John 4:4-7
The Living Water
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
John 6:25-59
The Living Bread
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Jesus teaches us He is the Living Water...He also teaches us He is the Living Bread...He is both the Water of Life and the Bread of Life that came down from heaven...His very being provides us with not only this life, but eternal life...
Jesus talks about their ancestors and forefathers when they were in the desert with Moses leading the way to the Promised Land...His Father helped them as they wandered for forty years in the desert...He provided them, both with the necessary water they needed and their daily bread with the manna He provided each day...God's people as they crossed the desert would need to eat and drink each day for their survival...Jesus reminds us that although their ancestors ate the manna and drank the water His Father provided, they eventually died...The food that was provided was not food of immortality or eternal life...The ancestors ate the food for the daily survival and then later in their years they would pass on...
Jesus is not the ordinary...He is not ordinary Water and Bread, as.He compares Himself to Water and Bread...He IS the Living Water...He IS the Bread of Life of eternal life...God, His Father has sent Him down from heaven...Jesus broke bread with many people in His time...And Jesus ate with a most eclectic group of people...He ate with tax collectors, shepherds, the poor, the rich, and fishermen...He broke bread with a group of four thousand people at a time, with just seven loaves of bread and a few small fish (and all their appetites were satisfied)...He broke bread with a group of five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish (and all their appetites, too, were satisfied)...He ate with the downcast, people who were not respected in the society, the sick, and strangers...His dinner table was open to anyone...Because He had given them bread and they saw what He could do with small amounts of bread (and fish), they were ready to make Him their leader...But He is much more than bread, fish, and water...
The flesh is weak and grows old and dies...And drinking blood was forbidden by the Jews...When Jesus said eat My Flesh, and Drink My Blood (it means to me), I AM the Bread and Water of not only this Life, but Eternal Life...He is telling us -I, Myself is what provides your daily living...Your flesh will die like your ancestors did...But I AM the Key to to eternal life...He holds the Golden Key to heaven...Jesus is the Golden Key to eternal life...He gives us not only life in this world, but to eternal life, and our soul's life in our after-death...Jesus says His Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have this eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day...He who believes in Jesus will have everlasting life...Eating His Flesh and drinking His Water is to believe in Him, and to trust in Him...And those who have faith, believe, and trust in Him shall share their eternal life with Him and the One who sent Him, His Father...We will be united with the Son and Father on the Last Day when we are raised up by Him...