By Fr Lar O'Connor
The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes
There are problems to be resolved in John 6. Is the chief focus on the Eucharist or are there other themes to be considered? We begin with the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Jesus takes the initiative to feed the people. “Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat.” (Jn. 6:6) Andrew told him that there was a small boy present with five loaves and two fish and there was no way this could feed the crowd. Jesus insisted that the people sit down. As many as five thousand men sat down. “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were sitting there.” (Jn. 6:11) All ate as much as they wanted. They collected the scraps left over and filled twelve large baskets.
There are obvious connections between the words of Jesus and the account s of the institution of the Eucharist. We will be content with Luke’s account which closely reflects Paul in First Corinthians: “Then he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying ‘This is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me. He did the same with the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you.” (Lk 22:19-20).
There are two obvious links between the miracle and the institution. Jesus “gave thanks and gave (distributed) the bread to the crowd.” At the institution he also gives thanks and gives the bread to the disciples.
Dialogue with the Jews
After the miracle near the sea of Galilee the crowd pursued Jesus to Capernaum. Jesus challenges them as to why they have come, searching for him. He says first “You are looking for me, not because you have seen the signs.” (Jn. 6:26). But this seems to contradict what we find in the story of the miracle, “Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’ (Jn. 6:14) They intended to take him by force and make him king. However, the contradiction does not impact the main message. He reminds them that they are satisfied, “ because you had all the bread you wanted to eat” (Jn. 6:26). But, Jesus encourages them not to work for perishable food but for the food that ensures “eternal life” which the Son of Man, who is approved by the Father, will give.
His audience raised the question as to what they need to do “to carry out God’s work.” Jesus responded, “This is carrying out God’s work, ‘You must believe in the one he has sent.’” The original Greek presents a purpose clause. The implication is this. Jesus is calling for belief in himself who is the Word who became man. The Jews look for a sign. Another manna miracle would satisfy them. They confirm their request with a quotation from Scripture. “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” It reflects what we find in the book of Exodus. Jesus replied that it was not Moses who gave them bread from heaven and then with a change of tense he affirms, “It is my Father who gives you bread from heaven, the true bread.”. This is the bread that comes down for heaven and gives life to the world. Anyone who partakes of this bread will have life, indeed, the life of an ongoing and growing relationship with Christ and with his Father.
“I am the bread of life”
The Jews believing that Jesus was talking about earthly food asked him, “Give us this bread always.” That brings us to Jesus’ important words, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever hunger, no one who believes in me will ever thirst.” The critical question is: Who is Jesus as the Bread of Life? We find a key to the answer in the Book of Sirach. “They who eat me will hunger for more, they who drink me will thirst for more.” (Sir. 24:21). Sirach talks about Wisdom. We can conclude that Jesus is the Wisdom of God. There are other Wisdom texts that express and confirm this image. “Come and eat my bread, drink the wine which I have drawn. Leave foolishness behind and you will live, go forward in the ways of perception.” (Prov.9:5-6) Another text from Sirach gives a similar picture of the bread which Wisdom offers. “She will give him the bread of understanding to eat and the water of wisdom to drink. (Sir. 15:3).
It is clear that Wisdom is the key to understanding Jesus as the Bread of Life in this context. He is the Wisdom of God. It is clear from the Gospel that he is the revelation of God. He is the Word made flesh. He is the Truth. He is the Light and the Living Water as another image of Revelation. Jesus came as a human person to enlighten us about God, to show us the face of God, to manifest him as a loving God who desires to bring all mankind to the ultimate blessing of life in union with himself which is final salvation.
As the Bread of Life, Jesus is the revelation of God. The basic call to us is to believe in or into him. To believe in him and to “come to him” is the same thing. “No one who comes to me will ever hunger; no one who believes in me will ever thirst.” We believe in Jesus as the Bread of Life, as the revelation of God. We commit ourselves and entrust ourselves to him and that brings satisfaction or contentment and ultimately salvation.
Faith
Jesus asserts that people can see and contemplate him and still not believe. But he emphasises that “everyone whom the Father gives him will come to me.” That implies that God has some causality in the act of faith. That influence will be explained later. Jesus affirms that he will not reject anyone who comes to him or believes in him. Jesus’ purpose is to fulfil the will of the Father who sent him. It is the Father’s will that he should lose nothing of all that he has given to him. The final blessing for the believer is “that I should raise him up on the last day. ”There are two promises for believers, that they have eternal life now (Realised eschatology) and be raised up on the last day (Future eschatology).
The Jews had a problem with Jesus’ claim to be the bread that has come down from heaven. They knew that he was the son of Joseph and were familiar with his father and mother. This gives Jesus the opportunity to talk a little more about faith,
Jesus affirms, “No one comes to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.” Jesus explains that he was ‘sent by the Father’’ Later he emphasises that no one had seen the Father except “him who has his being from God”. The person who believes “is drawn by God”. For the teachers of the Old Testament it was necessary to be drawn close to the Torah to gain a knowledge of God. For John people must be drawn to Jesus by the influence or grace of God to be believers. He supports his argument with a text from Isaiah. “They will all be taught by God.” (Is. 54:13). God could teach his people through his intermediaries, the prophets and Wisdom teachers. But on the basis of Jeremiah’s great prophecy the internal teaching of God is probably in mind. “Now this is the covenant I shall make with the house of Israel when those days come. Within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer. 31:33)
God will write the law in their hearts, and make it part of their thinking. The result will be a strong mutual relationship between God and his people. In the context of John those who listen to God and learn from him will come to faith in Jesus. There is no question of anybody coming to see God. Jesus who as the Son of God has his existence from God has seen him and made him known. It resembles what we find in the prologue. “ No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known”. Jesus has made him known with the result that everyone who believes in him has eternal life.” They do not have to wait. It happens now.
. The passage concludes with an inclusion. Inclusions indicate the beginning and endo of a topic under discussion. Jesus repeats the affirmation “I am the bread if life”. The Jews brought up the subject of manna at the beginning of the discourse. He reminds them that those who ate the manna are dead. Those who eat the bread that comes down from heaven will never die. Jesus continues to talk of the revelation that he brings and which prompts people to believe. We have now come to the end of the discourse on the bread of life as revelation. Raymond Browne in his commentary suggests that there is a secondary Eucharistic theme in the discourse. However, the evidence is not apparent. But, in the following verses there is a separate discourse or homily on the Eucharist which also comes from the Johannine school.
The Bread of Life as Eucharist
Jesus starts off pretty well as he did already. He describes himself as “the living bread which has come down from heaven”. He is the living bread who has become incarnate, who appears as a human person. Anyone who partakes of the bread will live with God permanently. Now he gives a new meaning to the bread which he offers. “And the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.” These words resemble quite closely the words of St. Luke in his account of the institution of the Eucharist. “This is my body which will be given for you.” (Lk. 22:19) It is quite probable that John reflects the earliest form of the institution of the Eucharist. In Aramaic Jesus probably said, “This my flesh.” There was no Hebrew or Aramaic word for “body”. Jesus is equating his flesh with his whole person, with his humanity. The living bread is the person of Christ given up to death on behalf of humankind. He died “for the love of the world”. “For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him, may not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16).
The Jews were astonished by the realistic tone of Jesus remarks. As is typical of John, they misunderstood. They suspected some form of cannibalism. Jesus’ response only served to underline his previous remark. He addresses them in a solemn and authoritative manner. ” In all truth I tell you if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you". Jesus starts with negative words. If we do not eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood we will not have life. The life in question is our union or relationship with Christ himself. In the Eucharist we make our own his whole human personality. Christ shares himself with us so that we can benefit from the contact.
Jesus, then, makes a positive statement with a double eschatological promise. “Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life and I shall raise that person up on the last day.” John introduces a new word for “eating”. It implies munching or chewing and so highlights the reality of the flesh and blood of Christ. The first promise is realised eschathology. Those who partake of the Eucharist have eternal life now. In other words, we share in the life of Christ and his Father during our time on earh. The second promise is the ultimate blessing of salvation with the general resurrection from the dead.
In what follows Jesus emphasises that his flesh and blood have real value as food and drink. They will truly nourish Christian life, but not in the sense that food nourishes our ordinary lives. It is the sacramental contact with Christ that really nourishes our life with him. It truly brings about intimacy and union with Christ that is deepened every time we receive the Eucharist. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in that person.” Jesus acknowledges that he was sent by the Father and draws and derives his life from the Father. It is the Son’s relationship with the Father that ensures the quality of his own life. Whoever consumes the person of Christ in the Eucharist draws and derives life from him. The Eucharist ensures contact with Christ and deepens our union with Him every time we receive Holy Communion.
The Eucharistic discourse concludes with an inclusion which picks up the words at the beginning of the passage. “This is the bread which has come down from heaven.” It is not like the bread the ancestors ate. They are dead. “But anyone who eats this bread will lives forever.”
Conclusion
It is clear that there are two separate discourses on the Bread of Life in this chapter, The first (vv 35-50) concentrates on the Bread of Life as Revelation. Jesus is the one who reveals God to us. God gives us the grace to believe in this revelation. There is no evident connection with the Eucharist in this passage. But in vv 51-58 there is an obvious focus on the Eucharist. It is a separate and probably later discourse or sermon from the school of John’s disciples. He uses two sources in the composition of the passage. The words of Jesus at the institution of the Eucharist is one source. The other is the previous discourse on revelation. A number of themes and expressions are repeated in the reflections on the Eucharist.
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