part in this eschatological life. The future becomes the present, and the present becomes the future.
This teaching caused many disciples to leave Jesus; it wasn’t what they were looking for.
Jesus turned to the twelve and asked if they would leave as well.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68–69
Peter rightly recognizes Jesus words as the words of life.
Rivers of Living Water
We now shift to John 7 where Jesus attends the Festival of Tabernacles, the seventh festival from Leviticus 23. This should make us excited because John began his book by saying that Jesus “tabernacled” among us (John 1:14).
This chapter doesn’t mark the end of Jesus’s ministry, as the author points out several times, but it definitely reveals the intense level of animosity among some of the people towards Jesus. People try to arrest and kill Jesus multiple times in this chapter.
Finally, near the end of the feast, Jesus stands up to say something quite remarkable.
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” John 7:37–38
The Last Day, the Great Day
This expression is astounding. It is one of seven uses of the phrase “the last day” in John. There are two more to follow this in John 11 and John 12.
Given John’s use of sevens, I really do think this is intentional here.
When we remember that the “one hope” of John and Paul is “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” then it makes sense for John to connect the last day of the feast of tabernacles with his eschatological hope.
In Revelation 21, John wrote,
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God… Revelation 21:2–3
The word “dwell” in this passage is the same word “tabernacled” in John 1:14, and it is related to the word “booths” or tabernacles” in John 7, where it is used as a noun.
To use The Message’s paraphrase of John 1:14, Revelation 21:2-3 teaches that God “moves into the neighborhood.”
God dwelling among the people is the fulfillment of the last day of the last feast in Israel’s festal calendar.
Let Anyone Who is Thirsty
Of course, who isn’t thirsty?
Unfortunately, some think they aren’t.
In the summertime it’s possible to become dehydrated if one doesn’t consciously costume more water. The heat and sweat can make one lose water faster than they think, so many people get sick without even realizing it at first. They don’t think they are thirsty, and they might not even feel the need to drink as much water as they need.
The same thing can happen to us spiritually. We go through the motions of worship, we live generally good lives, and we may even pray and read our Bibles daily, but, at the same time, we may also be incredibly thirsty.
Jesus’s invitation here is an invitation to evaluate ourselves to see if we may be more thirsty than we realize. We may be spiritually dehydrated.
In another story, the Pharisees exhibited this kind of short-sightedness.
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. John 9:40–41
Notice that this is the same invitation offered in Revelation 22, which is further confirmation that these two passages are connected, one perhaps being commentary on the other:
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. Revelation 22:17
As the Scripture Says
There doesn’t seem to be a specific passage which speaks of rivers of living water flowing from the belly or heart of believers, but there are some good candidates.
Isaiah 12:2, Zechariah 14:8, and Ezekiel 47 are all texts which speak of living water in connection to the Messianic kingdom/ temple.
Andreas Köstenberger, in Beale and Carson’s Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, observes,
Clearly, however, it is not any one of those passages by itself that is in view, but rather the entire matrix of scriptural expectations associated with the eschatological abundance presaged by the Feast of Tabernacles, as is reflected in the references to the feast in Neh. 9 and in this chapter’s references to the provision of water from the rock during Israel’s wilderness wanderings.1
But what is this living water?
As we know from our earlier studies, the living water is the Spirit of God. John explains,
Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive, for as yet there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:39
Now this is an interesting passage that introduces a whole new concept for us and even disrupts our hour that now is versus the hour that is coming paradigm, or, at the least, pushes it ahead a few years.
Something that Jesus offered in the present wouldn’t actually be available until he was glorified.
If we talk about this shift, it will be when we get to John 17.
But for now, we will be done with this section of John. Next week, we’ll go to John 8, make some connections back to John 7, and make further preparations for our study of 1 John, which is what this entire study was originally meant to be about.
If you would like more material on the “present” offering of “future” promises that John talked about in his explanation of Jesus’s promise of the Spirit, then you can read the attached essay I wrote back in 2018. Here is a fair warning: I wrote this before a major shift in my thinking in the fall of 2018, but I trust past Daniel to handle himself with grace, even if we may see things differently today. Best of luck.
These articles take a lot of effort to research and write. If you appreciate them, consider subscribing, liking, or commenting to let me know to keep writing. Also, I promise the articles won’t be as technical as these last two every time.
Köstenberger, Andreas J. “John.” Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos, 2007. 454. Print.
Thanks for this, Daniel. This has opened my eyes to so many other things I have read. God bless you and your family!