From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts:
…they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”
So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
John 6:30-35, from Sunday’s Gospel
Slavery in Egypt under the Pharaohs meant never having to say you were hungry. Well-fed slaves can do more work. And in an area of the world where rainfall could be fickle or quite scarce, the mighty Nile insured abundant crops and animal feed, decade after decade. Escaped slaves following Moses soon found out how difficult and chancy things were in the desert wilderness by contrast.
There, the “manna” from heaven proved a life saver. But “manna” does not mean “bread.” It did not look like bread. It looked like flakes of hoarfrost on the ground or of a white version of coriander seed. It did not exactly taste like bread, either. [Exodus 16:14, 31] They called it “manna,” which means, “what is it?” They learned to call it “bread from heaven” and accepted it as their life’s bread day by day in their journey. We have to say this stretched and expanded, their idea of “bread” in quite unexpected ways!
In our reading from John, we remember that Jesus has just recently provided his questioners with actual bread, barley loaves for thousands, out in a deserted place. They recognize some parallel with what happened under Moses, though since “what is it?” fell from the heavens overnight, 6 days a week, for 40 years, they probably judged that a greater sign than the barley loaves. That could be why they now ask Jesus for a sign that would make him as credible as Moses was.
Jesus points out that God, not Moses, provided the “bread from heaven” back then, and it is God, not Moses, who gives life, Life in an absolute sense, with the true bread He is offering now.
Oh, everlasting life. That is interesting! “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus’ response presents them with an even more powerful “what is it?” question:
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Step one in receiving Jesus as the “bread from heaven,” the bread of Life Absolutely, is to believe in him. That is, to listen to what he says as God saying it. Notice how Jesus words this “I AM (God’s name as He revealed it to Moses) the bread of life.” Moses and the prophets all say, “The Lord said… .” Jesus just…says. Moses and the prophets all say, “the Lord said to me and I pass it on to you… .” Jesus simply says to you… . But wait, doesn’t that imply…??…a thought too big, too outrageous even to consider?
I am the bread of life. “What is it?” indeed!
A strong challenge. Yet in our reading next Sunday, Jesus will double down, and make it even more difficult.
For further reflection:
The people’s natural reaction to what Jesus says is skepticism or rejection. Just as with the manna, when the Israelites first saw it. We need to keep this in mind whenever the Lord brings up something we did not expect in our prayer or our daily lives. It is always worth asking, “what is going on here? Am I missing something? Will this look the same tomorrow?”