Jesus proceeded to clarify His identity by teaching the crowds and His disciples. He did so by developing the figure of the Bread of Life, which He claimed to be. Jesus used the feeding of the 5,000 as a basis for explaining His identity to the multitudes. He compared Himself to bread.
"Again, it was a ministry of grace and truth' (John 1:17). In grace, our Lord fed the hungry people; but in truth, He gave them the Word of God."251
The multitude on the "other side"must have been near the northeast shore where Jesus had fed the 5,000 south of Bethsaida. They were across the lake from the northwestern shore where Jesus and the disciples now were, in Capernaum. They could not figure out where Jesus could have gone. The disciples had left in one boat without Jesus. There was only one other boat still there. Jesus had not used it to leave the area. While they waited for Jesus to appear, other boats with people from Tiberias, on the western shore, arrived. Eventually the crowd realized that Jesus was not in that region, so they boarded the boats that had come from Tiberias and set out for Capernaum. They probably thought they could find Jesus there because Capernaum was His headquarters. When they did find Him, they wanted to discover how He got there.
Why did John bother to relate this seemingly unimportant information? Apparently he did so to document the fact that Jesus really had crossed the lake by walking on the water. Another reason could be that his description supports Jesus' statement that the people sought Him (v. 26). In view of what these people proceeded to demand of Jesus (vv. 30-31) it was important that John show that they were the very people who had witnessed the sign of the miraculous feeding.
This section of the text contains Jesus' enigmatic and attractive description of the Bread of Life. Jesus was whetting His hearers' appetites for it (cf. 4:10). The pericope ends with their asking Him to give them the Bread (v. 34).
6:26 Jesus' introductory words identified another very important statement (cf. vv. 32, 47, 53). He did not answer their question (v. 25) and tell them that He had walked across the surface of the lake. He did not want them to follow Him primarily because He could do miracles. He understood that their interest in Him was mainly because of His ability to provide for them physically. They were not interested in Him because they identified Him as the God-man but because Jesus could fill their stomachs. Many people today are only interested in Jesus because of the benefits He may give them. Jesus proceeded to explain what the miracle they had witnessed signified.
6:27 Jesus had previously spoken to the Samaritan woman about living water (4:10, 14), and now He spoke to these Galileans about food that endures. He was, as previously, contrasting physical and spiritual nourishment. Consequently the descriptions that follow contain a mixture of literal and metaphorical language. Jesus wanted His hearers to view the spiritual aspects of His mission as more important than its physical aspects.
The people apparently understood His reference to bread that endures to eternal life as meaning physical bread that does not become stale and moldy. As the Son of Man, Jesus claimed to be able to give this food because God the Father had set His seal of approval on Jesus. The Father had authorized the Son to act for Him (cf. 5:32-47). This was one of the functions of a seal in Jesus' culture. Jesus was speaking of Himself as the food (vv. 35, 53). The Son would give this food and eternal life, but the people had a responsibility to work for it too.
6:28 The works of God are the works that God requires to obtain the food that remains, even eternal life. The people were still thinking on the physical level. They thought Jesus was talking about some physical work that would yield eternal life. Moreover they assumed that they could do it and that by doing it they could earn eternal life. They ignored Jesus' statement that He would give them eternal life (cf. Rom. 10:2-4). There is something within the fallen nature of human beings that makes working for eternal life more attractive than receiving it as a gift.
6:29 The only work that God requires of people for salvation is faith in His Son (cf. 3:11-17). The work that Jesus specified was not something physical at all. It was what God requires, namely trust in Jesus (cf. Rom. 3:28). Jesus' reply was a flat contradiction of the idea that people can earn salvation with their good deeds. This is another of the many great evangelistic verses in John's Gospel (1:12; 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:47; et al.).
6:30-31 Jesus had told the people what work they needed to do to obtain eternal life. Now they asked Him what work He would do to prove that He was God's authorized representative as He claimed to be (cf. 1 Cor. 1:22). They suggested that producing bread from heavenas Moses did might convince them. Their unwillingness to believe the sign that Jesus had given them the previous day shows the hardness of their hearts. No matter what Jesus did the unbelievers always demanded more.
Probably Jesus' providing bread for thousands of people the previous day led them to ask for this greater miracle. Some of them had concluded that Jesus might be the Prophet that Moses had predicted (v. 14). If He was, He ought to be able to do greater miracles than Moses did. The manna that Moses produced spoiled if left uneaten overnight, but Jesus seemed to be promising bread that would not spoil.
The source of the people's loose quotation is probably Psalm 78:24. However there are also similarities to Nehemiah 9:15; Exodus 16:4 and 15; and Psalm 105:40.
"This section of the discourse is to be understood against the background of a Jewish expectation that, when the Messiah came, he would renew the miracle of the manna."252
6:32-33 The people were viewing Moses as the source of their blessing in the past. Jesus pointed them beyond Moses to the true source, namely God. He wanted them to look to God for their needs, not to a human channel of God's blessing.
Jesus also turned the conversation away from the request for a physical sign back to the subject of the bread that satisfies. God had given manna in the past, but He was giving a new type of bread now. Jesus described it as coming down from heaven and providing life for the entire world, not just Israel. With this response Jesus effectively took Moses and his sign, which the people had put in a superior place over Himself, and placed them in an inferior position under Himself. The true (Gr. alethinos, genuine or original, cf. 1:9) bread is the bread that satisfies ultimately. In this discourse Jesus mentioned seven times that He had come down out of heaven, stressing the fact that He was God's divine gift (vv. 33, 38, 41, 42, 50, 51, 58).
6:34 Jesus had glorified the new bread sufficiently now for the people to request it of Him, as he had glorified the living water for the Samaritan woman. He had set them up for the revelation that He was that bread. If they were sincere in their desire for it, they would accept Him. Yet the people did not realize what they were requesting, as the woman at the well did not (cf. 4:15). They were still thinking of physical bread. They wanted this new type of physical bread from then on.
6:35 Jesus now identified Himself as the bread about which He had been speaking (cf. v. 47; Isa. 55:1). He did not say He hadthe bread of life but that He wasthat bread. He claimed to be able to satisfy completely as bread and water satisfy physically. His hearers did not need to return to Him repeatedly as they had assumed (v. 34) since He would also satisfy permanently (cf. 13:9-10). The "nevers"are emphatic in the Greek text. Coming to Jesus and believing are synonymous concepts just as bread and water together represent total human need. Jesus did not mean that continual dependence on Him was unimportant (cf. 15:4-5). He meant that believing on Him would satisfy the basic human need and desire for life. Again Jesus linked life with Himself. He is what sustains and nourishes spiritual life. It is by feeding on Him that we obtain life initially and continue to flourish spiritually.
Jesus' claim to be the Bread of Life, three times in this discourse (vv. 35, 48, 51), is the first of seven such claims that John recorded Jesus making in his Gospel. Jesus used the same expression (Gr. ego eimi, "I am,"plus a predicate) in each case.253Each one expresses Jesus' relationship to humankind's basic spiritual needs metaphorically.
"Jesus is the one who bears the divine name (cf. Ex. 3:14). For John, this story takes on the character of a theophany, not unlike the Transfiguration recorded by the Synoptics."254
6:36 Jesus charged these Galileans with unbelief as He had formerly charged the Judean residents of Jerusalem with it (5:36-38). They had seen Him physically, and on the physical level they had concluded that He might be the predicted Prophet. However, they had not seen who He was spiritually. They did not believe that He was the divine Messiah. Physical sight and spiritual insight are two different things.
6:37 These people's lack of faith did not indicate that Jesus or God's plan had failed, however. The ability to believe on Jesus requires divine enablement. It is only those whom the Father enables to believe that come to Jesus in faith. These are the people whom the Father has given to the Son as gifts. Jesus viewed the ultimate cause of faith as God's electing grace, not man's choice.
Jesus promised not to turn away anyone who came to Him in faith. He used a figure of speech (litotes) to stress strongly the positive fact that all who believe in Him find acceptance and security.255In the first part of this verse Jesus spoke of the elect as a group, and in the second part He referred to every individual in the group. Jesus had confidence in the Father's drawing the elect to Him, and the believer may have confidence too in the Son's receiving and retaining him or her. How can a person know if he or she is one of the elect? Let him or her come to Jesus in faith.
6:38-40 Jesus next explained why He would accept all who come to Him and will preserve them. The purpose of the Incarnation was that the Son would fulfill the Father's will. The Father's will was that the Son should lose no individual of all whom the Father gave Him. Preserving them includes raising them from the dead to eternal life. The distant purpose of the Father is the eternal life of those whom He gives to the Son, namely those who believe on the Son. Jesus Himself will raise believers. This is an added proof of our security.
"This thought is of the greatest comfort to believers. Their assurance is based not on their feeble hold on Christ, but on his sure grip on them (cf. 10:28f.)."256
Beholding the Son equals believing in Him here. Jesus meant beholding with the eyes of faith. The last day is the day of the resurrection of believers whenever it may occur. It is last in the sense that it will be the last day that we experience mortality.
"John 6:37-40 contains Jesus' explanation of the process of personal salvation. These are among the most profound words He ever spoke, and we cannot hope to plumb their depths completely. He explained that salvation involves both divine sovereignty and human responsibility."257
The fact of divine election did not embarrass Jesus or John. Even though God has chosen the elect for salvation, they must believe on Jesus. Jesus balanced these truths beautifully in this discourse (cf. 17:1, 6, 9, 24). He likewise affirmed the eternal security of the believer (cf. 17:11-12). If one believer failed to reach heaven, it would be a disgrace for the Son since it would indicate His inability or unwillingness to fulfill the Father's will. Judas Iscariot may appear at first to be an exception, but God did not choose Him for salvation (vv. 70-71; 17:12) even though Jesus chose him as one of the Twelve.
Jesus' claim to be the Bread of Life that had come down from heaven was something His hearers found hard to accept. Consequently Jesus clarified what He meant further.
6:41-42 Some of Jesus' hearers had known Him all His life. More of them had known Him and His family since they had moved to Capernaum where Jesus gave this discourse (v. 59). His claim to have come down from heaven seemed to them to contradict what they knew about His human origins. Again they were thinking only in physical terms. It is interesting that the Israelites in the wilderness who received the manna from heaven also grumbled (Exod. 15:24; 17:3; Num. 11:4-6). Mankind's dissatisfaction with God's good gifts shows the perversity of the human heart. It was Jesus' claim to a heavenly origin that offended these people, as it had offended the people of Jerusalem (5:18).
In his Gospel John often used the term "the Jews"to represent the Jews who opposed Jesus during His ministry (cf. 2:18, 20; 5:16). It became something of a technical term as he used it. It often means more than just a racial group in this Gospel.
The New Testament reveals nothing about Joseph after Jesus' childhood. He passed off the scene then, but statements such as this one suggest that he had lived in Nazareth as Jesus was growing up. Probably Joseph died sometime before Jesus began His public ministry.
6:43-44 Jesus did not allow the people's confusion about His origin to distress Him. He rebuked their grumbling dissatisfaction with what God had given them. However, He explained that those whom the Father had chosen for salvation among them would believe in Him regardless of their inability to reconcile His earthly and heavenly origins. The important thing for them to do was believe Him, not first harmonize all the apparent contradictions they observed.
"The thought of the divine initiative in salvation is one of the great doctrines of this Gospel, and indeed of the Christian faith."258
Jesus clarified also that the Father's drawing (Gr. helkyo) is selective (cf. v. 37). He does not just draw everyone in the general sense of extending the gospel invitation to them. He selects some from the mass of humanity and brings them to Himself. It is that minority that Jesus will raise up to eternal life on the last day (cf. v. 40). This truth does not contradict 12:32 where Jesus said that He would draw (Gr. helkyo) all men to Himself. There He was speaking of all people without distinction, not just Jews but also Gentiles. He did not mean all people without exception.
6:45 Jesus clarified what God's drawing involves. He cited recognized authority for His statement that all whom the Father had chosen would come to Him. Old Testament prophets had revealed that God would teach His people (Isa. 54:13; cf. Jer. 31:34). Those whom God enlightened about Jesus' identity would believe in Him. That enlightenment comes primarily through the Scriptures, God's principle tool.
"When he compels belief, it is not by the savage constraint of a rapist, but by the wonderful wooing of a lover."259
6:46 Jesus further clarified how God draws people to Himself by explaining how He does not do it. It is not by giving a mystical revelation of Himself in His unveiled splendor to people. Jesus is the only One who has seen God fully (cf. 1:18). He is the only mediator of that knowledge of God without which no one can know God. God teaches people about Himself through Jesus. Listening to Jesus then becomes essential for learning from God. God draws the elect to Himself by revealing Himself through Jesus. The Scriptures bear witness to that revelation.
6:47-48 Jesus introduced His repetition and summary of the essential truth He was teaching with another strong affirmation. This summary continues through verse 51. He repeated what He had told Nicodemus more concisely (3:15). In spite of the truth of the Father's drawing the elect to Himself it is still imperative that they believe in Jesus. This is the human responsibility. However belief in Jesus is not anything meritorious. It is simply the proper response to God's working. The result is eternal or everlasting life that the believer begins to enjoy the moment he or she believes in Jesus. All of this is part of what Jesus meant when He claimed to be the Bread of Life. Eternal life was at stake, not just physical life.
6:49-50 Jesus had been speaking of everlasting life and had claimed that He as the Bread of Life could provide it. Now he clarified the distinction between the physical bread that God provided in the wilderness and the spiritual Bread that He provided in Jesus. The result of eating the manna was temporary satisfaction but ultimately death, but the result of believing in Jesus was permanent satisfaction and no death.
"When God gave the manna, He gave only a gift; but when Jesus came, He gave Himself. There was no cost to God in sending the manna each day, but He gave His Son at great cost. The Jews had to eat the manna every day, but the sinner who trusts Christ onceis given eternal life.
"It is not difficult to see in the manna a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. The manna was a mysterious thing to the Jews; in fact, the word mannameans What is it?' (see Ex. 16:15) Jesus was a mystery to those who saw Him. The manna came at night from heaven, and Jesus came to this earth when sinners were in moral and spiritual darkness. The manna was small (His humility), round (His eternality), and white (His purity). It was sweet to the taste (Ps. 34:8) and it met the needs of the people adequately."260
6:51 This verse contains a final summary of the main ideas in this section. Jesus is living Bread, not manna, but He came down from God as it did. Those who believe on Him will experience eternal life. The terms coming to Jesus (v. 35), listening to Him (v. 45), and seeing Him (v. 40) all mean believing on Him (v. 35). Jesus would give His body as bread so the world could live spiritually. He referred to His coming sacrificial death. Not only had the Father given the Bread, but the Bread would now give Himself.
Jesus introduced a new metaphor for believing on Him, namely eating His flesh. The following pericope is highly metaphorical.
6:52 As Jesus' hearers had objected to what He had said about His identity (vv. 41-42), so they now expressed confusion about what He meant by eating flesh. An intense argument (Gr. emachonto) erupted among them. They were struggling to understand His meaning. In what sense would Jesus give His flesh as food?
6:53-54 This is the fourth and last of Jesus' strong prefaces in this discourse (cf. vv. 26, 32, 47). It should be obvious to any readers of this discourse by now that Jesus was speaking metaphorically and not literally. By referring to His flesh and blood He was figuratively referring to His whole person. This is a figure of speech called synecdoche in which one part stands for the whole. Jesus was illustrating belief, what it means to appropriate Him by faith (v. 40). He expressed the same truth negatively (v. 53) and then positively (v. 54a). He referred again to resurrection because it is the inauguration of immortal eternal life (cf. vv. 39, 40, 44).
Jesus was again stressing His identity as the revealer of God with the title "Son of Man."Blood in the Old Testament represented violent death primarily. Thus Jesus was hinting that He would die violently. He connected the importance of belief in Him with His atoning death. The idea of eating blood was repulsive to the Jews (cf. Lev. 3:17; 17:10-14). Jesus' hearers should have understood that He was speaking metaphorically, but this reference offended many of them (vv. 60-61).
Many interpreters of these verses have seen allusions to the Lord's Supper in what Jesus said. Sacramentalists among them find support here for their belief that participation in the eucharist is essential for salvation. However, Jesus had not yet said anything about the Christian communion service. Moreover He was clearly speaking of belief metaphorically, not the communion elements. Most important, the New Testament presents the Lord's Supper as a commemoration of Jesus' death, not a vehicle for obtaining eternal life. Nevertheless these verses help us appreciate the symbolism of the eucharist.
"In short, John 6 does not directly speak of the eucharist; it does expose the true meaning of the Lord's supper as clearly as any passage in Scripture."261
6:55 This verse explains why Jesus' statements in verses 53 and 54 are true. Jesus' person is what truly satisfies and sustains life. This is the true function of food and drink.
6:56 Because Jesus' person is what truly satisfies and sustains life those who believe in Him remain (Gr. meno, abide) in Him. This is a new term in the discussion, but it is synonymous with having eternal life. Jesus was saying that believers continue to possess eternal life; they will never lose it. Believers remain in Christ, and He remains in them. Jesus was not speaking here to His disciples about the importance of believers abiding in fellowship with God as He did in chapter 15. Here He was speaking to unbelievers about entering into a saving relationship with God.
6:57 Jesus traced the eternal life that the believer receives when he or she trusts in Jesus back through the Son to the living God (cf. 5:21, 24-27). This helps us see that eternal life is essentially God's life that He imparts to believers. It also clarifies Jesus' central role as the mediator of eternal life from the Father to humankind.
6:58 In conclusion, Jesus returned to His initial claim that He had come from the Father (v. 29). The Jews often substituted the term "heaven"for "God"out of respect for God's name, and Jesus did that here.262The Israelites who ate the physical bread that came down from God died in the wilderness (vv. 30-31), but those who believe in the spiritual Bread that came down from Him will live forever.
6:59 John now identified the historical context in which Jesus gave this teaching. Jesus gave this discourse in the synagogue in the town that He had adopted as the headquarters of His ministry (cf. 2:12). This verse evidently marks the conclusion of the discussion that took place within the synagogue. What followed probably happened outside the building or at least after Jesus had concluded His discourse.
Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe may be the foundations of this synagogue. Visitors to the town may now view a reconstructed edifice that dates from three or four hundred years later.
The Apostle Paul went to the Jewish synagogues in the towns that he evangelized because they were the places where pious Jews normally congregated to listen to God's Word. We should probably view Jesus' teaching ministry here as similar to Paul's later practice. Both men announced God's revelations to lost religious Jews and appealed to them to believe the gospel.
