John 6:25-35
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father 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." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
Knowing that the structure of John 6:25-35 parallels that of John 4:10-15, the crowd’s entrance should seem very familiar. Just as the woman goes to Jesus, who is waiting on her as He rests beside the well, the crowd walks up to Jesus, initializing the conversation. But as Jesus typically does in John, He steers the conversation in the direction He intends to go, avoiding their petty question. Their question is not only petty, but also “irrelevant” as they are hiding behind the “the deeper issue of their sinful motives.”[1] The people who confront Jesus always attempt to trap Him in some form, usually to have Him arrested. But no matter the reason for their pointed questions, the problem is that they hide behind their true intentions. Like the woman at the well, who at first cannot get past the physical, they put their “minds on material things” when “the point of the miracle (feeding of the five thousand) was to point their minds to Christ.”[2] That is why Jesus ignores their false intentions and gets to the heart of the matter, addressing their problem of sin and need for salvation.
The way in which Jesus begins speaking in verse twenty-six varies slightly from John 4. Instead of immediately mentioning the gift through another image, Jesus first rebukes the crowd on their motives. Once again the hearers are too focused on the physical, and they are missing the spiritual. The only reason they show interest in Jesus is “because He filled their stomachs.”[3] Much like the woman who thought too much of her physical thirst being quenched, Jesus accuses the crowd of focusing too much on the “physical” sign that He performed and the fact that their “physical” bodies had been filled. Basically, they miss the point of the miracle.
Jesus then continues in verse twenty-seven with an alternative to their actions. Instead of seeking physical food that will perish, they should seek food that will last for eternity, leading to eternal life. This statement of rebuke is directed at their “attempt to use God and His gospel as a means to worldly satisfactions,” as they miss the spiritual significance of the miracle.[4] So Jesus tries to direct them to the spiritual meaning behind the miracle and the image that He is explaining. He wants them to grasp the true meaning behind these things, but as verse twenty-eight will show, they still feel as if they must “do something to earn” this gift.[5] After Jesus makes His opening statement to this small crowd, they follow the typical Johannine pattern and show their confusion.
At the end of verse twenty-seven, Jesus throws in an interesting phrase that seems to divert the emphasis in the passage. The passage mentions that “God has attested Jesus with his own seal.”[6] This seal is God’s way of pointing out the Son of Man, the Messiah. In seeing that God places this seal on Jesus, the gift gains more significance. This gift of food that Jesus is giving to the crowd comes directly from the Son of Man, the Messiah, or God. As already seen with the woman at the well, the water and bread are images that lead to eternal life. Therefore, in Jesus offering this gift to the crowd, Jesus attempts to lead them to eternal life. The problem that still remains however, is that the crowd is confused and has not yet understood the spiritual significance to Jesus’ claims. They have not yet grasped the fact that Jesus is the Messiah and that He is offering this gift of eternal life to them. For that reason they question Jesus about how they can receive such a gift.
In the crowd’s response in verse twenty-eight, they express their confusion, following this same Johannine structure. Knowing that they must work in life in order that they may eat, they ask Jesus “what kind of work is necessary to receive this bread” in which He has referenced.[7] Once again it is apparent that they focus too much on the physical aspects of life, and therefore, they do not understand that there is no physical work required to obtain such bread. So Jesus responds in verse twenty-nine by telling them this very thing. The work that He is speaking of “is to believe in Jesus, the one sent by God.”[8] Jesus does not specifically say His own name, but He refers to Himself as the one sent by God. This statement seems to refer back to the end of verse twenty-seven when He states that this man is the one on whom God has placed a seal; that He, Jesus, has specifically been chosen and sent by God.
As the conversation continues, the crowd responds in verses thirty and thirty-one by remaining adamant about needing some sort of sign in order to believe. Although “John’s Gospel includes an emphasis on” the importance of “signs,” it is not always in a positive fashion.[9] He includes seven main signs that Jesus performed in His ministry so that people might believe. But just like the water and the bread cannot save, neither can these signs. Belief is beyond the actual sign that Jesus performs. That belief is what this crowd is missing. They want another sign in order that they may believe. And assuming that they are on the right track in their reasoning, they quote Scripture to prove their case. The source of the actual verse they are quoting is unknown and disputed. Some “possibilities suggested” are “Exodus 16:4, Nehemiah 9:15, and Psalm 78:24,” and it is even possible that John or the crowd “combines two or more” of these verses.[10] In the end it is not real important to nail down exactly where this verse comes from because the crowd uses it to support a claim that has no grounds, and they misinterpret the verse in the end as well. But by them relating to both Moses and the manna, they do show their knowledge of the Old Testament, and like the woman at the well, they attempt to offer a rebuttal to Jesus’ claims by referring back to their Old Testament scriptures.
Verses thirty-two and thirty-three record Jesus’ reaction to the claims that the crowd makes. He rebukes them on two main points, for misunderstanding the text and using the text to support false claims. First, Jesus explains to them that “Moses did not give the manna” to the Israelites, “God gave it.”[11] Moses was not the one who provided the Israelites with their daily sustenance; he was only the man that God chose to work through. Since they misunderstood the verse itself, they ended up “misusing Scripture” as well.[12] No wonder they had not yet grasped the true meaning of the bread that Jesus offers, for they did not even clearly understand the manna that God had provided in previous times.
But knowing that the crowd is still confused over the bread, both the manna and this new Bread of Life, Jesus proceeds to explain the bread that He is talking about in verse thirty-three. Having corrected their views on Moses’ role in the manna incident, Jesus corrects their view on the bread as well. Since they bring up the Old Testament, Jesus picks up at their line of reasoning and connects “the bread of God” with the “bread of heaven… showbread.”[13] Like with the water imagery, Jesus builds off of this common image and connects it with Himself, the Son of Man. He is the one who can give eternal life. So once again, it is not the image itself that brings about salvation and eternal life, but Jesus who gives it.
Verse thirty-four connects well with John 4:15, where the woman greatly anticipates the gift in which Jesus offered. But just like the woman who did not yet fully understand what Jesus was talking about, the crowd still expresses a sense of confusion in their response. After Jesus finishes talking, the crowd asks for the bread, “missing the point, because they were intent on continually filling their stomachs.”[14] Their response represents another one of the Johannine misunderstandings. Just as the woman thought that some water would quench her thirst forever, the crowd expects bread that always keep them full, never to hunger again. This misunderstanding then prepares the way for one of Jesus’ famous “I am” statements.
The discussion about Jesus being the Bread of Life really only begins with verse thirty-five, continuing through most of the chapter. But for the purpose of these two parallel passages, it can also be viewed as a conclusion that brings both events to a close in one verse. Since the woman and the crowd both misunderstand Jesus’ references to the Living Water and the Bread of Life and how they lead to eternal life, Jesus plainly explains it to them. He finally makes His teaching clear by stating that He is the Living Water and Bread of Life. He is the path that leads to eternal life, to salvation. In this proclamation, Jesus not only puts to rest the arguments that these people have raised against Him, but he also “removes…his opponents’ implicit misunderstandings.”[15] With this declaration, there is no longer any question as to what the images that Jesus so craftily uses mean. He truly is the way to eternal life, and no one can be with Father unless they go through Him (John 14:6).
There is one other view that some hold in reference to the meaning of these images. “Bread often related to wisdom,” but in the first century people viewed wisdom as something that would lead a person to “hunger and thirst for more.”[16] Worldly wisdom is only temporary, and with it, no one can ever know all that there is to know. They will always be on a search to acquire more wisdom, always learning. But in light of these passages, the images of bread and water “allude directly to divine wisdom.”[17] In Jesus, a person can know absolute truth, and Jesus will give them all the wisdom they need to make decisions in life. When a person places their trust in Christ, they will find that He is the ultimate source of wisdom. In effect, that is what Jesus desires for those seeking after Him in John 4 and John 6. He leads them to Himself through a series of complex images, showing them that He is the source of eternal life, that He is the one in which they should place their trust. He is the Messiah they were looking for.
This very long post wraps up a more detailed look into the passages. Next time, in the last installment of this series, we will look at an application for these two passages. What can we take from this text?
[1] John MacArthur, The MacArthur new Testament Commentary: John 1-11 (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2006) 236.
[2] James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary Volume 2 John 5:1-8:59 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976) 148.
[3] Thomas D. Lea and David Alan Black, The New Testament: Its Background and Message (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003) 213-14.
[4] David S. Yeago, “The Bread of Life: Patristic Christology and Evangelical Soteriology in Martin Luther’s sermons on John 6.,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 39, no 3. (1995), http://web.ebscohost.com/eh ost/pdf?vid=7&hid=12&sid=84a1bfde-f131-4080-aff8-eb261443c733&40sessionmgr7 (accessed February 21, 2009) 259.
[5] Boice, The Gospel of John: an Expositional Commentary Volume 2 John 5:1-8:59, 153.
[6] Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary Volume One, 677.
[7] J. Bruce Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 1998) 130.
[8] Fowl, “John 6:25-35,” 315.
[9] Lea and Black, The New Testament: Its Background and Message, 160.
[10] M. J. J. Menken, “The Provenance and Meaning of the Old Testament Quotation of John 6:31,” Novum Testamentum XXX, no. 1 (1998), http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hi d=12&sid=4166f2d4-da5e-48d3-a89b-3e64391ba4da%40sessionmgr3 (accessed February 17, 2009) 39.
[11] Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary Volume 2 John 5:1-8:59, 161.
[12] Borchert, The New American Commentary: John 1-11, 263.
[13] Carson, The Gospel According to John, 287.
[14] Borchert, The New American Commentary: John 1-11, 264.
[15] Carson, The Gospel According to John, 288.
[16] Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary Volume One, 681.
[17] Ibid, 683.
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