“I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst … He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:35, 47)
In the 2020 First Presidency Christmas Devotional, President Nelson taught: “Jesus was born in Bethlehem. That word in Hebrew, bet lehem, means ‘house of bread.’ How appropriate that He, the ‘bread of life,’ would come from the ‘house of bread”.
During Old Testament times, the great Jehovah provided life-sustaining manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 16). During His earthly ministry, Christ fed thousands by miraculously multiplying loaves of bread (Matthew 14 & 15). During His Last Supper, Christ initiated the Sacrament ordinance, in which we symbolically eat bread in remembrance of His body (Luke 22).
Thomas R. Valletta tied these events together, teaching; “The similitudes of unleavened bread, the manna, the loaves, and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper sustain each other in testifying of “the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32).”
The bread that Jesus offers does more than satisfy hungry crowds and sustain physical life. It fills each of us as we “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6), sustains us spiritually and prepares us for eternal life.
How then, do we accept the bread that Christ offers us? President Howard W. Hunter counseled: “We must know Christ better than we know him; we must remember him more often than we remember him; we must serve him more valiantly than we serve him. Then we will drink water springing up unto eternal life and will eat the bread of life”.
Sources:
First Presidency Christmas Devotional, 2020
Thomas R. Valletta–The True Bread of Life
Howard W. Hunter–What Manner of Men Ought Ye to Be?