John 6:41-59
Lesson Focus
Jesus declares himself as the Bread of Life, emphasizing that true, eternal sustenance comes through faith in Jesus and his sacrifice for us.
Lesson Outcomes
Through this lesson, students should:
Understand the significance of Jesus referring to himself as the Bread of Life.
Recognize the parallels between Jesus' provision and the manna given to Israel in the wilderness.
Explore the implications of Jesus' teaching for their spiritual life and community relationships.
Catching Up on the Story
The major theme of chapter six in John’s gospel is bread. As Jesus often does, he takes an everyday, ordinary object and gives it a transcendent significance. As we’ve read this chapter, we’ve come to understand that the bread about which Jesus speaks is far more important than the physical bread to which we are accustomed. However, this does not undercut the significance of physical bread. Feeding the five thousand was more than a stunt meant to demonstrate Jesus’ ability to give God’s spiritual and eternal bread.
There’s a better-than-average chance that those present for the miraculous meal Jesus provided were rather poor. Roman rule and the heavy taxation that came with it made it difficult for many to provide more than a subsistence level of living. The crowd’s response indicates that they understood Jesus was someone who could provide for them in ways that the Romans and their puppet Herodian kings could not. The Jewish religious leaders did not dislike Jesus because he could feed more than five thousand people simultaneously with little effort.
Instead, it was Jesus’ commentary on his action, as well as his response to the questions put to him by the crowds, that provoked their anger. At no time was it acceptable for someone to assert their ability to provide bread greater than the manna God gave Israel in the wilderness? Additionally, it was scandalous that Jesus claimed to be the life-giving, eternal bread. Everything in chapter six has moved us toward this point; in and through Jesus, God provides the abundance of life for which Israel had waited so long. For us to continue to develop the picture of Jesus that John and Jesus want us to see, we must remember that abundant eternal life is more than just quantitative; it’s also qualitative. Jesus has come to do more for Israel, and by extension, us and the rest of the world, than we could ever think or imagine. To our detriment, we often forget that our understanding of Jesus is often woefully inadequate.
The Religious Leaders Complain
With verse 41 comes a temporary pause in Jesus’ present remarks. The pause is needed to allow us (and Jesus!) to catch our breath. Jesus’ prose in John’s gospel is profound and prolific in nature. John uses this pause to allow the Jewish religious leaders to intervene in the conversation. Jesus’ words are never just spoken into the void; they fall upon the ears of those struggling to understand the nature and purpose of life and their place in it. And so, the Jewish religious leaders seek to reconcile what they already know and believe with what Jesus proclaims.
Before we go much further, we must understand that throughout the history of Christian thought, many have used John’s gospel to overemphasize the Jewish complicity in Jesus’ death. Regretfully, casting the Jews in such a negative light has led to significant anti-Semitism and persecution. Consequently, where John refers to the “Jews,” I have chosen to modify the designation to read “Jewish religious leaders.” Just like today, leaders, religious or otherwise, do not always speak for the people they represent. Regardless, Jesus’ life and death are gifts freely given out of love for creation. If Jesus were to live and minister today, it likely would not just be the Jewish religious leaders who would be angry with him.
John tells us, “Then the Jews began to complain…” The word translated in the NRSV as “complain” would be better translated as “murmur” or “grumble” as those options better connect the religious leader’s attitudes with Israel’s constant grumbling throughout the Exodus narrative. In the Exodus narrative, Israel often grumbled about God’s provision, or perceived lack thereof, to the point of wanting to return to captivity in Egypt because there they were better fed. The root of the matter was Israel’s lack of trust in God’s ability or willingness to provide for them. After thousands of years of God continuing to provide for Israel in rather spectacular ways, Israel still cannot comprehend God’s providential work in the world for Israel’s survival and flourishing. Grumbling or complaining about how we believe God has not or is not caring for us always leads to missing the new or different ways God uses to bring us to the fullness of life. We are not so different than the Jewish religious leaders, after all.
The specifics about the religious leaders’ grumbling concern are what they think they know about who Jesus is and where he comes from. They grumble because Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” I suppose it’s to be expected that the religious leaders and some in the crowd that day would have had significant questions about Jesus’ most recent statements and claims. If we put ourselves in their shoes, would we not say something similar if a young man we watched grow up returns to claim godlike power and authority? Some levels of familiarity are just difficult to transcend. Still, these leaders are not beyond receiving and beginning to understand the revelations they’ve just received from Jesus.
Jesus’ response to the grumbling he hears is poignant and immediately applicable to us and our current state of religious discourse, “Do not [grumbling, murmuring] among yourselves” (v. 43). Not only does Jesus want us to stop grumbling against the newness of God’s salvation through Jesus, but he also wants us to quit doing so among ourselves. “Among” is the key term here. Jesus wishes that we turn our focus from each other and our differences in perceived belief so that we might more faithfully turn toward Jesus with an attentive and open heart and mind (Michaels, 385). How often do we spend time arguing with other Christians about the “true” nature of faithfulness, which could be much better spent in individual and corporate discernment through prayer and scripture reading? Of course, not everyone is prone to this type of behavior. However, those who are usually think of themselves as leaders within Christ’s church. Perhaps these lyrics are appropriate for us to internalize, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of Earth will go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace” (Helen Howarth Lemmel). So often, we imagine “the things of Earth” to be the world’s vices and temptations. In the context of Jesus’ message to us, I wonder if, instead, the “the things of Earth” are the conceptions of Jesus we’ve formed that are not rooted firmly in the picture of God that Jesus paints for us. Have we turned our faces too often toward each other and not nearly enough toward Jesus?
In verse 44, Jesus continues his response, declaring that no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him or her. At this point, we could get bogged down in a conversation about who gets drawn to Jesus by the Father. If we turn back to John 3:16-17, the picture becomes clearer. God’s love for the whole of creation compelled the sending of Jesus into creation so that none should perish. The Father is always drawing people toward a belief in and faithfulness to Jesus. We call this work of God prevenient grace, the grace that goes before, whispering our names and calling us to turn and look full in Jesus’ wonderful face. This grace is given to everyone.
As Jesus continues his response, he again invokes the “bread from heaven” image. The grammar of verse 50 is important. The bread Jesus now gives “comes down” from heaven. In the original language, “comes down” is, in the active present case, meaning that the bread from heaven God gives, God gives continually. From the time of Jesus until Jesus returns again to make all things new, the Father continually gives us eternal life-giving bread. The continuous giving of bread is unlike the manna that came from God for Israel in the wilderness. That bread eventually stopped when Israel entered the promised land.
In verse 51, Jesus transforms the bread metaphor just a bit. Until now, we know that Jesus gives eternal life-giving bread to those who trust Jesus, but we aren’t told exactly what that bread is. At the end of verse 51, Jesus makes it explicit: Jesus’ body is the bread of heaven. “Jesus is not only the great Revelation from God to human beings downward, he is the great Reconciler of humanity with God upward. He and his work in the world are not only deeply spiritual; they are, eminently, very “fleshly” (Bruner, 422).
Bread and Blood
Telling the religious leaders that his flesh is the bread of heaven causes no quiet reception. Those who have followed Jesus during our time have no issues comprehending what Jesus means by this. We know the end of the story. We know about the Last Supper and Jesus’ reinterpretation of the Passover meal. John’s readers and the characters in this part of the story have no such helpful knowledge. Again, the religious leaders argue among themselves about what Jesus means. This, too, seems natural to me. As John will tell us in a few verses, even some of his disciples come to him with questions about the difficulty of what Jesus is saying.
Again, Jesus responds to the religious leader’s grumbling by illuding to Jesus’ future self-giving sacrifice for the world. While we may be familiar with Jesus’ words, the image is startling. The way to life is by eating and drinking Jesus’ blood. Jesus goes so far as to say that those who eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood will receive eternal life. Remember, eternal life is both quantitative and qualitative, both present and future. Jesus’ words in verse 56 highlight the present quality of eternal life when he declares that those who feast on Jesus’ body and blood will find that Jesus abides in them and that they abide in Jesus.
So What?
When we take a step back and read verses 52-58 with new eyes, at first, they seem strange and barbaric. One wonders what conclusion someone entirely unfamiliar with the Jewish or Christian faith might come to. Would they accuse us of cannibalism, as some early Christians were accused of? Would the image gross them out? Perhaps, but concentrating on making Christianity more palatable (or believable?) to those unfamiliar with it misses the point.
The reality about which Jesus speaks is a mystery. We can talk all day long about what happened through Jesus’ death and resurrection, claiming various theories as better than others. We could dwell on what happens as we come to the table for The Lord’s Supper to receive Jesus’ body and blood. While both conversations have a place in some contexts, evangelism isn’t one of them. Perhaps the following lengthy quote illustrates what I mean:
Jesus answers their “how” question not defensively, by explaining how he came down from heaven, but confidently and even “offensively” by asserting that the Father will bring whomever he wants to a conviction of his heaven-sentness—in the Father’s own time and way. Jesus does not defend himself by apologetics (defending his transcendence) in order to get people to believe him; he asserts his confidence that no one can ever believe him at all unless his Father first draws that person to himself. Jesus believes God, not argument, brings persons to him, and he confidently says so. The Church and individual Christians within her, eager to win men and women to faith, can learn from Jesus’ presence, calm confidence, and response. We are sometimes too eager to convert as if only our defense of God will win the day and the person. There is a God, and he can defend himself. Salvation, both objectively (who does it) and subjectively (who comes to it), is a divine gift. When hearers believe this gift fact (we can call it divine sovereignty), their believing has the power greatly to relax them in their relation with others and even with themselves. Hearers are released from the weight of spiritual guilt under the impress of this divine-sovereign reality. Believers in God’s sovereignty will work with less anxiety—Godward and worldward—because they know that coming to Jesus is a matter neither of human accomplishment nor of intellectual persuasion. This relaxation reality is the truth of all the sovereignty of God texts scattered throughout our Gospel and in the remainder of the New Testament. Indeed, all of Scriptures’ sovereignty texts instruct the Church that from the beginning on…is the work of God, whom we are simply asked to live with in trust. Out of this saving trust will come all kinds of refreshing but uncoerced good works and wholesome mission (Bruner, 417-418).
In other words, when we focus our attention on God’s great, generous, and grace-filled gift to us through Jesus, when we focus on simply living with trust in Jesus and his way of love, we prepare ourselves for loving and grace-filled encounters with a world already being drawn to Jesus by the Father. Our job is always to point to and walk with others toward simple, fruitful, and faithful relationships with God and others.
Discussion Questions
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
What does Jesus mean when he says, "I am the Bread of Life"?
How does the miracle of feeding the five thousand relate to Jesus' claim about being the Bread of Life?
Why do you think the Jewish religious leaders found Jesus' statements so troubling?
How does understanding the socio-economic context of Roman rule enhance our interpretation of this passage?
What parallels can we draw between the manna given to Israel in the wilderness and Jesus as the Bread of Life?
In what ways might we, like the religious leaders, struggle to accept new revelations from God?
How can we avoid the grumbling and complaining that Jesus addresses in this passage?
What does it mean for us today to "eat the flesh" and "drink the blood" of Jesus?
How does the concept of prevenient grace deepen our understanding of being drawn to Jesus by the Father?
What practical steps can we take to focus more on Jesus and less on divisive issues within our Christian communities?
Works Cited
Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2012).
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