Joh 6:22-59 | KingComments | STEP | The crowd watched everything that happened, as far as they could see. They did not see the events that happened at sea in which the Lord revealed Himself to His disciples in a special way. In their natural thinking there is no place for that either. What they did see, however, was that the small boat in which the disciples went, had left without Him having embarked. They are emphatically seeking the Lord Jesus. Did He board another boat then? After all, they were close to the place where He performed that wonderful wonder, which gave them all so much to eat. They also noticed how the Lord first gave thanks and only then distributed the bread. John mentions again emphatically that they ate of the bread after the Lord had given thanks. By doing so he emphasizes the fact that the Lord does everything in dependence of His Father. The place of the wonder has become an empty place after the departure of Christ. Thus, they leave that place because to them it is about being with Him. Their research shows that He did not board any of the other boats either. Neither are His disciples to be found there. Because they want to be with Him anyway, they board boats themselves. So they come to Capernaum to seek Him there. There they find Him, on the other side of the sea. They are curious as to when He arrived there, because after having checked all possibilities, it remains a mystery how He could have come there. This wonder reveals the true motive of their search for Him. They are driven by curiosity and to profit even more from Him, after they had eaten the loaves in that way. But the Lord does not satisfy their curiosity.

‏ John 6:22-59

The Crowd Seeks and Finds the Lord

The crowd watched everything that happened, as far as they could see. They did not see the events that happened at sea in which the Lord revealed Himself to His disciples in a special way. In their natural thinking there is no place for that either. What they did see, however, was that the small boat in which the disciples went, had left without Him having embarked. They are emphatically seeking the Lord Jesus. Did He board another boat then? After all, they were close to the place where He performed that wonderful wonder, which gave them all so much to eat.

They also noticed how the Lord first gave thanks and only then distributed the bread. John mentions again emphatically that they ate of the bread after the Lord had given thanks. By doing so he emphasizes the fact that the Lord does everything in dependence of His Father. The place of the wonder has become an empty place after the departure of Christ. Thus, they leave that place because to them it is about being with Him.

Their research shows that He did not board any of the other boats either. Neither are His disciples to be found there. Because they want to be with Him anyway, they board boats themselves. So they come to Capernaum to seek Him there. There they find Him, on the other side of the sea.

They are curious as to when He arrived there, because after having checked all possibilities, it remains a mystery how He could have come there. This wonder reveals the true motive of their search for Him. They are driven by curiosity and to profit even more from Him, after they had eaten the loaves in that way. But the Lord does not satisfy their curiosity.

Working for the Food That Endures

Instead of answering their curious questions, the Lord exposes their hearts. He confronts them with their selfishness. He knows what is in man (Jn 2:23-25). With yet another double “truly” followed by an emphatic “I say to you”, He establishes the important truth that they have learned nothing from the signs, but that they are only interested in satisfying their temporal needs.

They have seen the signs, but missed their meaning. It does not occur to them to believe in Him as the Son of God and thereby receive eternal life. They do not see that the sign reveals His glory. They explain the sign according to their own liking because they only seek the temporary satisfaction of earthly prosperity. They pay no attention to putting their relationship with God in order. And yet, in all things, the Lord shows His connection with God and His mission through the Father as the source of His actions. However, they can only think of a life here and now and how to enjoy it as optimally as possible in a selfish way.

The Lord points out to them that they should not be concerned primarily with earthly and therefore by definition perishable food, but with food which has an eternal and solid value. As the Son of Man He is able to provide that. With this He indicates that it is no longer about what the Messiah can give to His earthly people. He points to Himself as the Son of Man and as the One on Whom the Father, God, has set His seal.

The fact that He is sealed by the Father means that the Father has designated Him as the One with Whom eternal life can be obtained. What He on behalf of the Father, Who is God, offers as food, is eternal life, real and unadulterated. It cannot be obtained from anyone but the Son of Man. The Father has sealed Him with the Holy Spirit at His baptism (Mt 3:16; cf. Eph 1:13). Only from the Son they can receive the food that endures to eternal life.

The crowd answers with a question. They want to know what they have to do in order to work the works of God. They can only think in terms of doing something themselves, while ignoring the great problem of their sins. They don’t realize that they are sinners, and therefore deny their sins. They also deny His glory and majesty. It is reminiscent of the way of Cain who also thought he was pleasing to God by offering a sacrifice that was the result of his own hard work, but which God did not regard (Gen 4:3 ; 5). The same can be seen in professing Christianity which has opened itself so much to influences from Judaism and heathenism.

Because the thinking of the crowd is only about their own well-being, they misunderstand the words of the Lord. By works for the food that endures to eternal life, the Lord does not mean delivering a performance, but opening oneself up to a work of God in them. The Son is the object of faith. The Father has sealed Him and only the Father can accept Him as the foundation on which the sinner can approach God. And if it is based on faith, it is open to both Jew and Gentile. Faith is the work of God and excludes the work of man.

The Bread Out of Heaven

That the crowd asks for a sign is once again proof of their unbelief. As if the Lord has not yet given enough signs. And they themselves have just seen a great sign in the multiplication of the loaves. It seems that the sign He has given through the feeding has not convinced them of His mission. For them, the bread He gave did not come out of heaven, but from the earth, and the fish from the sea. No, but the manna that their fathers had eaten in the wilderness, that bread, they say, came from heaven.

It is as if they were saying that the sign that Yahweh did in the wilderness (Exo 16:15) was far greater than that of the Lord Jesus. After all, Yahweh provided food for a nation of millions for forty years. They even quote a word from the Old Testament, showing that the manna is called “bread out of heaven” (Neh 9:15; Psa 78:24 ; Psa 105:40). If He, Jesus, would do such a thing, they would believe Him.

By reminding the Lord of this word from the Old Testament, they make a distinction that is not there for faith. Jesus is the Same as Yahweh of the Old Testament. They also forget that the people in the wilderness finally did not believe these wonders and sinned against Him (Psa 78:32), just as they also forget how Israel later despised the manna (Num 21:5).

The Lord reprimands them, once again with that emphatic, double “truly”, followed by the powerful and authoritative “I say to you”. He first points out that it was not Moses who gave them the bread out of heaven. Perhaps in Jn 6:31 they mean that Moses gave them the bread out of heaven and that they did not even attribute the giving of manna to Yahweh. It is very short-sighted to attribute the wonder of manna to Moses.

The Lord does not elaborate on that. It is about the ‘kind’ of bread. The bread of which they say Yahweh or Moses gave it, is bread that the people needed time after time. In addition, it could not have prevented them from dying after all (Jn 6:49). Therefore, the Lord proceeds directly from Moses and the bread that came out of heaven in his days, to the true bread that the Father gives out of heaven. He wants them to realize that the true life of the Father comes out of heaven and that this is now given to them, not to their fathers.

Next, He points out that the bread out of heaven is a Person, “He”, Who descends from heaven and gives life not only to a certain people, but to the world. The Lord speaks of “the bread of God” meaning Divine bread, bread that comes from God to serve as food for those to whom He gives it. It is spiritual bread, bread that must be eaten in a spiritual way. Because He gives this bread, there is life in it for those who take it. In this bread the true life for the world can be found. It is offered to everyone, indiscriminately.

Linked to ‘the bread of God’ is also the thought that God feeds Himself with the Lord Jesus. Of course this is not in the same way as people do, but as the joy for His heart (see Leviticus 21, where some translations speak of the ‘bread of the LORD (Yahweh)’, Lev 21:21-22). What is joy for the heart of God, He gives to the world as life.

I Am the Bread of Life

The crowd reacts like the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob (Jn 4:15). Just like she only thought of natural water, so does the crowd only think of natural, material bread, similar to the manna. If it would fall from heaven, as it did then, they would not have to buy it. They ignore the history of unbelief of the nation. The only thing that matters to them is the direct, easy and free-of-charge satisfaction of their natural needs.

Then the Lord forthrightly says that He is the bread of life as well as how someone can partake of it. Actually they can get it on their terms: directly, easily and free of charge. All they have to do is come to Him and believe in Him. If they do that, they will never be hungry or thirsty again.

In this Gospel, the Lord uses the expression “I am” seven times followed by a different addition. Here He uses this expression the first time. The addition is

1. “the bread of life”. The other additions are

2. “the Light of the world” (Jn 8:12);

3. “the door of the sheep” (Jn 10:7);

4. “the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11);

5. “the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25);

6. “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6);

7. “the true vine” (Jn 15:1).

The words “I am” have a great connotation. To pronounce these words is to pronounce His Name (Exo 3:14). By pronouncing them, the crowd that comes to take Him captive falls to the ground (Jn 18:5-6).

On His invitation to come to Him the Lord immediately adds that He knows in His Divine omniscience what they are like. He has also told them that. They have seen Him, but they do not believe in Him. They reject Him because He does not respond to their natural desires. He asks them to do things they do not want to do, such as bowing before His majesty and confessing their sins in the light of His majesty. They have no eye for His glory. And yet He is so remarkably loving in His approach to them!

The Will of the Father

The Lord has spoken about believing in Him and coming to Him never to be hungry or thirsty again. The emphasis is on man’s responsibility. Man must believe and come. The other side, the side of God, is that He works in sinners that they go to the Lord Jesus. Those who are given to the Son by the Father come to the Lord Jesus.

The Lord mentions both sides here. On the one side there is the work of the Father: He gives to the Son. On the other side there is the sinner who must come: Who comes to Me. Both sides are true. Every sinner that comes is because He has been given by the Father and therefore is accepted by the Lord Jesus and not cast out. Because of these words, every sinner going to Him may be sure that he is accepted by Him.

These words express great assurance and they are an encouragement to those who tend to be unsteady. Whoever comes to Him, whatever his background, is accepted by Him. Whoever once has come will acknowledge that everything is the work of the Father and that the Lord Jesus has accepted him because the Father has given him to Him.

This work can take place in this manner because the Son has descended from heaven with the express purpose of not doing His will on earth, but that of the Father Who sent Him. The Father can therefore work in the sinner, because His Son has done His will on earth. As a result, the Son can accept that sinner as a gift from the Father. The sinner therefore has the assurance of his salvation in complete accordance with the will of God which has been completely fulfilled by the Son. This assurance is independent of his feelings.

Apart from receiving sinners given to Him by the Father, the Father also wants the Son to protect and secure everything He has given Him. Just as the Son has not lost anything of the bread (Jn 6:12), the Son will ensure that nothing is lost of what the Father has given Him. Even if death would assert its claims against those who have been given to Him by the Father, that does not mean loss of what the Son has been given. “All” (Jn 6:39, the whole) and “everyone” (Jn 6:40, the individual) are perfectly safe with the Son, even if death intervenes. Indeed, the Son has the power to raise up (Jn 6:39 ; 40 ; 44 ; 54). This power to awaken also indicates that the fullness of eternal life will only be truly enjoyed in the resurrection.

The Son is completely focused on the will of the Father. He is completely aware of that will. The will of the Father is about His Son and all those whom the Father connects to Him. That connection only comes about when someone beholds the Son and believes in Him. People who believe in the Lord Jesus have seen something, or better: Someone. They believe because they have seen the Son, their eyes have been opened to the beauty and glory of the Son. They are attracted to Who He is. Such a person is given eternal life. The guarantee that an eternal connection has been established is proven when the Son will soon show His power by raising up the deceased believers.

The Father Teaches About the Son

This is the time when the Jews are making themselves heard again. They have listened and heard that He says of Himself that He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. That is why they grumble about Him. Now that they notice that the Lord means Himself with the bread of life, the longing for bread has disappeared and they stumble over Him (cf. Rom 9:32).

They only know the earthly circumstances, but misjudge them. He is not the Son of Joseph, but of Mary. Therefore they are on a totally wrong basis to be able to judge Him. Unbelief always leads to wrong conclusions and remains blind to the truth. Because they blindly stare at His natural origins, they cannot understand His words about having come down out of heaven. To them He is Someone from below and therefore He cannot possibly have come from above. They do not understand that He is the Man from heaven (1Cor 15:47).

As so often, the grumbling of the Jews is again reason for the Lord to tell more important things. He reproaches them for grumbling among themselves. Grumbling about the truth makes no sense at all. It keeps the grumbler out of the truth and is also to the ruin of those who hear this grumbling.

The Lord clearly declares that only those who are drawn by the Father come to Him. He mentions the Name of the Father and He calls Him the One Who sent Him. This indicates both the special relationship between the Son and the Father as well as the special commission of the Father to the Son. Only those who believe in Him see this. Unbelief leads away from Him, whereas the Father brings to Him. The latter is a work of grace which rules out everything that belongs to man, his value, his work, his will.

It takes a merciful activity of the Father to go to the Son. That is not what the Gospel preaches to people who yearn for salvation. To them the Lord Jesus says: “Come to me” (Mt 11:28). He does not say that to those who grumble about Him. To them He says that they cannot come. They have an attitude that makes it impossible to invite them. The final blessing in the resurrection on the last day is not for them.

As additional proof that it is impossible to believe if one is not taught by the Father, the Lord cites something the prophets have written (Isa 54:13). It has already been made clear by the prophets that a new situation can only be understood by those who have been taught by God as disciples. Equally, a person can only come to the Son if he is taught by the Father. All true teaching concerning the Son comes from God the Father. A religion that does not lead to the Son is not from God. A person only gains insight into what the Lord says if God gives him insight. Anyone who has received instruction from the Father about the Person of the Son comes to the Son. Whoever is in distress about his sins and goes to God is directed by Him to the Son.

We see a picture of this in the history of the famine in Egypt in the days when Joseph was viceroy of Egypt (Gen 41:55). People come to Pharaoh in their need (there a picture of God), but Pharaoh sends them to Joseph (a picture of the Lord Jesus). The Father gives teachings concerning the Son, while it is also true that the Father is known only by the Son (Jn 14:9), for only the Son has seen the Father (Exo 33:20; 1Tim 6:16).

So there is a clear interaction between the Father and the Son. No one comes to the Son except he who has heard and accepted the teaching of the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son, for the Son has seen the Father and has come to earth to make Him known. The Jews have therefore never seen the Father because they have never seen the Son with and in faith. They see in Him no more than a Man of Whom they know the parents and relatives.

The Living Bread

After the Lord Jesus has presented His perfect unity with the Father and the complete harmony between Him and the Father in Their actions, He again speaks about the core of eternal life which is: faith in Him. Again He emphasizes with a double “truly” followed by an authoritative “I say to you” the truth of faith in Him as the only possibility to receive eternal life. He is the Giver of eternal life. It is inextricably linked to faith in Him.

By speaking of Himself as the bread of life He points to Himself as the Source of life and as the Giver of life. Bread is there to be eaten. By eating, a person identifies himself with what he eats. Whoever nourishes himself with the Lord Jesus, that is who accepts Him in faith, receives life, eternal life.

His Person as the bread of life is different from the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness. The contrast between the true bread, Himself, and the manna, is that eating the manna did not save from death. They ate of it every day, but in the end they all died. The only thing that keeps a man from death is eating Him as the bread that has come down out of heaven.

In Jn 6:50-58 the Lord Jesus speaks seven times about eating Him or His flesh as the living bread and three times about drinking His blood. This is clear and simple imagery. What we eat and drink is fully absorbed by our body and forms us. It becomes a part of us and can no longer be taken away from us. In contrast to the manna, eating from Him means that one will not die, for then one is “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable” (1Pet 1:23). Eating Him means receiving eternal life. It is by becoming Man that the Lord Jesus has become the bread that has come down out of heaven. This enables everyone who wants to, to eat Him. Whoever does so, will live eternally.

To illustrate this further, the Lord then speaks about His flesh as the bread. His coming as the bread to give life is not enough. Before anyone will really be able to feed on Him, He will have to render His flesh, that is His body, in death. Only as the dead Christ He can give life. Here He already indicates that He will give His flesh, which will happen on the cross. With this He points to His atoning death. This does not only mean life for Israel, but for the entire world.

So it is about faith in His coming in the flesh on earth to be able to die (Heb 2:14; 1Jn 4:2-3). The denial that He came in the flesh is an antichristian heresy (2Jn 1:7). The origin of this heresy proves the importance of the Son’s coming in the flesh. Otherwise the devil would not do his utmost to attack that truth.

Eating His Flesh and Drinking His blood

The Jews grumbled among themselves about earlier words. About the words concerning the eating of His flesh they argue with one another. Every truth about Him gives the enemy more reason to reveal opposition, while it strengthens the chosen ones more in their faith in Him. The dispute in question is how He gives them His flesh to eat. They don’t understand any of this. They look for an explanation and engage in a vigorous debate about it with each other.

With yet another double and therefore emphatically “truly” and an authoritative “I say to you” the Lord speaks about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood as the only and exclusive condition to get life. The Father gives the Son as the true bread and the Son gives Himself to die. As a result, His flesh can be eaten, and His blood can be drunk. The Lord does not say ‘he who eats Me’, but He speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. With this He presents His death.

Faith finds atonement with respect to sins and fellowship with God as a result of that atonement. It is about fully empathizing with the thought of the reality of His death. Before God, we must identify ourselves with His death and share in His death through faith, otherwise we have no life in us.

It means that I must be aware that the death of the Lord Jesus was a condition for me to be reconciled with God and thereby receive eternal life. The only way I can do that is when I see that I am a sinner who cannot exist before God and to whom God can only give righteous judgment. Then I also see that Christ has undergone that judgment for me on the cross. When I realize that, in a spiritual sense I eat His flesh and drink His blood.

This is a one-time eating and drinking in order to receive life, i.e. eating and drinking as a convinced sinner. This is not about the Lord’s Supper at all and certainly not about the falsification of it which is called ‘eucharist’. The Supper is about eating in remembrance of the Lord (1Cor 11:24-25), but here it is about eating Himself in order to receive eternal life. It is utmost folly to link the obtaining of eternal life to taking part in the Supper. The Lord uses the eating and drinking as a picture for believing in Him as the dead Lord in order to receive eternal life. Eating and drinking means spiritually nourishing oneself with a dead Christ, that is believing in His substitutionary death and His resurrection.

Whoever once received life through faith in Him – that is what the Lord says in Jn 6:53 – needs to constantly eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is what the Lord says in Jn 6:54. The footnote in the Dutch TELOS-translation at Jn 6:53 says the following about these two aspects of eating and drinking:

In Jn 6:53 ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are in Greek in the aorist so that they refer to an event that takes place once; in Jn 6:54 and Jn 6:56-58 they are in the praesens, so that they refer to events that are still going on. [End of footnote]

[Explanation of the terms ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’: ‘aorist’ and ‘praesens’ are Greek forms of tense which also indicate how the act is presented, namely as a once-only and thus closed (aorist) or as a repeated fact (praesens)].

Continuous or repeated eating and drinking is necessary because life is in Him. This eating and drinking will continue until the resurrection, to which the Lord points by speaking of raising up on the last day. Always, for all eternity, we will be aware that we owe everything to Him Who died for us and rose from death. For the believer, His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink. Every believer will experience and enjoy the truth of this inwardly. This applies both to the one-time (spiritual) eating when someone comes to faith and to the daily (spiritual) eating and drinking of the believer.

The result of this eating and drinking is the closest fellowship. It is not only assurance, but Christ is the home for the believer and Christ lives in him. The believer has a continuous fellowship with Christ, which he maintains by feeding with Him every day.

The Lord Jesus compares the intimacy of the fellowship the believer has with Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood with His own fellowship with the Father. His fellowship with the Father is the perfect example of fellowship. Just as He depends on the Father in everything, so does the believer depend on Him.

The Lord calls His Father “the living Father” to indicate that He shares life with the Father and that everything to live on is received from the Father. It was the living Father Who sent Him. Thus the life of the Father that is in Him has become visible on earth. The believer who eats the Son also lives according to that glorious model. By eating the Son, the life of the Son becomes visible in the believer. Outside of the Son there is no life possible. A believer also has no life to live than only in fellowship with the Son.

In Jn 6:58 the Lord summarizes His teaching. When He says “this is the bread which came down out of heaven”, He points with the word “this” not only to Himself but to the whole teaching that is connected with the bread. He is the bread that has come down out of heaven. He spoke about this in Jn 6:32-33 ; 38 ; 50-51. This is different from the manna the fathers ate, for they died in spite of eating the manna (Jn 6:32 ; 49). From Him and everything He has said about Himself, such as His death, everyone must eat in order to live eternally (Jn 6:35 ; 40 ; 50-51 ; 53-57).

The Lord said these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. The synagogue is the learning house for the Jew. Capernaum is the town where He lived (Mt 4:13 ; Mt 9:1).