(a) Explain Jesus' teaching about himself as the living water and bread of life. [12 marks]
(b) Mention three ways in which man is denied of the bread of life today. [3 marks]
Explanation
ohn 4:7-15; 6:25-40 (a)
(i) Jesus asked the woman of Samaria for water.
(ii) The woman refused Jesus because he was a Jew.
(iii)in his encounter with the Samaritan woman, Jesus said 'Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again'.
(iv) 'but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give, him will never thirst'.
(v) He said the water He would give would become in the drinker a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
(vi) This living water is a gift from God, it is eternal.
(vii) The living water is spiritual: He is an ever-flowing fountain, which permanently quenches thirst.
(viii) It is available to everyone who asks.
(ix) Jesus explained that it was not Moses but God who gave the fathers bread from heaven.
(x) He further explained that the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.
(xi) He therefore declared, "I am the bread of life, he who comes to me shall not hunger.
(xii) And he who believes in me shall never thirst.
(xiii) Jesus came down from heaven not to do his own will but the will of the father who sent him.
(xiv) The will of the Father was to see that he (Jesus) should lose nothing of all that God had given him.
(xv) It was also the will of the Father that he who believed in Jesus would have eternal life and that Jesus would raise him up at the last day.
(b) Ways in which people are denied the bread of life:
(i) Ignorance of the word.
(ii) Machinations of the devil.
(iii) Inadequate spiritual guidance.
(iv) Anxieties of life.
(v) Lack of faith.
(vi) Poverty
(vii) War/conflict
(viii) Diseases
(ix) Famine and drought
(x) Political instability.