John 6:41–71

6:41–51 Grumbling and Fathers. In response to Jesus, “The Jews grumbled about him, because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?’” (vv. 41–42). The Jews had grumbled about Jesus’ claiming to be the bread from heaven in verses 33 and 35, and they grumbled about his references to his Father in verses 32, 37, and 40. Now, as if to refute the claims Jesus has made, they speak of how they know his mother and father (v. 41). They are incredulous that he would claim to have come down from heaven.

John has shown others responding with surprise to the claims Jesus makes. In each case, Jesus answers the surprise of those who have heard him with even more shocking claims. Nicodemus was surprised at the words of Jesus (3:4, 9), so Jesus spoke to him of ascending and descending from heaven (3:13). The Jews were scandalized that Jesus claimed he could work on the Sabbath because the Father is working (5:17), so Jesus told them that the Father shows him all he does, that the Father gave him life in himself so that he could raise the dead and execute judgment (5:19–30; cf. also 1:45–51; 2:18–22).

Now Jesus has claimed to be the bread from heaven given by God the Father (6:33, 35), asserting that everyone God the Father gives him will come to him and believe what he says (vv. 36–40). As before, when Jesus’ statements provoke and vex, he does not accommodate his message to his audience’s ability to understand or accept but instead exacerbates the problem.

“Jesus answered them, ‘Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day’” (vv. 43–44). Questioning his claim to have come down from heaven, the crowd had referenced his earthly father, Joseph (v. 42), but Jesus goes right on referencing his heavenly Father, connecting the crowd’s unbelief (v. 36) to the fact that the Father has not given them to him (v. 37) by asserting that no can come to him unless the Father draws him (v. 44). The repetition of the final phrase of verses 39 and 40 at the end of verse 44, “And I will raise him up on the last day,” shows the strong connection between the ideas in verses 36–40 and verse 44.

John has shown the crowd’s recognizing Jesus as the prophet like Moses (6:14; cf. Deut. 18:15, 18), Jesus’ knowing that they will attempt to make him king by force (John 6:15; cf. 2 Sam. 7:13–14), and Jesus’ typologically reenacting the events of the exodus from Egypt by providing food in the wilderness and miraculously crossing the water (John 6:1–21). Jesus had then asserted that he himself is the fulfillment of what was typified by the manna from heaven: he is the bread that comes down from heaven to give life to the world (v. 35). Attempting to help his audience process how he accomplishes this fulfillment of God’s OT promises, Jesus next asserts, “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (v. 45).

The statement that Jesus quotes from Isaiah 54:13 comes from a passage full of glorious promises concerning God’s end-time new exodus and restoration of his people. The idea that all God’s people will be taught by God (Isa. 54:13) parallels the idea in the new-covenant promise of Jeremiah 31:33–34 that all God’s people will know him. By quoting this passage from Isaiah, Jesus claims that he is bringing about the fulfillments of those prophecies; he is bringing about the end-time new exodus and return from exile of God’s people. By not limiting this to one prophet but instead referring to “the Prophets” (John 6:45), Jesus synthesizes the message of all the prophets. Jesus uses this text to bolster his claims that all those whom the Father gives him will come to him (v. 37), that none of those given to Jesus by the Father will be lost (v. 39), that they will all believe (v. 40), and that the Father will draw them all to Jesus (v. 44) because the Father will teach them all and they will therefore all go to Jesus (v. 45).

The crowd asserted in verse 42 that they knew Jesus’ father, Joseph, and in verse 45 Jesus replied that those taught by his heavenly Father would come to him, adding, “not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father” (v. 46). God declared to Moses that no one could see him and live (Ex. 33:20). Stressing the unique intimacy Moses enjoyed with God, however, Deuteronomy 34:10 asserts, “There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” There is no conflict between Exodus 33:20 and Deuteronomy 34:10. To see God face to face is to know him intimately and does not require the kind of unhindered direct eye contact with God that no human could endure. No human can take in everything God is and survive the experience. Moses knew God face to face in a way that surpassed all others until Jesus.

The crowd grumbled about Jesus’ claiming to be the bread that came down from heaven, so he told them that if they were drawn by the Father and taught by God, they would come to him (John 6:44–45). Then he topped that off with the announcement that even those taught by God have not seen God; only the one who has come from God—which Jesus is claiming to have done—has seen God (v. 46). The crowd has difficulty with the idea that Jesus is the fulfillment of the manna from heaven, so he tells them that he has seen God in a way Moses never did. When John presents Jesus as referring to himself as “he who is from God” (v. 46), he resumes an idea introduced in 1:18. Jesus claims in 6:46 to have seen the Father, just as he told the Jews in 5:37 that they had not seen God.

In 6:46 Jesus asserts that he alone has seen God. He claims unparalleled experience of the Father. He has experienced what no other human has experienced and has come from where no other human has come from. Who among his audience would believe such claims? Who would believe that Jesus came down from heaven and had seen God? To believe those claims, one would have to be so impressed by what Jesus had done that he was prepared to believe these unverifiable words. The alternative would be to conclude that Jesus did not do what John’s Gospel claims he has done, or that he did these things by some power other than God’s.

Jesus forces the question of belief on his audience: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life” (v. 47). Those who believe Jesus are trusting the one who has exclusive and unique access to the Father, the only one who has seen the Father, the one who has come down from heaven, the one who raises the dead and can guarantee life.

Jesus had asserted himself to be the “bread” of life (vv. 33, 35), prompting the Jews to grumble (v. 41). He told them not to grumble (v. 43), explained that only those drawn by the Father would come to him (vv. 44–45), asserted his unique relationship to the Father (v. 46), and promised that those who believe him have eternal life (v. 47), and in verse 48 he repeats: “I am the bread of life.”

Jesus had contrasted the manna given by Moses with the Father’s provision of bread of life in the one who came down from heaven (vv. 32–33), and he returns to and elaborates on that contrast in verses 49–50, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” Jesus had spoken of his Father in heaven (v. 40), the people had responded that they knew his father, Joseph (v. 42), and Jesus went right on speaking of his heavenly Father (vv. 44, 45, 46). In verse 49 Jesus speaks of their fathers, their ancestors, whom the manna did not keep alive forever. The manna from heaven was food that sustained life the same way all food sustains life. They needed manna daily, and the manna did not enable those who ate it to live forever. Jesus contrasts that manna from heaven with himself. Jesus is bread that “gives life to the world” (v. 33), “so that one may eat of it and not die” (v. 50). Verse 50 is the first reference Jesus has made to eating the bread of life that he is claiming to be. He spoke in verse 35 of people coming to him and believing in him, but beginning in verse 50 Jesus speaks of eating the bread of life.

He continues, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (v. 51). Note the four parts of the statement Jesus makes here. First, Jesus claims to be the living bread, probably in contrast with the manna. Second, Jesus asserts that he has come down from heaven, against the skeptical references to his human parentage made by the crowd (v. 42). Third, Jesus promises that those who eat him will live forever. Fourth, Jesus declares that his flesh is the bread he will give for the life of the world.

6:52–59 Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood. What is Jesus talking about? The eating of human flesh was abhorrent to the Jews, as can be seen in their astonished reaction: “The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” (v. 52). Why would Jesus make such a shocking statement? Once again Jesus has said something outrageous, as he did when he declared, “destroy this temple,” or, “you must be born again.” Once again Jesus has used something physical to teach a spiritual truth. What spiritual truth is Jesus teaching?

He continues, “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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (vv. 53–55). What is Jesus talking about? Look again at the last portion of verse 51: “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” This is similar to the reference in Hebrews 10:20 to the “new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.” John 6:51 and Hebrews 10:20 are describing the way that the flesh of Jesus, the body of Jesus, was crucified to give life to the world and open the way to the Father’s presence. Jesus gives his flesh for the life of the world in the sense that he gives himself up to be crucified on behalf of sinners.

Why does Jesus speak of people needing to eat his flesh? Jesus knows that he has come to accomplish the prophesied new-exodus salvation for God’s people, and these words in John 6 show that Jesus knows how he will accomplish God’s new-exodus salvation for his people. On the night when he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and said, “This is my body, which is for you” (1 Cor. 11:23–24).¹ Jesus appears to know how he will transform the Passover meal into a celebration of his death on behalf of his people. The words of Jesus here anticipate his institution of the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus is obviously not calling people to eat his literal body and drink his literal blood. Christians are not cannibals. Jesus does not want Christians to be cannibals. Jesus is calling people to come to him and believe what he says (John 6:35, 40, 44–45, 47). Believing Jesus includes trusting that his death on the cross, the crucifixion of his flesh, propitiated the Father’s wrath and made forgiveness possible. Believing Jesus includes trusting that being united to him by faith brings one into a new relationship with the Father, a new covenant in his blood.

Why did John not make the connection between what Jesus says here and the Lord’s Supper that Jesus will institute more explicitly? Why does John not have a narrative of the institution of the Lord’s Supper at the end of his Gospel? The celebration of the Lord’s Supper was pervasive among early Christians (Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7). At every Lord’s Day gathering of early Christians, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated; as John wrote his Gospel in that context, he probably assumed that the connections between Jesus’ teaching in John 6 and the Lord’s Supper were obvious.

Although Jesus speaks here of the manna from heaven, not the Passover meal, the two have features in common. First, the instructions in Exodus about both the Passover and the manna specify that nothing was to be left until morning (Ex. 12:10; 16:19). Second, the Passover meal precedes the death of the firstborn, and the provision of manna from heaven immediately follows it. Third, Jesus is the fulfillment of so many different aspects of the exodus from Egypt that it is no trouble for him to present himself as the fulfillment of both the unleavened bread of the Passover and the manna from heaven. Finally, John significantly includes language used in the accounts of the institution of the Lord’s Supper as he describes Jesus’ feeding the five thousand (John 6:11, 23), coloring this narrative with a Lord’s Supper hue.

Neither the crowd nor the disciples would have understood what Jesus was saying, but John has indicated elsewhere that the disciples came to understand the words Jesus spoke after he was raised from the dead (2:22; 12:16; 20:9). That is probably the case here as well. Understanding what Jesus says here about eating his flesh and drinking his blood as anticipating what he will do at the Last Supper is validated by what he says in 6:56: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” Those who eat the Lord’s Supper in remembrance and proclamation of Jesus’ death in their place, who drink the cup in celebration of the new covenant into which Jesus has brought us with the Father—these people abide in Jesus and he in them. The presence of Christ is mediated to us and maintained among us as we believe his word and enjoy what he has given us in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus restates truths explained in 5:26 and adds a connection to those who believe in Jesus when he says, “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me” (6:57). Jesus here likens the way the Father gives life to him to the way he gives life to his disciples. Jesus is vital to our relationship with the Father. We cannot live without Jesus. We will not be reconciled to the Father without Jesus. The feeding on Jesus in view here is not a cannibalistic feeding on his physical body but a spiritual feeding, a trusting in his death and resurrection that inaugurates the new covenant. The spiritual nourishment Jesus speaks of here is enjoyed by believers who celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

In 6:58 Jesus restates the comparison made earlier in verses 32–33 and elaborated on in verses 49–50 between himself and the manna from heaven in the days of Moses. The exodus from Egypt brought God’s people out of physical slavery in Egypt. The new exodus Jesus accomplishes brings God’s people out of spiritual slavery to sin. The manna from heaven after the exodus from Egypt sustained the physical lives of God’s people in the wilderness. The Bread of Life, Jesus, gives eternal life to God’s people.

John 6:59 notes that the discussion between Jesus and the crowd in verses 25–58 took place “in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.”

6:60–71 Words of Spirit and Life. John 6:60 shows us that the disciples would need further revelation from Jesus in order to understand what he had said in verses 25–59. These things would not become clear to them until they experienced his institution of the Lord’s Supper, saw him crucified and raised, and had their minds opened to understand (Luke 24:45). Jesus knows they are perplexed and, like the crowd, grumbling. Rather than explain it, however, he speaks to them as he had spoken to Nicodemus (John 3:13), saying to his disciples, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (6:61–62). Jesus refers to the Son of Man’s status in the heavenly court in Daniel 7:9–14.² The “son of man” seen by Daniel in his vision of heaven has become flesh. Whether or not people understand or accept that fact, Jesus operates in reality.

The confusion of the disciples does not prompt Jesus to back away from saying things they do not understand. Instead, he asserts more truth they do not understand in order to challenge them to align their thinking with the reality of who he is. They must think their way through the depths of the incarnation to the heights of the heavenly place from which Jesus came and to which he will return.

These things cannot be understood by mere human faculty; as Jesus declares, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). If people are to understand Jesus, the Spirit must give them life, must cause them to experience the new birth (3:3, 5, 6, 8). The unregenerate flesh will not receive what Jesus has said (cf. 1:11–13). The words Jesus speaks communicate life, and they are the words the Spirit uses to awaken faith, to cause the new birth. The words of Christ come to the person dead in sin, and the Spirit gives life at the hearing of the word of Christ (cf. Rom. 10:17).

Jesus, however, knows that not all of those there with him have been given to him by the Father (cf. John 6:37), so he declares, “There are some of you who do not believe” (v. 64). John then explains, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.” Jesus next reminds his disciples of what he had said previously (v. 44), explaining, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (v. 65).

In response, those not given to Jesus by the Father begin to drift away: “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (v. 66). In contrast, John shows the attitude of those given to Jesus by the Father: “So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’” (vv. 67–69). This is John’s first reference to “the twelve” (cf. vv. 70, 71; 20:24). John does not narrate the naming of the Twelve the way Matthew, Mark, and Luke do. He seems to assume his audience will know who the Twelve are, just as he has assumed earlier in this passage that his audience will be familiar with the Lord’s Supper.

This statement from Peter (6:68–69) shows that even though the disciples do not understand what Jesus has said, they trust him. They are prepared to stay with Jesus no matter how offensive or scandalous his statements become. They know he is the one God sent to save the world. They know they have nowhere else to go.

Once again, Jesus recognizes that not everyone present has been given to him by the Father, so he says, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil” (v. 70). John then explains this enigmatic statement: “He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him” (v. 71).