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

 

 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 form 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 

 

Recently we read that, after He fed five thousand men (and more women and children), the people sought to make Jesus king by force.  Jesus sent the disciples away in a boat, and later caught up to them, walking on the water.  The people followed Him to Capernaum across the Sea of Galilee, realizing that He had gone from the place of the feeding.  He began to teach them, "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 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 form the Father comes to Me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father."  Here Jesus makes one of His more intriguing statements about not only the relationship of Father to Son, but of the Father with human beings:  "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him."  Although He makes clear that it is only He who is from God and has seen the Father, those people who come to Him have heard and learned from the Father in some mystical way.

 

 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."  Here Christ becomes even more explicit regarding Himself as the bread of life, the living bread which came down from heaven, as He has hinted throughout this discourse.  This last verse and the ones which follow reveal the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church, my study Bible comments.  The eucharistic significance here is unmistakable, particularly when we consider that those first to hear the Gospel were already familiar with the events of Christ's Crucifixion, death, and Resurrection.

 

 Today's reading asks us to think about sacrifice, and what sacrifice means and is. Because, looking carefully at Christ's words, that He is the bread of life, the bread which comes down from heaven, the living bread -- is all tied up with the confirmation that this bread that He shall give is His flesh, which He shall give for the life of the world.  Christ's words tie together a story, a kind of journey, sometimes in popular culture this is referred to as a hero's journey, and is tied together with the arc of a story -- perhaps of one's life, perhaps of a myth which teaches us about ourselves and about life, and perhaps about a hero whom we know of.  In this case, the hero's journey is the journey that is at the center of our lives and even of the world, for it is the hero's journey of the One who brings us salvation -- whose heroic sacrifice is indeed even "for the life of the world."  Note how Christ does not parse or mince words, and think about what this phrase means, "for the life of the world."  He is not "pulling His punches," so to speak.  For the life of the world the Church takes to mean just that, the life of the whole world, of all of creation.  For "world" here is not the word for this world, or the earth.  It is κοσμος/kosmos (cosmos), which includes all of creation, the universe, even the angelic beings whose many ranks and tasks remain mysteries to us.  Christ's "heroic journey" of salvation, includes all of that, everything about all that we know, and is given freely so that all may have life.  Even the word for "life" here implies mystery.  For life is not limited simply to things that we perceive as alive to us and not dead.  Life in the words of Christ is used to imply a mystical continuum of the qualities of life, the abundance of life, all of which we can't know nor understand from our perspective.  Jesus will speak of life in abundance ("I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" - John 10:10), and life everlasting ("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" - John 6:27).  But while we may get hints and allusions to what exactly these terms mean, we don't really know the fullness of the life that Christ promises to us.  We don't necessarily know what that looks like, feels like, or how it manifests, because it is part of His kingdom.  Christ's miracles or signs point to that Kingdom, a reality where our normal assumptions of limits, potentials, possibilities clearly don't apply, and expectations are commonly thwarted.  Most mysterious of all is the will of God and the manifestations of God's presence, for they present themselves unannounced and often in a fullness that demands we readjust our expectations.  Really, the entire New Testament is the place where this happens, where the expectations of the people are given a shaking, new meanings, and unforeseen manifestations -- such as in today's reading.  In the readings that follow, Christ will continue to befuddle even some of His disciples, and to their consternation and disappointment, even falling away.  But we are following where our Hero leads us, where His life for us teaches us to go to follow Him, and we trust (the real root of belief) because He first loved us.