Who doesn’t love free food? Free food always draws a crowd, right? Even if it’s not tacos. Bottom line: If you want people to come out in droves offer free food. And so the crowds flocked after Jesus. But Jesus was offering them more than the type of bread that is dead and ultimately decaying. Jesus is the Bread of Life itself. He won’t let you down. He won’t leave you hungry for more. He won’t make you thirsty. Trust Him. He is true Food, the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else.

It is one of the great and wonderful paradoxes of the New Testament – the Lamb will be their Shepherd – those two images, that of lamb and shepherd coalesce in Jesus. He is both Lamb and Shepherd, both Sacrifice and King, the one who dies and rises and the one who lords His death and resurrection over us to save us. At His birth, shepherds left their lambs in the fields of Bethlehem to worship Him. In His death He is most Lamb and most Shepherd, giving His life into death and leading humanity through the dark valley of death to eternal life.

Now by extension what people think about Jesus will also shape what they think about His followers. About us. Today we increasingly see people expressing these negative views about Christ, and we need to be prepared for people to say the same stuff about us. But at the same time, there is another opinion about Jesus’ followers that we will discover in our text. There are three opinions in this text and only one really matters.