What sign showest Thou then that we may see and believe
Christ the Christian’s food
Hewitson writes: “I think I know more of Jesus Christ than of any earthly friend.
” Hence one who knew Him well remarked, “One thing struck me in Mr. Hewitson. He seemed to have no gaps, no intervals in his communion with God. I used to feel, when with him, that it was being with one who was a vine watered every moment.”
Christ is the true manna
Christ is heavenly meat and drink. “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32). Other meat and drink is terrene and earthly. Your bread grows out of the bowels of the earth. Your wine is the blood of an earthly grape. The flesh you eat is fed of the tender grass that springs out of the earth. If the earth should prove barren, you would soon feel a famine!, The king himself is served by the field” (Ecclesiastes 5:9). It is true, the blessing comes from heaven, but all the materials of meat and drink are earthly. But Jesus Christ is the Bread of heaven and the Wine of heaven. The manna came from the clouds only; but Christ from the beautiful heaven, even from the bosom of the Father. (Ralph Robinson.)
Christ the gift of God to all men
When the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine’s doctrine was impugned, and his discourses complained of before the ecclesiastical courts, he was enabled to vindicate himself with great dignity and courage; and expressions sometimes fell from his lips which, for a time, overawed and confounded his enemies. On one occasion, at a meeting of the synod of Fife, according to the account of a respectable witness, when some members were denying the Father’s gift of our Lord Jesus to sinners of mankind, he rose and said, “Moderator, our Lord Jesus says of Himself, ‘My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.’ This He uttered to a promiscuous multitude; and let me see the man who dares to affirm that He said wrong?” This short speech, aided by the solemnity and energy with which it was delivered, made an uncommon impression on the synod, and on all that were present.
Christ gives life
Christ is such meat and drink as preserves from death. Other meat and drink cannot keep man from the grave. That rich man that fared deliciously every day was not made immortal. “The rich man died and was buried” (Luke 16:22). All that generation that fed on manna, and drank the water out of the rock, died (John 6:49). But Christ preserves the soul from death (John 6:50). This is the bread of God that came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. It immortalizes the soul that feeds on it. He that believeth on Him hath eternal life (John 6:51). Other meat and drink cannot preserve a living body from death, much less can it give life, and restore breath to a dead body. Put the most delicate meat, the strongest drink, into the mouth of a dead man, and they will not give him life if the soul be quite departed. They may recover from a swoon, they cannot from death. But the flesh and blood of Christ quicken the dead. Christ, by putting His flesh and blood into the mouth of the dead soul, conveys life into it. His flesh and blood make the lips of the dead to speak. “As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5:21). If thou hast any spiritual life in thee, thou didst receive it from the enlivening virtue of Christ’s flesh and blood communicated to thee by the Spirit of life. (Ralph Robinson.)
Christ, like the manna, is an abundant supply
I recollect when I was able to journey through the country preaching, I for some years stayed occasionally with a fine old English farmer. He used to have a piece of beef upon the table, I do not know how many pounds it weighed, but it was enormous. I said to him one day, “Why is it that whenever I come here you have such immense joints? Do you think that I can eat like a giant? If so, it is a great mistake. Look at that joint, there,” I said; “if I were to take it home, it might last me a month.” “Well,” he said, “if I could get a bigger bit I would, for I am so glad to see you; and if you could eat it all, you should be heartily welcome. I want everybody that comes here to-day to feel that I will do my very best for you.” He did not measure my necessities to the half-ounce, but he provided on a lavish scale. I quote this homely instance of giving heartily to show you how, on a divine scale, the Lord makes ready for His guests. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The mistakes of the Galileans
I. THE SECONDARY FOR THE PRIMARY (John 6:31-32). Confounding the instrument with the agent; Moses with Jehovah.
1. The man of science falls into this mistake when he talks about forces and laws otherwise than as expressions of the Divine power and will.
2. The Christian does the same when he ascribes conversion to the eloquence of a preacher instead of to the quickening influence of the Spirit Zechariah 4:6; John 6:63; Ephesians 2:1).
3. Every person similarly errs who forgets that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17).
II. THE SHADOWY FOR THE SUBSTANTIAL (verse 33). This tendency followed the Jews all through their career, and there is a like tendency when religion is made a thing of forms and ceremonies.
III. THE IMPERSONAL FOR THE PERSONAL (verse 35). The Jews imagined the bread of life to be a better sort of manna (see John 4:15; the samemistake). Plainly as Christ indicated this bread to be a Person they continued thinking of a thing. So do those who suppose that education, moral culture, social refinement, etc., is the bread of life.
IV. THE TRANSIENT FOR THE ETERNAL (verse 49).
1. The manna was a temporary gift; even when the Israelites ate of it they died. The bread of life on the contrary
(1) Endures into everlasting life (verse 27), and
(2) Will satisfy every want of the soul.
Lessons:
1. The men who err most in life and religion are those who walk by sight and not by faith.
2. Christ is a greater sign than any of His miracles.
3. His best recommendation is the satisfaction He imparts.
4. Men may have a desire after Christ without faith.
5. None who come to Christ in sincerity, will depart from Him in sorrow. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
The manna a type of Christ
I. MIRACULOUS IN THEIR ORIGIN: came down from heaven.
II. COVERED WITH NEW (2 Corinthians 4:3).
III. APPARENTLY INSIGNIFICANT (Isaiah 53:2).
IV. MYSTERIOUS (Isaiah 53:8).
V. DAILY (Exodus 16:21). “Give us this day” is founded on this repeated miracle. Christ’s grace must be used continually.
VI. GATHERED BY MAN BUT GROWN BY GOD. Human and Divine meet in conversion (John 4:44), and Divine bounty never supersedes man’s industry.
VII. ALL GATHERING HAD ENOUGH. Sincerity not the degree of faith avails Exodus 16:18).
VIII. GRATUITOUS (Isaiah 55:1).
IX. SUFFICIENT FOR ALL.
X. OFFERED TO MURMURERS (Romans 5:8).
XI. Manna for a season the ONLY food (Acts 4:12).
XII. FURNISHED IS THE WILDERNESS (Psalms 78:19; Hebrews 6:8). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
Christ the bread of life
I. Christ Is the bread of God in His personal Divine life (John 6:32-40).
1. The typical and the true bread of God (John 6:32-33).
2. The false and the true appetite for this bread (John 6:34-38).
3. The liberating and quickening operation of this bread (John 6:39-40).
II. Christ GIVES the bread of life in His giving up of His flesh in His atoning death (John 6:41-51).
1. He gives it not to murmurers, but to those who are drawn and taught of the Father (John 6:41-47).
2. He gives it with the full partaking of eternal life (John 6:48-50).
3. He gives it in giving Himself (John 6:51).
4. He gives it in giving His flesh for the life of the world (John 6:51).
III. Christ INSTITUTES the meal of life in making His flesh and blood a feast of thank-offering to the world (John 6:52-59).
1. The offence at the words concerning the flesh of Christ (John 6:52).
2. The heightening of the offence by the fourfold assertion concerning the flesh and blood of Christ (John 6:53-56).
3. The ground of this assertion; the life of Christ is in the Father (John 6:57).
4. The conclusion of this assertion (John 6:58-59).
IV. Christ TRANSFIGURES the meal of life into a meal of the Spirit (verse 60-65)
1. By His exaltation (John 6:62).
2. By His sending the spirit (John 6:63).
3. By His word (John 6:63).
4. By the excision of unbelievers (John 6:64). (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
The bread of life contrasted with manna
1. The manna could not detain for one moment the fleeting spirit of man; but the bread of life, like the tree of life, imparted immortality.
2. That was from the air; this from the real heaven of heavens.
3. That nourished the decaying body; this the never dying soul.
4. That left the multitude, after a few hours, hungry still; he who eats of this will never hunger. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
Come down from heaven
I. WE HAVE A DIVINE LIFE IN CHRIST, because He has come from God to be the author of life for us.
II. THIS LIFE IS NEAR (Deuteronomy 30:12-13; Romans 10:6-8). No man could ascend up, therefore Christ came down. (John Calvin.)
I. WHAT IS IT TO LIVE.
Life in Christ
1. Anything lives when it fills up the capacity of its being. Animal life does not consist in material force but in organic vitality. In man, however, we see the added element of spiritual existence.
2. Here comes up the everlasting fact that man is not like the brute satisfied with meat and drink, but yearns for what is beyond. And as there is harmony in the universe there must be something more than the material for man.
II. THE HIGHER NATURE MUST HAVE ITS FOOD, OR IT DIES. Christ saw the spiritual nature of man in all its priceless capacity and quenchless immortality, and to that He addressed Himself when He bade His hearers eat of His flesh and drink of His blood.
III. EACH KIND OR NATURE IN THE UNIVERSE IS LINKED IN ITS OWN CHAIN OF DEPENDENCIES. The body depends on things material; but the moment we look on the spirit of man we must ascribe it to some higher source than matter. The affection of the human heart; the yearning for the beautiful and the good; the intellect; the sense of sin and moral freedom, whence came they? If you could take away every other proof of the existence of God, this spirit proves the Being of a moral and intelligent Source over and above the material world.
IV. EACH THING IS LINKED TO THINGS OF ITS OWN KIND.
1. The soul, living, intelligent, and morally conscious, is linked to an intelligent and moral God, and by Him, and in Him alone, can it live. It cannot link itself to mere sensation and matter.
2. Jesus brings men into communion with that infinite intelligence, love, and freedom by bringing man’s soul into communion with Himself, so that living in Him we live in the Father, and as Christ becomes assimilated to our inner spiritual being, so we truly live.
V. WE NOT ONLY LIVE IN, BUT BY JESUS. This brings into view His essential personality. “I am the Bread, the Way.” “He that believeth in ME,” etc. No other teacher ever so spoke. Plato or Confucius may have said, “Believe this truth,” but never, “I am the truth, believe in me.” Christ saves us not merely by the truth He revealed, but by Himself.
VI. THIS LIFE IS A PRESENT EXPERIENCE. Not merely is going to live, but liveth. Religion is an end as well as a means. It is not simply something that helps us to live by and by, but something by which we live now. The great essential things are those we live by, not for. Bread, water, air--we do not live for them, but by them. So we live by religion, heaven, Christ, not for them. Conclusion:
1. See what an argument this is for the truth of the religion of Jesus, because it shows us how we truly live. We live by Jesus now because
(1) He fills up our higher faculties;
(2) draws out our best affections;
(3) gives us the truth of our higher being.
2. Have you ever really lived? (E. H. Chapin, D. D.)
Jewish traditions connecting the manna with the Messiah
There was a tradition that as the first Redeemer caused the manna to fall from heaven, even so should the second Redeemer cause the manna to fall. For this sign, then, or one like it, the people looked from Him whom they were ready to regard as Messiah (cf. Matthew 16:1; Mark 8:11)
. Philo says, “When the people sought what it is which feeds the soul, for they did not, as Moses says, know what it was, they discovered by learning that it is the utterance of God and the Divine Loges from which all forms of instruction and wisdom flow in a perennial stream. And this is the heavenly food which is indicated in the sacred records under the person of the First Cause, saying, “Behold I rain on you bread out of heaven!” (Exodus 14:4). For in very truth God distils from above the supernal wisdom on noble and contemplative minds, and they, when they see and taste, in great joy, know what they experience, but do not know the power which dispenses the gift. Wherefore they ask, ‘What is this that is sweeter than honey and whiter than snow?’ But they shall all be taught by the prophet that this is the Bread which the Lord gave them to eat “ (Exodus 16:15). (Bp. Westcott.)