Truly, Truly! – Bread of Life
Truly, Truly! – Bread of Life.
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you. Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I AM the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:32-35).
There is a much-used Hebrew word in the Hebrew Bible that points to its root word “truth.” The Greek in the New Testament also picked it up and used it for “truth” as well. That common Hebrew word is “amen.”
Amen. This biblical word basically means: This is truth! I agree that this is true! Yes! We heartily accept and approve of what was said! We are assured that this is certainly true! So be it! We believe this is trustworthy and we take it to heart!
Amen! Amen! is often translated as Truly, Truly, or Verily, Verily in the New Testament. This double Amen is only recorded in the gospel of John, and is said by Jesus before He offers a statement, not after. He is the only Person to say this, because He is the only Person who has the authority to say this before He says it. This double Amen, as opposed to a single Amen, must be an important distinction for Jesus, because He felt compelled to use this preface twenty-five times in John. When Jesus begins a statement with that double “Truly,” He is intending to be doubly intense when He says it, and so He wants the listener to be doubly attentive. He wants to emphasize the importance of His words. He is saying, In all truth I tell you. He wants the listener to focus, and He is serious about preparing the listener to be receptive. When Jesus says Truly, Truly, He is saying: Most assuredly, what I am about to tell you is absolutely true and trustworthy. So listen up, because an eternal truth is coming to you now. In all sincerity, says Jesus, this is the solemn truth. Take these words in, says Jesus, and have them go into your mind and then straight to your heart. For these words of mine are double truth, they are doubly true. Jesus might as well have been saying… And you readers out there centuries from now, get ready to apply your hot pink highlighter, get ready to do some double underlining! Truly, Truly, what you are about to hear is the honest to goodness truth. This is True! Really True!
Living Bread. Soon after Jesus’ astounding feeding of the 5,000 and His walking on the turbulent Sea, He was surrounded in the synagogue by a few of the people who had been fed so miraculously earlier. Jesus saw this as a teachable moment for His audience, especially after someone in His audience said to Him, We’ll believe you if you can show us another miracle, another sign. After all, (this person continued), Moses fed our ancestors with manna in the wilderness all those years (Exodus 16). If you’re the long-awaited Prophet to replace Him, what sign can you do for us? Jesus couldn’t wait to dignify this awkward question with a self-revelation that is profound and puzzling. Jesus decided to mix the spiritual and the physical in an interesting way. He told them, Are you looking for bread from heaven? Are you seeking a sign like manna in the desert? Didn’t you just get fed out in the middle of nowhere? Well, think of this, then. I AM the Bread of Life. Think about that manna with Moses. I am like that, only I AM the living bread that came down from heaven to give His life to feed the world. Come to me and you will never be spiritually hungry again. Come to me, take me into your innermost being, into your deepest self, and you will live forever. The living Bread I give you is myself, my own body, which I will offer as a sacrifice so that all may live. My body is real food for the soul, and my blood is real drink. Unless you eat my body and take me into yourself, and drink my blood while you’re at it, you will not have eternal life. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. I am the Bread, the living Manna, that comes from heaven to feed you unto eternal life. Think of me as spiritual manna for your souls. (read John 6:26-58).
I AM: the outlandish claim of Jesus to be co-equal to the eternal God in heaven; the personal Name of Yahweh given to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14; an abbreviated version of the Great I AM, Yahweh, I AM WHO I AM, I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; the scandalous self-declaration of Jesus that He has eternal kinship with the God of Israel; the claim of Jesus that He was divine, and not merely a super-prophet, master teacher, or faith healer; the bombshell self-revelation that He is at one with the Father; an important part of Jesus’ self-identity that He used 23 times in the Gospel of John; the verbal name tag that Jesus liked to wear in both public and private settings.
Taste and See. You’re starting to feel hungry. But you’re not sure what would satisfy your hunger. Nothing is particularly appetizing, and you wonder what food would hit the spot out of all the options available. All of a sudden you see a beautiful round loaf of artisan bread. You smell the rich, yeasty sourdough aroma. You touch the thick, crusty, warm loaf. And you feel the empty rumblings in your stomach. Earlier you didn’t realize you were hungry for fresh bread. But now you know. This is what you were hungering for all along. And after one small taste of its delicious flavor and texture, with a thick layer of melting butter on top, your hunger is satisfied. All it took was one mouthful to convince you. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8).
Like that hungry person above, we were all born with an appetite, a spiritual appetite for God. Only sometimes we aren’t sure what we’re hungering for. You live your life, you seem more or less content. You’re basically a good person, you wouldn’t want to intentionally hurt anybody. You love, and you are loved, for the most part. Why look for more? Life seems just fine the way it is. You just aren’t all that hungry. But you have a vague dissatisfaction, a hint of hunger for something that would bring you more substance. You are starting to feel a hunger for something else in your life, something to sink your teeth into. You sense you need something to stick to your spiritual ribs. You ask yourself, Am I feeding my soul with something it could chew on? You sense you might be having spiritual hunger pangs.
And then, like the hungry person above eating the sourdough bread, you start to experience something that makes you hungry for the bread of life.
You see. Maybe you saw someone who radiated joy and peace, and you wanted just a taste of that in your life. Maybe you witnessed an act of compassion that seemed to sum up the whole point of life. Maybe you met someone who seemed to have an intimacy with God that was like spreading a banquet right in front of you. Perhaps in this way you have seen the fresh bread available to you, your mouth waters, and you could almost taste it.
You sniff. Maybe you walk into a home and you inhale peace in that place. Perhaps you talk with someone and you smell a fragrance from another world, a better world. Maybe you read something that brings a flutter to your heart, a jolt to your mind, a sweet desire to your spirit. This aroma from another world, God’s world, has awakened your taste buds and whets your appetite for fresh bread.
You touch. Maybe in your hunger you shake hands with an old saint, or you get a bear hug from someone who loves you. Perhaps you are holding what might be a holy book, and you love the feel of its pages as you read them, one after the other, food for thought. In some mysterious way, maybe a single touch has brought to mind something transcendent, a hunger for the source of such grace.
You feel. If you’re honest with yourself, your sense of hunger is now more pronounced. There is no denying your hunger pangs for something to satisfy you at a deeper level. You feel the rumbling in your spirit, the quiet growling of your soul for something with substance to chew on. Your longing for soul food points to the bread of life, and nothing else will satisfy you.
You taste. You are tentative at first. Will this bread feed my soul and satisfy my hunger? You decide to dig in with a taste. You acknowledge that your soul is somehow fed, your spirit has a glimmer of satisfaction. You wonder if your good life will now progress to a holy life. You tasted the fresh bread and now nothing else will taste as good. You know that you will want to fill your mind and spirit with this bread, and draw all the nutrition possible from it. The good life wasn’t good enough. You are now convinced that you were craving this bread all along.