The Jews murmured about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” 42 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’?” 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. 45 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. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; 50 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 51 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.”
The people begin to murmur because Jesus says that He is “the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41). Their complaint recalls Israel in the wilderness, when the people murmured against God and against Moses (Ex. 16:2, 7-8; Num. 11:1). John wants the reader to hear that connection. Once again, God is giving a gift from heaven, and once again there is resistance.
Their problem is not that they have failed to hear the words. Their problem is that they judge Jesus only by what they think they know about Him. They say, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother?” (v. 42). They are thinking only at the human level. They know where He grew up. They know His family. So they conclude that His claim cannot be true. They do not know that He is the incarnate Son of God, whose origin is in God and who has been sent by the Father. Because He comes from the Father, He can reveal the Father and give the life that only God can give (vv. 44, 46).
Jesus does not argue with their assumptions about His ordinary earthly life. Instead, He goes straight to the deeper issue. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (v. 44). Faith is not something a person produces by his own power. It begins with God’s action. The Father draws. The Father teaches. The Father leads a person to the Son. This does not mean that people are forced against their will. It means that faith begins with grace, that is, with God’s gift at work in the heart. Jesus adds that the one who comes to Him will be raised “on the last day” (v. 44). So the gift of faith is ordered to eternal life and final resurrection.
Jesus then quotes the prophets: “They shall all be taught by God” (v. 45). This points especially to Is. 54:13, and it also fits the promise of the new covenant in Jer. 31:31-34. In those promises, God Himself acts to teach His people and write His law upon their hearts. Jesus says that this promise is being fulfilled now. “Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me” (v. 45). To be taught by God, then, is not something separate from Jesus. It leads to Jesus. The one who truly receives the Father’s teaching is led to the Son.
Jesus then says something that explains why He alone can speak this way: “Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father” (v. 46). Prophets spoke God’s word. Jesus does more than that. He knows the Father directly because He is from God. Earlier John said, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him” (John 1:18). That is why Jesus is not merely one teacher among many. He is the one who truly reveals the Father.
Then Jesus states the heart of this passage with great clarity: “whoever believes has eternal life” (v. 47). He does not say only that believers will receive life someday in the future. He says they have it now. Eternal life begins already in communion with Him, though it will reach its fullness in the resurrection on the last day (vv. 44, 47). When Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” (v. 48), He is saying that He Himself is the one who sustains that life. He is not only a messenger who brings bread. He is the bread.
Jesus then returns to the manna in the wilderness: “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died” (v. 49). The manna was a real gift from God. It sustained Israel for a time. But it did not conquer death. It could feed the body for earthly life, but it could not give the eternal life that comes from union with God. Jesus is greater than the manna. He is the true bread from heaven. “This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die” (v. 50). Here “eat” still carries the sense of receiving Him in faith. The one who believes in Him receives the life that death cannot destroy.
Jesus continues, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever” (v. 51). He is not only bread from heaven. He is living bread. The life He gives is His own life. And then He says, “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (v. 51). The words “I will give” point forward. They point to the Cross, where He will freely give Himself for the salvation of the world. “For the life of the world” (v. 51) is also important. Jesus is not speaking about a gift for one group alone. His saving work is for the world (John 3:16-17). The life He gives is offered to all.
Lord Jesus, draw us to Yourself. Teach us to listen to the Father and to believe in You. Deliver us from judging by appearances, and lead us into the life that You alone can give. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible Revised Edition, John 6:41-51 and note on John 6:43.
- Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010), 174.
- José María Casciaro, gen. ed., The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition (Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008), 387-388.
- Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990), 962, para. 94-96.
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (New York: Paulist Press, 2018), 1139.
- John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid OP, and Donald Senior CP, eds., The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, Third Fully Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Pope Francis (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022), 1406-1407.
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