The Bread of Life for All

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.⁴¹ Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴ 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. ⁴⁵ 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. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ 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 6:35, 41-51

In this passage, Jesus identifies himself as bread from heaven, like the manna that sustained the ancient Israelites as they traveled through the wilderness after fleeing enslavement in Egypt. At the same time, he makes two claims that modify the meaning of manna: the manna of Jesus is offered to both Jews and Gentiles, and it brings not only life, but eternal life. These changes emphasize one particular quality of manna as described in Exodus: it cannot be stockpiled. The grace of God cannot be hoarded.

Earlier in this chapter in the Gospel of John, Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed thousands of people who had followed him. It is in the context of discussing this miracle that Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry” (John 6:35). Verse 41 states,  ^“Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” This recalls the provision of manna for the ancient Israelites when they were wandering in the wilderness after their escape from enslavement in Egypt.

After about six weeks in the desert, the ancient Israelites are hungry and they “complain” to their leaders, Moses and Aaron: “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:3). In response, “the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day…””(Exodus 16:4). This bread from heaven took the form of “a fine flaky substance” that remained after the morning dew had dried (Exodus 16:14).  ^“The Israelites called it manna; it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:31).

An important aspect of this “bread from heaven” was that it could not be stockpiled. For five days of the week, the people were permitted to gather enough for that day’s food, a measurement called an omer. If a person gathered more than one omer, the excess vanished (Exodus 16:18). If they tried to save some of one day’s measure for the following day, the food became “wormy and rotten” (Exodus 16:20). Everyone got enough: even those who could not gather as much found that their manna expanded to be one omer. But it could not be hoarded. On the sixth day, the people gathered enough for two days, and the extra measure remained fresh for the sabbath day, on which no one gathered (Exodus 16:22-26). In this account, the ancient Israelites ate manna for forty years until they reached the land of Canaan (Exodus 16:45).

Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah, looks back upon this time in the wilderness and declares that the experience of hunger and the provision of manna served to make the people “understand that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). In the Gospel of John, Jesus is identified as the Word of God. The Gospel of John begins with “In the beginning was the Word” and shortly thereafter states: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). While Jesus can easily provide bread to feed a hungry crowd, he is more than “bread alone,” he is the “word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). This makes Jesus a very specific kind of manna.

In John 6, “the Jews began to complain,” as did the ancient Israelites in the Exodus account. Here the particular complaint is that Jesus refers to himself as “the bread that came down from heaven,” as manna (John 6:41). It is important to note the way the author specifies “the Jews.” Many books have been written about the relationship between the author of the Fourth Gospel and Judaism. Here it is enough to note that the author, as best we know, was semitic and raised as a Jew. Yet he repeatedly refers to “the Jews” using language that marks Jews as other: he writes of Jewish people as “them” rather than “us.”  The author of the Gospel writes to a mixed audience, explaining Jewish traditions as if to someone unfamiliar. The Gospel of John itself offers the “bread from heaven,” the opportunity to believe in Jesus, to gentiles as well as Jews. Verse 47 states, “whoever believes has eternal life.” This is the first modification to the meaning of manna: it is offered to everyone, and all can partake through belief.

The second modification is the promise of eternal life. Jesus says, “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. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever,” (John 6:48-51). Unlike manna that sustains daily life, Jesus offers eternal life to all who believe in him.

Here, as elsewhere in the Gospel of John, eternal life does not mean everlasting survival. In John 11: 25-26, Jesus says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Eternal life is a kind of life, a quality of life that is marked by creative and expansive love. This love is for God and for the world that God loves. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Eternal life is portrayed as continuing after death, in a form we cannot yet comprehend, but it starts now in love.

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, the voices of Christian Nationalists are getting louder and more persistent. They want the U.S. to be a Christian nation, a possibility that is contrary to the founders’ intent, the necessities of democratic government, and the theological irrelevance of national borders. Christian Nationalists claim that they are following Jesus, yet their proposals do not seek to feed the multitudes. Their plans are not marked by creative and expansive love.

Christian Nationalism is an attempt to make the United States a nation for Christians, run by Christians. The flip side of this coin is the belief that somehow the United States is the most Christian nation, one especially loved by God. We can see this link in the McCarthy-era addition of “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. This was added in 1954, during a “Red Scare,” and it went along with intense messaging that capitalism was sanctified and communism was godless. This side of the coin—that the U.S. is especially beloved by God—is more palatable, and slips into political rhetoric from both parties. Various forms of the word “blessing” do heavy lifting here, seeming to humbly thank God while simultaneously declaring one’s country to be God’s favorite.

Christian Nationalism, in all its forms and guises, is an attempt to hoard manna. To store up more of God’s provision for some and not others. This is not hoarding as a disorder–wherein a person finds it incredibly difficult to let go of random items such as newspapers or take-out containers. Rather, it is hoarding as a strategy to ensure security and gain elevated status in a world of apparent scarcity. This is contrary to the nature of bread from heaven.

Much of the world appears as a zero-sum game, a matter of addition and subtraction. There are limited resources: if one person has more, another person has less. In this context, insecurity might lead someone to accumulate as much of the available resources as possible. However, God’s grace and provision are not limited resources: daily provision of manna sustained the ancient Israelites for 40 years. God does not operate with zero-sum logic, with mere addition and subtraction. Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed thousands. 

The attempt to hoard manna that operates in Christian Nationalism appears less like a grasp for security and more like an attempt to gain elevated status. Yet Jesus offers bread from heaven to everyone, and to partake of this bread from heaven is to participate in God’s expansive and creative love for the entire world. Any effort to secure special status in the eyes of God is a rejection of manna.

God’s grace and provision cannot be manipulated by humans for their own ends. It might appear successful. It might even help win an election. But hoarded manna will always become “wormy and rotten” (Exodus 16:20).