From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts–
“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.” (Final verses of last week’s Gospel)
…
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
“I am the bread that came down from heaven,”
and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
(This week’s Gospel, John 6:41-51)
In last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus makes a surprising (outlandish?) statement to the people who sought him out in hopes he will provide more bread for them. His reply provokes immediate resistance: “Wait, wait, we know this guy—we know his parents—what is this ‘come down from heaven’ stuff?”
We tend to glide over Jesus’ initial response, where he tells them to “stop murmuring,” but Jesus is speaking very forcefully there. His choice of word (“murmuring/grumbling” in the Greek) is meant to remind them how their ancestors repeatedly “murmured” or “grumbled” in the desert against Moses when difficulties faced them. Back then they resisted God at every turn—but instead of learning from how that worked out, they are repeating the same mistake now. In this case, they are sure they know who Jesus’ father is (“Joseph”—which is incorrect) and they are primed to resist hearing anything beyond what they have been taught before. Even though the great prophets told them there was more to come, and that from a source, Jesus reminds them, they could not resist: “They shall all be taught by God.” Isaiah 54:13, Jeremiah 3:33-34.
Jesus plows on. To paraphrase, “if you are really listening/learning from God, you will find yourself steered towards me. I know him, because I have seen him. I am the source, then, of eternal life for you –believe what I tell you and you will have eternal life. The bread I am offering to you is myself, come down from heaven from the Father, a living bread that communicates eternal life to whomever in this world consumes it.”
Imagine Jesus speaking the words above in the reading. At the beginning of the line “this is the bread that comes down from heaven” realize he is not teaching a theology course. “This” refers to himself, his own body. He looks at the people he is speaking to, and, opening his hands in front of his chest, brings all 10 fingers quickly back over his palms to point decisively at his own body as he says, with emphasis, “this”. Just to make it unmistakable that he means “my flesh,” “me.”
Jaws must have dropped. But he wasn’t even finished.
For reflection:
“He is not teaching a theology course.” That is, he is not instructing students about theological matters. He is looking people in the eye and revealing something about himself. The question is not “do you understand these teachings?” The question is “do you realize who is speaking to you? What do you want your relationship to me to be?” We should not be too hard on his listeners–no one put it all together until his crucifixion and Resurrection from the dead. On the other hand, so that they eventually will be able to put it all together, he does not simplify what he says here one iota!