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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 this not 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 recent readings, Jesus has fed thousands in the wilderness, after which they sought to make Him king, and have followed Him across the Sea of Galilee. He began to speak to them of the true bread from heaven. In yesterday's reading, He 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 this not 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.'" This quotation is from the prophecy of Isaiah (54:13).
"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." What begins here is a passage teaching the significance of the Eucharist, which we shall read further in tomorrow's reading. For now, what we notice here is the powerful pull of the Father in all things; even we who may come to Christ do so from a kind of prompting by the Father. In this sense, Jesus is the "living bread" which came down from heaven, which draws us back to the Father and eternal life. We remember that this chapter began by telling us that the Passover is near, and so these teachings about the bread of heaven or bread of God are fulfillment of the Old Testament type of the Israelites fed in the wilderness. This is the second Passover reported in John's gospel; Jesus' death will take place one year from this time. His teaching regarding His flesh, which He shall give for the life of the world reflects that event to come.
As we've repeatedly seen, all things go back to the Father with Jesus. The Father is the one who gives the Son to the world. The Father has sent the Son as the bread from heaven. But there's something else in today's reading that is so powerful, and significant. Jesus quotes from Isaiah, saying, "And they shall all be taught by God," and then He tells us, "Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." It is an awesome sort of statement that somehow this "hearing" and "learning" from the Father is also in us. That means that what Jesus will speak about at the Last Supper is shown all through John's gospel: that the Father isn't just a far away God so that Christ is sent to us as mediator. He's saying that the Father is also, somehow, in us and with us. God the Father, whom the Son follows in all things, is also present in us, teaching us and even speaking with us. It is the Father who prompts us to follow Christ. This is a relationship of love that is complete and full, and inclusive of everything, Creator and creature, and all that this means. Jesus calls those who follow Him that which has been given to Him by the Father. In yesterday's reading, He taught, "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." We are part of "all He has given Me." But today's reading completes the circle. God the Father's work in us is a speaking and teaching, from which we must "hear and learn" so that we come to the Son. I can't say that I could define how this mysterious action happens, nor even the depths at which the Father is in us and at which we learn from Him. But we're promised by the Son that this is so, and that we could not come to the Son otherwise. It is tied to the love of God, to relationship at the depths of ourselves in the first place. Jesus has taught the leadership that they cannot "hear" Him because they don't have the love of God the Father in themselves in the first place. So it all starts with this loving relationship with the Father to begin with, somewhere deep inside ourselves. At the Last Supper, Jesus will become more explicit about the depths and inclusion of such relationship: "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" (John 17:21). This is an extension of this relationship: through the word of the disciples, there will be those who believe and these too will be part of this prayer that "they all may be one" -- as the Father is in Christ and Christ in the Father, so He prays that we may be one in Father and Son as well. All of this completed, universal, cosmic relationship is bound up in faith and none is separate from the other. It's not just the Son who has seen the Father, except in the sense that the Son contains all the properties of the Father, is a divine person like the Father. But Father and Son are also in us, and He is here to let none of us be lost, to let none of us go. So, we are not just invited but rather guaranteed that we are a part of something so great and so far beyond us that we are included in a relationship of love that invites and includes the entire cosmos, all of creation. That's what we take from this reading today, and Jesus' amazing words that we "shall all be taught by God." Again, we we remarked in yesterday's reading, we're given a picture that seems to stand the world on its head. What if we are really and truly loved and held from the inception of creation, by the very Father whose will the Son always follows? What if the Father Himself has a voice in us, teaching us? And that this "voice" is the root of faith in the Son? In Matthew's gospel, after Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus tells Him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:16-17). The most important thing we can realize from this is how much we are loved, how we are held in relationship, and how complete and full is that relationship. This is the God of love, who acts and works in us to give us an eternal life with Him. This is the Father who gave us His Son so that we may find this salvation and life in abundance and eternal. This is the love with which held, created, and sustained -- that wants to give us everything it can and add all things possible to us.
