I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Jesus is speaking to a crowd who keep pointing back to the manna their ancestors ate in the desert. Here He calls Himself the living bread, and then points ahead to the death by which He will feed the world.
The Person who speaks
No ordinary teacher could say what He says here. He came down from heaven, and in the same breath He speaks of flesh He will give away. Commentators note that both sides of who He is stand in this one sentence. You cannot pull one from the other.
E. C. HadleyHe speaks of Himself as the living bread come down from heaven. Yet in the same sentence He says that He, the One who came down from heaven, will give His flesh as bread for the life of the world. Two natures stand here in His Person: manhood and eternal deity. Yet no one can separate them in His actions.
Two gifts, not one
The verse names two separate gifts. The Father gave Him by sending Him down. Now He speaks of something He will hand over Himself.
W. TrotterIn coming down, in becoming man, He was the bread of God, His Father's gift. But there was bread which He Himself would give: His own flesh, which He would give for the life of the world. This giving of His flesh was the laying down of His life. It was His yielding Himself up to death. So He might become to sinners — to fallen, perishing men — what bread would be to a crowd of people starving with hunger.
Why bread must be prepared
The crowd had raised the subject of the manna, the food God rained down in the desert. One writer points out that nobody ate that bread as it fell. It had to be prepared first.
C. E. StuartThe crowd had drawn attention to the manna. The Lord here reminds them that, though it sustained life, it never did preserve from death. He, however, the living bread, as He now presents Himself, could give everlasting life to those who eat of it. But, as with the manna of old, so with the living bread: something more had to happen before anyone could eat it. The manna was first pounded in a mortar, or ground in a mill, and then baked in a pan (Num. 11:8). He who is the living bread had first to die; for to profit by Him as the bread of life they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.
From coming down to laying down
Halfway through the verse the subject shifts. Up to now He has spoken of His coming from heaven. From here on He speaks of His death. The people in view widen too.
William KellyThere is a marked change in our Lord's discourse. He turns from His incarnation to His death. In both cases He speaks of eating. In scripture it is the well-known picture for making something your own, or for close fellowship. He was not only the Living Bread that came down out of heaven, that one might eat and live for ever. He would give His flesh for the life not of Jews only but of mankind, or as He says "for the life of the world."
What "eat" asks of you
Bread does no good sitting on the table. The wording He uses tells us how a person takes Him in — and for how long.
F. B. HoleThe tense of the verb "eat" in verses 51 and 53 is worth noticing. Darby's New Translation translates them as "if anyone shall have eaten…" and "unless you shall have eaten…". It means an act of taking Christ for yourself, done once for all. This act must happen if a person is to live toward God. There is no life without taking hold of the death of Christ by faith. This, however, does not rule out eating as a habit. The word appears four more times, in verses 54, 56, 57 and 58. The life received has to be fed and kept up. So the one who has eaten still eats… He has believed, and he goes on believing.
Not a word about the Lord's Supper
Because the verse speaks of bread and flesh, it is often read as being about the Lord's Supper. Commentators distinguish the two sharply, on the grounds of who each is addressed to and what each does.
C. E. StuartEating Christ's flesh and drinking Christ's blood (John 6:53-54) gives life. Eating of the supper does not. As the Bread from heaven, the Lord presents Himself to the world (John 6:33, 51). But He set up the supper for disciples only… No one should eat of the supper who has not first eaten of His flesh and drunk of His blood. For who has a part now in the blessed results of His death, but those who believe on Him?
Summary
- Given — the Father gave Him as bread by sending Him down; He then gives His own flesh, and that second gift is His death.
- Ground — people pounded and baked the manna before eating it; in the same way the living bread had first to die.
- Wide — He gives His flesh for the life of the world, not for one nation only.
- Eaten — eating means taking Christ for yourself: one decisive act of faith, then a lifetime of feeding on the same Christ.
- Forever — the manna sustained people who still died; this bread gives life that does not end.