The Gospel for Tuesday, February 3, 2004
John 6:41-51
Meanwhile the Jews were complaining to each other about him, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that has come down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven?” ’ Jesus said in reply to them, ‘Stop complaining to each other. ‘No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God; everyone who has listened to the Father, and learnt from him, comes to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father, except him who has his being from God: he has seen the Father. In all truth I tell you, everyone who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
William Barclay, the distinguished Divinity Professor at the University of Glasgow, devoted much of his life to compiling The Daily Study Bible Series. In his two volumes on John's Gospel, he takes great care to develop the logical progression that underlies Jesus' saying that he is the "bread of life."
- Bread sustains life
- Life is surely much more than just physical existence.
- Real life is a new relationship with God based on trust, obedience, and love.
- That relationship is made possible only through Jesus.
- Without Jesus, there may be existence, but not life.
- Therefore, if Jesus is the essential of life, then he must be the bread of life.
- Q.E. D.
Jesus is developing a midrash here in the synagogue at Capernaum. He eloquently describes how God draws each of His children to Himself through Jesus, and then feeds each child with spiritual food. The metaphor about consuming his flesh is a figure of speech intended to convey a spiritual concept.
But, that cantankerous congregation began to argue with each other. Some understood, some didn't. Some could not get past this carpenter's son suddenly speaking with authority about the Law and the Prophets. They couldn't get past each other's notions and arguments to hear God's voice, continuing to draw them to Him through Jesus. Better to be exactly, precisely physically accurate -- than to admit some mental flexibility that would allow a metaphor to deliver wisdom. A people caught in the concept of the correct amount of fraying at the end of a prayer shawl may not have been ready. But then, when are we ever ready to hear the Voice?
If Jesus is presaging the Eucharistic feast, so be it. Many scholars think it unlikely. Some think that the blood to which he nexy refers is the "blood of grapes" to which Genesis refers, again, metaphorically. Most scholars seem resigned to allowing it to remain a mystery, for now. After all, "manna" means, literally, "what is it?". The exilists found this round, white, tasty substance which had apparently fallen from Heaven, and declared, "manna?" . They had it right.
A Reflection
This Israelite debating society had quit listening to God long before Jesus appeared and they quit listening to Jesus even more quickly. Their pseudo-intellectual back-and-forth amounted to no more than arguing over how many angels will fit on a pin's head. They were so wrapped up in worshiping that which they had created that they had no time for their Creator.
How many great authors lost all their creative drive in the fourth grade after having their egos crushed by anal-retentive teachers more concerned with commas than content? Edison and Einstein were both pronouced failures for their inability to tolerate their schoolmasters, but they somehow survived their educational beginnings to master their respective fields.
In this Gospel reading, we see Jesus the indomitable pushing, striving, trying to teach the "teachers." Since these teachers already know all the answers, they are un-teachable. Their minds are made up like barracks cots ready for inspection: so tightly covered that any idea would bounce.
In fact, there's a military axiom that goes something like: "Wisdom comes from experience; experience comes from making mistakes; making mistakes comes from lack of wisdom." The sad point is that only one set of experiences, lived and re-lived in the mistaken believe that the participant is gaining either knowledge or wisdom, produces only a mind closed to real experience. Torah, with its precisely 248 positive laws (and columns of text) and exactly 365 proscriptions (negative mitzvots) (and days in the year) therefore contains 613 laws (248+365=613). The extent of ritual and precision goes on and on and on.
So, "Teacher, which of the [613] commandments is greatest?" And his answer? "Love God. Love your neighbor. On these two commandments hang all the Law, and the Prophets."
Two parts of wisdom is suddenly much greater than 613 parts of experience.
6:27:16 AM 
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