What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
They had seen the sign of the multiplication of the loaves, and this led them to suspect that Jesus might be the prophet like Moses, the one whom Moses had promised would one day come. But Jesus himself had told the crowd that they weren't really pursuing him because they had understood that or another of his signs. They were pursuing him because they desired easy access to more bread, even if it was of the kind that would leave one hungry again eventually. They were caught up in the cycle of apparent necessity. The were willing to go that far with Jesus, but not further. Having been called out on their own motivation, rather than looking within themselves, they critiqued Jesus. He seemed to be acting as if he were even greater than Moses, the one, among all others, on whom "the Father, God, has set his seal". After all, even the food given through Moses perished, but Jesus pointed to food that endures for eternal life.
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
The crowd suggested that the feat of feeding Israel in the desert for forty years far surpassed the multiplication of the loaves and fishes that Jesus had accomplished. Therefore, they implied, he was not even on the same level as Moses, let alone someone greater.
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.
The crowd had been arguing in a way that implied they thought that it had been Moses who gave them bread in the wilderness through his own innate power. Thus, they reasoned, he was greater than Jesus. Therefore Jesus clarified their misconception. It was not that the miracle in the wilderness was proof of the greatness of Moses. It was in fact a sign of the mercy and providence of the Father. For this reason, it was not a competition between the works of a dead prophet and a living one. It was a continuity in God the Father demonstrating his love for the world.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.
If it had been done by Moses, the bread in the desert would have been a past, one time event, and "gave" would have been the whole story. But because it was done by the Father, it continued then, and even now since the "Father gives", then and there, as well as here and now. Yet there was discontinuity as well, since those who ate the manna in the desert did eventually die. In the desert received bread that was like that which Jesus multiplied for the crowds. It was a sign or symbol of life, but not the thing itself. The true bread which God desired to give to the world was bread that was more fully life-giving. This bread was not only a symbol of life, but rather, life itself.
“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.”
To their credit, the crowd recognized how desirable this bread was. It was as if their argumentativeness was stopped short against the goodness of what Jesus described. The true bread that came down from heaven was not manna, which was still in the end only earthly bread. The true bread that came down from heaven was the one who had come down from heaven by way of the incarnation, Jesus himself. But this centrality of Jesus contained both peril and promise. It meant that the only way for the crowd to find true satisfaction to their hunger and thirst was in Jesus himself. But the crowd was already having difficulty accepting one as great or greater than Moses. How would they receive one who demanded such absolute primacy in their lives? He was really promising something that only God himself could provide. And he said God the Father, was the one providing. But he himself was the thing given, bread for the life of the world. Looking anywhere else for fulfillment would lead inevitably to frustration.
How does the bread of life give us eternal life? It does so by conforming us to Jesus who is himself that bread. We become, it is said, what we receive. When we eat normal bread we assimilate it to ourselves. When we eat the Eucharist Jesus assimilates us into himself as his Body. We can see that we are meant to become images of Jesus, as Jesus himself was an icon of the Father, from the first reading about Stephen.
As they were stoning Stephen, he called out,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”;
and when he said this, he fell asleep.
John Michael Talbot - I Am The Bread Of Life
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