On Line Bible Study - For the Week April 16-22, 2012

Lesson 532

John 6: ³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Click on the above text for the Sixth Chapter of John's Gospel. We are considering Verses 35-50.

Have you ever murmured?

The verses we are looking at today are commonly related to three events:

1. The Christian Eucharist.
2. The Passover.
3. Israel receiving the manna in the wilderness.
   

Perhaps we have to get beyond the 'literal' in each case to find a deeper meaning. Ultimately, the text is not about bread. It is not about physical life. It is about what life means when Jesus provides the nourishment.

In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (called the Septuagint), the word used to translate Exodus 16:2 - In the desert the whole community grumbled ...is the same word we find in John 6:41 and 43 - Jesus tells the people: stop grumbling. The Israelites 'grumbled' (or murmured) because they did not have food to eat. I have never been hungry for very long, and I've never had to worry that I might not have my next meal due to lack of resources; so I have to be careful in my criticism of a people who suddenly find themselves in the wilderness with no survival skills.

BUT ... and there is always a 'but' - I do grumble. I complain about all sorts of things, and at times I wonder about myself: Just how authentic is my relationship with Jesus? The manna, the bread, the Passover - all these are meant to show us that there is more to life than what satiates the body.

John is pushing a message hard in this passage. When the people of Israel first encountered the manna, they asked: What is it? (Exodus 16:15.) Moses replied: It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. Jesus references this wilderness moment. Consider ...
John 6: ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven ...

The question: What is it? now becomes Who are you? (See John 6:42.)

Jesus will answer that question, but with an entirely new twist. That's where we pick up next time.