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.
