Bible
Of all the "I AM" statements uttered by Jesus, "I AM the bread of life" may be the most intriguing and perhaps most influential on Christian thought, doctrine, and practice (John 6:35). The full passage in John 6:35 reads, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." The statement accomplishes several theological goals, the most important of which is solidifying the deity of Christ. By using the statement, "I AM," Jesus connects Himself to the almighty God of the Old Testament, which was also represented in terms of I AM. The John 6:35 "I AM" statement also contains powerful imagery that connects the passage with the feeding of the multitudes miracle. Indeed, Jesus utters, "I AM the bread of life" immediately after performing the miracle. Therefore, John 6:35 establishes Jesus's identity as the Son of God incarnate, in fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. Jesus's statement contains imagery of the eternal life and salvation that can be experienced only with faith.
Jesus uses the "I AM" grammatical construction at least twenty times during the course of the gospels. John makes seven references to these statements, ("Did Jesus Identify Himself as God?" n.d.). The repetition of a grammatical structure as strong and assertive as this one helps Jesus to attract and command His audience's attention. If His "I AM" statement were only uttered once, then it would not be as apparent that Jesus was making sure to establish His cosmological and theological role as the Son of God. By using the phrase "I AM" repeatedly, He is unequivocally asserting His deity, and ensuring that His current and would-be believers do not allow their minds to stray from that fact.
The "I AM" sentence construction links Jesus with Moses in the Old Testament. When Moses asked God for His name, God replied by using the construction "I AM." The phrase is mysterious and mystical, requiring spiritual contemplation. Jesus helps to ground the statement in a more accessible reality, which was easier for His disciples at Galilee...
The statement "I AM" is a self-assertion, which makes the ineffable understandable to the small mind of a human being. Old Testament references to God's ineffable nature are abundant. God Almighty has no actual name, which is why the repeated "I AM" constructions are necessary. In Exodus, God 3:14, for instance, God calls Himself "I AM THAT I AM."
Direct experience of the Almighty Father might be impossible, but Jesus is the key to understanding God. One of the core meanings of John 6:35 is thus to establish, solidify, and assert the deity of Christ, in part by connecting Christ to the God of the Old Testament. To His audience of Jews, the connection with Moses would have been palpable.
Another core function of John 6:35 is to reveal the importance of faith and salvation in Christ. When Jesus utters the "I AM" statement, He does so immediately after the miracle of multiplication. The miracle is therefore substantiated, supported, and combined with the "I AM" statement so that Jesus can help change minds and hearts. Jesus draws a decisive distinction between physical and spiritual nourishment in John 6:35. Whereas the multitudes He fed did indeed need bread to survive physically, Jesus claims that their more pressing need is for spiritual bread. Bread and feeding become a central metaphor for Jesus to connect Himself with the needs of the people. "Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty," implies that spiritual nourishment is far more important than physical nourishment. Belief in Christ is superior to belief in the limiting and finite nourishment of physical bread. "Jesus also uses absolutes in this statement, such as the term "never." The term "never" parallels the fact that Christ promises to deliver eternal life.
From a literary perspective, "There are two types of food, namely literal food and figurative food," (van der Watt, 2007, p. 187). Literal food offers only temporary and mundane sustenance. Figurative food, on the…
