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The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
- John 6:41-51
In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught: "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus is in the synagogue now at Capernaum. The leadership complains -- He's in a familiar place in which people know His family as they are from this region, Galilee.
Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'" The quotation is from Isaiah 54:13, contained within a prophecy of the future of the people of God.
"Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life." Here's an important clue repeated about the nature of this faith. It begins with the Father. Those who are delivered to Christ are "given" by the Father, as Jesus has said in yesterday's reading. Faith ties all in; Jesus and the Father are one -- and our faith is meant to make us one as well.
"I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." Jesus repeats for emphasis -- He is the bread of life. The life He offers is a kind of life beyond their concepts of what life is and means and consists of. This is an absolute life, something that adds the quantity of life to all things in which it is embraced. The closeness of this connection is as bread which nourishes and becomes a part of us, giving us our health, our lives, our bodies. And He will give His flesh for the life of the world. This begins a new passage which will be in Monday's reading. My study bible reminds us of the Eucharistic significance in the words. The fact that He Himself is the living bread that gives life reveals the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church. He also refers to His sacrifice, in perhaps the first glimmer in His ministry of what is to come in the future.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, there are only three people in the whole history of the Church who have received the honorable title Theologian (these men are also known as saints). One of them is John the Evangelist (also called John the Theologian), the author of our gospel. In today's passage,it is evident why He was given such a title. John's gospel tends to explain to us the significance of Jesus' teaching and actions, taking us from the mundane understanding of those listening who cannot grasp what He's getting at, and to the theological perspective of the significance of Jesus' words and teachings. This happens over and over again in the Gospel. But perhaps nowhere more powerfully than here -- and in its continuance in Monday's reading, in which the allusion to the Eucharist is very clear. But John starts from the notion not that Jesus is the Christ who is our bread from heaven, but that in Christ is life itself. We never lose sight of the power in this life itself, the life in this One who has been given the power of life (and therefore death), who is our bread of life because the key to this everlasting life beyond our understanding is our depth of relationship with Him. If we understand Him to be "bread from heaven" then we see that His words teach us about just who close He wants us to be with Him and just how dependent upon Him He considers us to be -- we who would receive this life. So, while we rest on Sunday, wherever we are, while we are in church, let's think about what it means that He is our bread of life. In our next reading, on Monday, He will elaborate much more clearly on this subject.
