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

 

 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 learned 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 

 

We are presently reading through chapter 6 of John's Gospel.   Earlier in the chapter, Jesus fed five thousand men (and more women and children) in the wilderness; after this, wanted to forcefully make Him king, but He evaded them.  In yesterday's reading, He taught the people, "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 from the Father comes to Me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father."    Once more, Jesus affirms the connection made first through God the Father drawing people to faith in Christ, just as He said that it was God the Father who revealed Jesus as Christ to St. Peter at Peter's confession (see Matthew 16:16-17).    In yesterday's reading, as we can read above, Jesus taught the people, "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."  So we can see the repeated emphasis that everything -- including the faith of human beings that Jesus is the Christ -- has come from the Father, and even that it is the Father who draws people to faith in Christ.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 54:13, connecting Isaiah's statement explicitly with "everyone who has heard and learned from 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."  Here Jesus begins a passage, which will continue into the following reading tomorrow, which is full of eucharistic significance.  My study bible says that Christ's declaration that He is Himself the living bread that gives life is a revelation of the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church.  It notes that John does not give the details of the Last Supper (such as the "words of institution") which are recorded in Luke 22:19-20).  Instead, John's Gospel gives us the significance and truth of these events -- which we must keep in mind were already known to the hearers of the Gospel -- as John reports Jesus' own words.  

John's Gospel makes extremely strong connections between human beings and the divine reality of Christ.  Not only does Jesus repeatedly say (in yesterday's and today's readings) that our faith that He is the Christ comes from the Father, and that we human beings are "given" to Christ by the Father, but also that we may become more surely connected to divine life through the food that He will give us, the bread which came down from heaven.  He declares Himself to be the bread of life, a food which conveys eternal life through faith.  He is the living bread which came down from heaven.  To eat of this bread also confers divine attributes as it gives immortality.  He says, " 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 is clearly referring to His crucifixion which is to come, and to the Eucharist in which we "eat of this bread" which is "My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."   There will be more on this explicitly in tomorrow's reading, as Jesus continues His discourse.  But let us note first of all in today's reading the deep connection that John's Gospel makes between human beings and the life of the divine.  For in these words in today's reading Jesus makes the most powerful connection possible between His mission and ministry into the world, and the offering of participation in divine life that it entails for humanity.  Not only are we "given" to Christ by the action of God the Father, but we also come to faith through the work of God the Father in us.  Moreover, Christ's saving sacrifice on the Cross will be made explicitly to unite us to Himself, and confer the attribute of eternal life -- a purely divine reality -- upon us, and through faith.  This is the substance of the Eucharist, its very meaning, as my study bible points out.  It is not a picture of a "two-story" world, in which the purely flesh and purely worldly are here where we live, and God's world is "up there" in the heavens.  It is much, much more than that.  This is a powerful statement about our very being, that Christ has come to unite both and specifically in us.  And it is not just a mission of Christ alone, but works first and last through the very action of God the Father in us, bringing us to recognition of Jesus, the Son of Man, as Christ, and to the true substance of the Eucharist, so that we might have eternal life as well.  We partake of the food of Christ Himself, who is the bread of life.  It is a way of telling us in the most complete terms possible that not only are we offered the grace to participate in this divine life even as we are human beings in this world, but that Christ's very substance is given to us as food for this divine life in us.  Just as we eat worldly bread to become substance for our bodies, so we might also partake of the bread of eternal life which is Christ Himself.  If we look at the story which began this chapter, the feeding of the five thousand, we can see a metaphor, a kind of illustration, in the picking up of the twelve baskets full of fragments which were left over from the loaves and the fishes.  It reminds us of Jesus' words that of all the Father has given to Him, nothing will be lost (see yesterday's reading, above).  It is yet another facet of the story of Christ as the bread of heaven upon which we may be feed, reminding us that absolutely nothing is cast aside, lost, forgotten.  There are no "crumbs" from this food, only the precious substance of life itself, of the divine reality made present for us and vital in our lives, teaching us that we are meant to be held in the hand of God and given this significance too.  As it is the Father who begins this circle or communion which engulfs and "informs" us in our capacity for participation, so we must acknowledge that Christ's mission to us is of the highest possible significance.  It is our very faith that Jesus is the Christ that confers that significance upon us, giving us participation in divine life, touched by the action of the Father.  If all of this is too heady to consider, just think about what we might see in the world:  the cheapness of life caught up in violence, or reduced by addiction, or destroyed with slavery for its  own purposes such as human trafficking, or cast off by the unloving and uncaring.  These images from our world in which life is not upheld in the vision of the divine that Christ brings for us, are all diminishing movements that deny the power of faith not only to confer meaning and value, but also to give life and love itself to each one, regardless of circumstance or place in this world.   To diminish life is a lie, because Christ has told us the truth about who we are, who we are capable of being, how precious we are in God's sight, and how He will not lose even one of us who comes to faith.  Let us cling to His food and realize how precious -- and how necessary -- it is, in a world that would so frequently seek to teach us instead that we are nothing and that God's love is meaningless.   Jesus says we must choose our master:  God or mammon (see Luke 16:13).  The voice of mammon says, "You're nothing without me" (my power, my money, my connections, etc.).   The voice of Christ  says He will lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13).  What does your faith teach you?  Which one offers life?

Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little." One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?" Then Jesus, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So them men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world."

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

- John 6:1-15

Yesterday's reading continued a series of readings beginning on Saturday, in which we read of Jesus healing the paralytic by the Sheep Gate at the pool called Bethesda. After this, the authorities sought Him, because He had violated the Sabbath rest. He told them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Therefore they sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. On Monday, Jesus began to teach about His identity as Son, His power to Judge which has been given to Him by the Father, the alignment of His will with the Father's. Jesus taught, " For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued, teaching them about His union with the Father in judgment. He gave them witnesses to Himself: the first is John the Baptist. He said, "Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light." Next are His works, and the Father Himself as witnesses: "But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish -- the very works that I do -- bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me." He taught the witness of the Scriptures: "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me." Jesus taught them: "But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you -- Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. In the various Gospels, we read frequently of Jesus sailing on the Sea of Galilee, or crossing over. Sometimes He's in Gentile territory, sometimes among the Jews. But there is always a lot of movement over the Sea, here in Galilee. It's actually a large lake about 7 miles wide and 13 miles long. We recall the disciples central to His ministry who are former fishermen on the Sea, and come from towns along its coast. Peter's home, in Capernaum on its north coast, is a sort of headquarters for the ministry. My study bible says of the Sea of Galilee here, "Its crossing by the Savior is reminiscent of the crossing of the Red Sea by Moses and the Israelites." A great multitude of people has followed Him across the Sea, to this mountain, because of the signs they've seen.

Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" My study bible points out that the Passover coincided with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, "which commemorated not only the Exodus from Egypt , but the first food from grain eaten in the promised Land after the crossing of the Jordan." This particular approaching Passover Feast is the second reported in John's Gospel, during Jesus' ministry. Many of the signs in this Gospel focus around events celebrated in the feasts, just as today's reading recalls the events celebrated in Israel's spiritual history.

But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little." The story, and Jesus' question here, emphasizes the impossibility of feeding these people in this wilderness on a mountain, far away from cities. Two hundred denarii is about 200 days wages for these working men. As is so common in John's Gospel, Jesus' questions are drawing them in to the problem, and the answer, at hand.

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?" Andrew draws attention to the loaves and fishes, but, as my study bible points out, cannot see the potential in them. It is another way of drawing us into the story, the teaching at hand. Barley, says my study bible, "was generally used by the poorer people -- it cost less than wheat and was ready for harvest in the springtime at Passover."

Then Jesus, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So them men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. Jesus takes charge, teaching what must be done. This feeding miracle is reported in all four Gospels, so central is it to the ministry, teachings, and Person of Jesus. To give thanks is from the Greek verb eucharisto. The overtones of the Eucharist are unmistakable in the giving of thanks, and the distribution to and by the disciples. Fish are, of course, symbols of abundance, and also an important early Christian symbol. The ancient Greek word for fish (ΙΧΘΥΣ) forms an acronym for Iησους Χριστος Θεου Υιος Σωτηρ: "Jesus Christ God's Son Savior." This phrase reflects the teachings of Jesus about Himself and His identity to the leadership in our recent readings. In the distribution of the food, all have as much as they want. It is a fulfillment of the "type" of the feeding of Israel in the wilderness with the miraculous gift of manna.

So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. As with the manna, Jesus says that "nothing should be lost." But here is more abundance: there are twelve baskets left of the bread, one for every apostle to continue His work.

Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone. My study bible has a note which explains the use of the term the Prophet: "The Galilean Jews, with their misguided messianic enthusiasm, equate Jesus with the Prophet of Deut. 18:15-19, whom they expect to be an earthly, political leader who will lead them against the occupying Romans, as Moses led his people out of bondage. Because He is not to fulfill these expectations, Jesus withdraws from the crowd." What we note for ourselves is Jesus' firm lines about who He is and what He is. He will not be persuaded by the desires of the people who follow Him. Whatever gifts He gives, whatever miraculous sign He produces, it is clearly with a mission in mind, and the will of the Father for His work in the world.

What does it mean that these crowds want to make Jesus a king because He's fed them? It shows us the warnings He's made all along, concerning the shallowness of belief that comes strictly from His signs, without understanding the power of God that is truly there, and the depth of relationship toward which each is called. John's Gospel has already told us that Jesus would not entrust Himself to those who believed only through signs (especially true of the Galileans who had seen His signs at the Festival), and so we are prepared for this response. But the power of Christ's ministry rests in something deeper than the signs He performs, although the signs truly do point to His origin and His identity. So we are left with the question for ourselves: why do we believe in what Christ offers to us? What are we after? Is it His love that guides us? Do we take to heart what He has to teach? Or do we suspect that Christ will provide us with everything we need in a material sense? The difference between these two types of expectation is the difference between love and want. Faith asks of us a kind of trust that we will be led to what is best for us. Want merely demands, and offers a list of what others should do for us. Jesus never merely gives in to the wants and the shoulds. His ministry is for the life of the world, and as such He is here to give us the life He offers, not the sort of life that we might demand. We must open our eyes to really receive this gift. We must make room in our hearts for His Way.