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Jesus has already been given many names: Immanuel (“God with us”), Messiah (“Anointed one”), and Jesus (“God saves us”). But after a long day of feeding five thousand hungry souls and a long night of walking on the water, Jesus gives himself a new name. “I am the bread of life,” he declares. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). Did you catch it? Jesus is taking up God’s holy and sacred name, the same name revealed to Moses at the burning bush. This is easy for us to miss when reading English translations. But for the listeners and readers of Jesus’ time, this was impossible to miss.
By taking God’s holy and sacred name as his own, Jesus reminds listeners then and now of God’s promises across the generations. He invites them into the story of God’s love and liberation. His listeners ask for a sign and remind him of the gift of manna in the wilderness. But Jesus, who has just fed them physically and spiritually, says, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “God’s name, God’s promise” by Hannah Hawkinson in the March/April/May 2026 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Jiri Tranovsky, hymnwriter, 1637.