Of course, we all know that no man alive could give us everything we need, without our having to work for it. But in the sixth chapter of the book of John, we see that people had the same attitude in Jesus' day as this young woman had in 2008. A great crowd of people had started following Jesus "because they saw the miraculous signs He had performed." (John 6.2) Jesus started teaching them, but the hour became late. He knew they were hungry for bread as well as spiritual food. So he asked his disciples to survey the available rations. All they came up with was five pieces of bread and two small fish. Jesus blessed it and used it to feed more than 5000 people.
After seeing this, the crowd wanted to follow Him even more. They would never go hungry again! This man could magically meet all their physical needs, and all they had to do was listen to his words. Like young Peggy Joseph, they thought "If we help Him, He'll help us." But Jesus knew their thoughts. "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself." (John 6.15) He didn't want to be their physical leader; He wanted to be their spiritual savior. He tried to hide from the crowd, because He was the Messiah, but the crowd wanted Manna.
Jesus withdrew from the crowd to pray. He sent His disciples on to Capernaum, across the Sea of Galilee. A huge storm blew up overnight, big enough to frighten even these seasoned fishermen. But Jesus approached them, walking on the water. This miracle was witnessed by the disciples only, but the next day the crowd put two and two together. They had been watching the disciples: they knew the disciples were headed to Capernaum, and that Jesus had not gone with them. But when they searched and could not find Jesus, they all got into boats and crossed the lake, assuming that where the disciples were, Jesus would be there, too. Maybe they thought He had spirited Himself across the lake somehow. They caught up with Him in Capernaum.
When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. (John 6.25-27)Just like He had done with Nicodemus in chapter 3, and just like He had done with the Woman At The Well in chapter 4, here Jesus was trying to take the people out of the physical realm into the spiritual realm. But he was using physical metaphors, in this case bread.
So they asked Him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat." (John 6.30)The crowd quickly turned from the physical to the spiritual, but like Nicodemus and the WATW, their spiritual vision was based on their traditions. Jesus was trying to get them to let go of their spiritual traditions and see the truth.
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." Then Jesus declared, "I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."Jesus was teaching them an object lesson, and they were beginning to see His point. But others still had doubt. Some Jews came forward and wondered aloud how He could claim to be the one who came down from heaven if they knew his mama and daddy. They had watched Him grow up. They had seen Him as a child, and now they saw Him as any other man. Come down from heaven? What was He talking about? Jesus put a stop to their grumbling.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets, "They will all be taught by God." Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only He has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6.44-51)This is where people started really questioning His teaching. The literalists among them asked if He was calling them to be cannibals. Eat His flesh? Is He nuts? Jesus answered them in more graphic terms, knowing that if they were so caught up in the actual meaning of words, they would never see the meaning of the metaphor. I know people like this today. I work with a woman who is very literal. If I tell her the old joke, "A horse goes into a bar, and the bartender says, 'Why the long face?'", she doesn't laugh--she says, "Why would a horse go into a bar? And why would a bartender try to engage it in conversation?" So in this story, Jesus reiterates the metaphor for two reasons: He wanted to underscore the meaning for those who believed, and He wanted to weed out those who wouldn't or couldn't believe in Him.
Jesus said to them, " I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." (John 6.53-58)I can imagine Jesus pointing to Himself for emphasis. He was trying to get them to understand that He had been sent from God every bit as much as the manna had been sent by God. He wanted them to grasp the truth, and ingest it, and make it a part of themselves. He wanted them to rely on Him for their very sustenance. He wanted them to enjoy Himself as one savors a good meal; he wanted people to fellowship around Him like they would at a banquet.
But many of the disciples, the ones He had fed with the loaves and fishes, couldn't grasp the truth. Either they were so literal that they did not see His point, or they got His point and did not want to commit to Him. Maybe they chose to hold on to their traditions, to their religions, to the present paradigm. Maybe they thought he was stark raving mad, telling them that he had seen God, and that God had sent Him. It would be like us hearing a person who claims to have been abducted by aliens.
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6.66-69)Peter believed. He had eaten of the Bread of Life. Some may say he "drank the Kool-Aid". He was committed to Christ, and to no other. I, too, want to share in that communion. I want to partake of the Body and Blood, to rely on Him for sustenance, for fellowship, and for joy. I want to be so reliant upon Him that without Him, I would die.
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