So Jesus met the crowd on the way to Caper'na-um, and here they asked Him "Rabbi, when did you come here?" because they knew there was but one boat that the disciples used and He was not in it and He did not enter any boat in the morning along with them. This is why we believe they asked Him:
"Rabbi, when did You come here?"
Jesus answered them:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."
What does Jesus mean they sought Him because they "ate their fill of the loaves"? Clearly their question was about how He managed to get across the Sea of Galilee without them noticing Him. The answer we feel is that their focus was on the miracles they had seen and on the one presently before them now, yet they had no other depth. As a result Jesus was to take them in deeper than many would want to go:
"Do not labor for the food which parishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you; for on Him has G-d the Father set His seal."
In other words, it is by-faith; Faith in the Messiah that G-d had promised them and Faith in the Father that sent Him:
"Then they said to Him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of G-d?' Jesus answered them, "This is the work of G-d, that you believe in him Whom He has sent."
Faith isn't works, Jesus chided them, and faith means to have faith in Him:
"For G-d sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of G-d." Jn.3.17-18
This is greater than they even suspected. All other signs pale against this claim: that He is the Son of the G-d Most High. This is why they say:
"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.'"
It is written:
"Therefore, when the L-rd heard, He was full of wrath . . . because they had no faith in G-d and did not trust His saving power . . . Yet He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven; and He rained down upon them to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance." Ps.78.21, 24-25
Clearly this shows that G-d gave them this bread, so why did Jesus say:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; My Father gives you the true bread from heaven."
This was we feel because Moses brought the Law and Jesus is stating that He (Jesus) is greater than the Law. Also notice that the Psalmist clearly states that manna came from heaven, as does Jesus. We state this only to establish that heavenly bread can only come forth from the hand of G-d. The entire quote:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of G-d is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world."
"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of G-d rests upon him." Jn.3.36.
Therefore this bread is Jesus Himself, but do they understand this?
"They said to him, 'L-rd give us this bread always."
Obviously they see literal bread and no symbolism or metaphor therefore Jesus makes Himself clearer:
"He said to them, 'I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall not thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me; and him who comes to Me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me; and this is the will of Him Who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of My Father that every one who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." <
"He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall not thirst."
These words are common words that Jesus uses to define Himself as The Messiah. He spoke them to the woman at the well (Jn.4.13); on the last day of Succos ( Jn.7.37-39); and of course, in the Beatitudes ( Matt.5.6 and Lk.6.21); which they're in reference to righteousness. Why does He say "But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe"? we feel this is because He knew the words that would follow these would breed doubt in those that followed Him up until now. It is He that is the Bread of Life, He that comes down from above. He that existed before He was born, for as John also states:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G-d, and the Word was G-d . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. . ." Jn.1.1, 14
What is puzzling to us however are the words that follow: ". For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me; and this is the will of Him Who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up at the last day." If Jesus was not to lose "nothing of all He has given Me" then why did He talk of drinking blood and not correcting their understanding, especially when His words turned people away (drink blood is highly unkosher)? (see Jn.6.66). The people are incredulous at His words:
"The Jews murmured at Him because He said, 'I am the Bread which came down from heaven.' They said, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, "I have come down from heaven"?'
How quickly they return to their human understanding. If this is Joseph's son, how can He be G-d's? He was born of flesh, how could He have come forth from heaven?
"Do not murmur among yourselves. 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, 'And they shall all be taught by G-d.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me."
Where does it say: "and they shall be taught by G-d"? It's a Messianic passage found in Is.54.13: "All your Sons shall be taught by the L-rd". Just before this passage is a prophecy of the New Jerusalem. Is this why Jesus speaks this prophecy just after "I will raise him up on the last day"? We will be resurrected at His second coming; therefore we believe He is saying that not only is He Messiah Son of Joseph (Suffering Messiah) but also Messiah Son of David (the conquering Messiah). He also states that faith goes both ways. If you believe in Him He will lead you to the Father and if you have "heard and learned from the Father" then you shall go to the Son.
"I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread of Life, which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and the Bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My Flesh."
Clearly He is tying this Bread, this heavenly Bread, to the cross; for Jesus gave His very flesh upon Mount Calvary. Therefore, this bread is not only The Messiah but also His flesh that He gave to us for our sins. The people, who knew nothing of the cross, took His words literally and immediately were offended by them:
"The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give His Flesh to eat?'"
Obviously, these folks misunderstood him, so now Jesus really has a chance to clarify Himself and so He says:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is food indeed. And My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in Him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me. This is the Bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."
Jesus spoke these words on Passover, the eve of the Feast of Unleavened Bread , in the synagogue.
This is a bread that if we eat of it, in faith, we shall not die, but shall live forever. This is no common Bread, it is a necessary bread, as is all Laws this helps us abide It is a Bread that will bring forth eternal life. What else could this bread be, other than Jesus Himself (see the previous section) and yet He states, "My Flesh is food indeed. And My Blood is drink indeed. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so He who eats Me will live because of Me." Again, why would He say that this is food, without a doubt, if He was just talking about His physical being? How can He call Himself "food"? Is there another example that uses such similar language? We searched the Gospels for wording such as this and this is what we found:
Nowhere else in the Gospels could we find an example of Jesus alluding to Himself as His Flesh, although He does allude to "flesh and blood" for a human being (see Matt.16.17). Since we could not find an example for flesh, we looked instead for such examples of the word "bread". There are many times Jesus talks of bread. For example, we are to ask G-d for our daily bread (the "Our Father"- Matt.6.11 and Lk.11.3) and beware of the leavening of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt.16.5-12, Mk.8.14-21, & Lk.12.1). But the only place we could find Him alluding to Himself as the bread is at the Last Supper where Jesus "took bread, and blessed, and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said. 'Take, eat; this is My Body." Matt.26.26, Mk.14.22, Lk.22.15. This is the closest match because Jesus likens the bread to His "body", which in other places has corresponded to the "flesh".
And so we find Him stating again that we are to "drink His blood" (Mk.14.24, Lk.22.20) in almost the exact same language as found in John 6. Coincidence? Before we can be sure we need to check the word "blood" for similar contexts as we did with the word "bread". Jesus talks of blood literally as in the shedding of "innocent blood" (Matt.23.30, 35, Lk.50-51) and John uses it to denote the birthing process (Jn.1.13). But nowhere else does Jesus, or even one of His disciples use these words in the same manner as John 6, except at the Last Supper. Clearly to us this is no coincidence.
So from this understanding we believe the Flesh and Blood correspond directly to the bread and wine at Jesus' Last Supper, which we are to do in remembrance of Him. This explains for us why He said they were literal bread and literal wine, that is His body and blood. True, they do represent the sacrifice of the cross, but why did He (in John 6) tell us that it was "food indeed" and later give a literal food- indeed!
Sadly, most of those listening misunderstood Him as many do in our present day and Jesus was forced to try to explain this again for the third time. First they said:
"This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, the Flesh is of no avail; the words that I spoke to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe."
This is a fascinating passage. Jesus spoke it because He knew those present did not understand Him at all. First, He points to His coming resurrection into Glory, "Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where He was before"; then He compares faith through the Holy Spirit to the "flesh", not His. Therefore we must be born of Spirit as Jesus spoke to Nicode'mus:
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Jn.3.6
So first comes the resurrection, then rebirth through the Holy Spirit. Yet His words that He spoke before are also Spirit, not a metaphor as He clearly states:
" . . . the words that I spoke to you are Spirit and life."
In other words, the reason so may find this hard to believe because the Body and Blood, like rebirth, is a spiritual concept and just as Jesus told Nicode'mus"
"Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive Our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
Spiritual things are just as "real" as those things we see and hear in our everyday life, but because they spring from the spiritual realm (which few can perceive), they are very hard to reason out through our limited senses. This is why Avi sent His only Son, because He (Ayn), is incomprehensible, therefore He sent His Son, who possesses His perfect image (like Adam did before Eve), so that we could "see" the invisible Father through the visible Son (in His earthly form). The "wafer" we believe is like Jesus' body (in more ways than one), but it possesses the spiritual "Body" within it just as Jesus above promised it would. Therefore we welcome anyone else's interpretation, providing it's consistent with all the Scriptural texts.
Then John adds:
"For Jesus knew from the first who were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father.' "
It was here that "the unrighteous hatred over a righteous man" (Talmud) first began to fester. This is also why the argument that Jesus meant to say this Bread was symbolic is so unreasonable in our minds. Why would He not have made this perfectly clear when He saw that they were misunderstanding His words (not to do so would be to lose something that Our Father gave Him which is impossible, see Jn.6.39)? In our understanding He did make Himself perfectly clear, or at least as clear as one can be with things within the realm of human understanding. Yet, despite this attempt to bring the disciples into a greater understanding, they just couldn't see. In fact, this caused the single greatest lost of followers than any other discourse according to John own words.
"After this many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him. Jesus said to the twelve. 'Do you also wish to go away?' Simon Peter answered Him, 'L-rd, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of G-d.' ".
So we know from above that the crowd didn't understand Him. Did the twelve truly understand? Probably not, but Peter said what affirmed was all that is truly necessary- to abide in Him, and this is faith. Therefore we believe the Body and Blood is not equal to faith, but an outgrowth of faith. This doesn't mean the Body and Blood is unimportant even by our understanding, but only that faith, as in all things, must come first. This is why we think Jesus dealt with faith first before going on to the Body and Blood and why He worked so hard to grow the disciples' faith (their recent successful witnessing and the many miracles that proceeded this tough Gospel) so that when He taught them about spiritual things (which to understand the Body and Blood you must understand the spiritual aspects of it), they had earthly things to fall back on to strengthen their willingness to trust Him even if they could not fully understand what He said. So why a daily sacrifice:
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