ACC ~ John 6 v25 - 34

OVERVIEW:

When the crowd finds Jesus, they are not only amazed at how he got there but have also apparently forgotten about making him king (CHRYSOSTOM). The one who had fled to the mountain for solitude now intermingles with the crowd to fill their souls with another kind of bread (AUGUSTINE). But their minds are still fixated on the bread for the body (CHRYSOSTOM), just as people still are when they seek out Jesus for what he can give them rather than for who he is (AUGUSTINE). Work cannot provide security, nor is that its purpose. Jesus wants the people to know that he fed their bodies only so that they would not seek the food that was temporary but eternal (CHRYSOSTOM). Jesus can provide this spiritual food because he has received the Father’s seal of approval. As the Son, he is the seal, or imprint, of the divine so that we may see the Father (HILARY). It is through Christ that we too receive the seal of God (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA), which is the mark of perfection and love in us (AMBROSE). To do the work of God is to believe in the Son whom the Father has sealed (HILARY). But even that very faith is still the work of God in us (AUGUSTINE).

After all Jesus has said, the crowd still lacks faith as they ask for yet another miracle. But Jesus has more to teach them. He identifies the Father as the giver of the bread about which he had just spoken (CHRYSOSTOM), finding an opening to gradually lead the crowd from transitory bread and wine to his true body and blood (EPHREM). As our daily bread, he is the only necessity of life (TERTULLIAN). He is the only true bread from heaven who gives life; the manna was only a foreshadowing (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Even his birthplace in Bethlehem pointed toward the one who would be the bread from heaven (EUSEBIUS), which refreshes and sustains, just as the water he promised to the Samaritan woman would never fail her (AUGUSTINE).

6:25 | Rabbi, When Did You Come Here?

THE CROWD FORGETS ABOUT MAKING JESUS KING

CHRYSOSTOM: After such a great miracle, the crowd does not ask Jesus how he had crossed over or how he had arrived there. In fact, they do not seem to be concerned about it at all. They ask him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” but what they are really asking is “How did you get here?” And see how shallow they are. After noting that he was “that prophet” and trying to take him by force to make him king, they do nothing of the sort when they finally do find him. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 43.1-2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:156**.

BREAD FOR THE SOUL

AUGUSTINE: So he who had fled to the mountain mixes and converses with the multitude. Only a little while before they would have kept him and made him king…. But after the sacrament of the miracle, he begins to teach… and fills their souls with his word whose bodies he had just satisfied with bread—provided they take it in. And if they do not, let that be taken up which they do not receive so that the fragments may not be lost. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 25.9-10. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:163**.

6:26 | Looking for Bread

JESUS’ REPROACH

CHRYSOSTOM: And when he was about to enter into stubborn and disobedient Capernaum, he worked the miracle of the loaves because he wanted to soften their disobedience, not only by what took place within the city but also by those [miracles] done outside the city. For this should have been enough to soften even the hardest [heart] of stone, as is evidenced in the multitudes who flocked to that city [because of the miracles]. And yet their hearts are calloused, looking again for food for the body, which is why Jesus reproaches them. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 43.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:156**.

SATISFYING THE FLESH INSTEAD OF THE SPIRIT

AUGUSTINE: It is as if he said, “You seek me to satisfy the flesh, not the Spirit.” How many seek Jesus for no other objective than to get some kind of temporal benefit! One has a business that has run into problems, and he seeks the intercession of the clergy; another is oppressed by someone more powerful than himself, and he flies to the church. Another desires intervention with someone over whom he has little influence. One person wants this, and another person wants that. The church is filled with these kinds of people! Jesus is scarcely sought after for his own sake…. Here too he says, you seek me for something else; seek me for my own sake. He insinuates the truth that he himself is that food… “that endures to eternal life.” TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 25.10. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:163**.

6:27a | The Eternal Food

DO NOT BE NAILED TO THE THINGS OF THIS LIFE

CHRYSOSTOM: To “take no thought” does not mean “not to work” [1] but “not to be nailed to the things of this life.” In other words, do not worry about tomorrow’s comfort; in fact, consider it superfluous. There are those who do no work and yet lay up treasures for tomorrow. There are also others who do work and yet are careful for nothing. Carefulness and work are not the same thing. People do not work because they trust in their work but so that they may give to the person who is in need. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 44.1. [2]

[1] Chrysostom also notes how this passage has wrongly been used to justify laziness.

[2] NPNF 1 14:158**.

TEMPORAL FOOD SHOULD LEAD TO ETERNAL FOOD

CHRYSOSTOM: I fed your bodies, he says, so that after this you might seek that other food that endures, which nourishes the soul. But you run right back to that food that is temporal. Therefore you do not understand that I lead you not to this imperfect food but to that which nourishes not the body but the soul. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 44.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:158**.

6:27b | The Father’s Seal

THE SON IS THE ENTIRE IMPRINT OF THE FATHER

HILARY OF POITIERS: It is the nature of a seal to exhibit the whole form of the figure graven on it and that an impression taken from it reproduces it in every respect. And since it receives the whole of that which is impressed, it displays also in itself entirely whatever has been impressed on it. Yet this comparison is not adequate to exemplify the divine birth, because seals presuppose matter, difference of nature and an act of impression where the likeness of stronger natures is impressed on things of a more yielding nature…. What God had sealed should display in itself none other than the form of the God who sealed it…. As far as his being in the form of God by virtue of God’s seal on him, he still remained God. But inasmuch as he was to take the form of a servant and become obedient unto death, not grasping at his equality with God, he emptied himself through obedience to take the form of a slave. And he emptied himself of the form of God, that is, of that in which he was equal with God—not that he regarded his equality with God as any encroachment—although he was in the form of God and equal with God and sealed by God as God. [1] ON THE TRINITY 8.44-45. [2]

[1] See Phil 2:5-11.

[2] NPNF 2 9:150-51*.

THROUGH CHRIST WE CAN RECEIVE THE DIVINE SEAL

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The countenance of God the Father is the Son who is the imprint of God. But the light of God is the grace that passes into creation through the Spirit, by which we are refashioned to God through faith. We receive through God, as with a seal, the being conformed to his Son. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 3.5. [1]

[1] LF 43:350**. Gregory of Nazianzus refers to Christ as the Father’s“most unerring impress”; see Oration 30.20 (NPNF 2 7:316-17).

THE MARK OF PERFECTION AND LOVE

AMBROSE: [Christ] is our seal, which is the mark of perfection and of love because the Father, loving the Son, set his seal on him. ISAAC, OR THE SOUL 8.75. [1]

[1] FC 65:59.

6:28-29 | The Work of God

FAITH IN GOD’S SEALED SON

HILARY OF POITIERS: In setting forth the mystery of his incarnation and his Godhead, our Lord has also uttered the teaching of our faith and hope that we should work not for that food that perishes but that which abides for ever; that we should remember that this food of eternity is given to us by the Son of man as sealed by God the Father; that we should know that this is the work of God: even faith in him whom he has sent. And who is it whom the Father has sent? Even he whom the Father has sealed. And who is he whom the Father has sealed? In truth, the Son of man, even he who gives the food of eternal life. ON THE TRINITY 8.42. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:149-50*.

THIS FAITH IS THE WORK OF GOD

AUGUSTINE: Why do you make ready your teeth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten. Faith is, indeed, distinguished from works, as the apostle says, “that a person is justified by faith without works.” [1] And there are works that seem to be good… because they are not referred to that end from which they are good. “For the end of the law is Christ, unto justice to everyone who believes.” [2] Therefore, he did not wish to separate faith from work, but he said that faith itself is a work. For this is the faith that works by love. [3] He did not say, “This is your work” but “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent,” so that he who takes glory may take glory in the Lord. [4] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 25.12.1-2. [5]

[1] See Rom 3:28.

[2] See Rom 10:4.

[3] See Gal 5:6.

[4] See 1 Cor 1:31.

[5] FC 79:249-50*.

6:30 | Looking for a Sign

THEY ASK FOR YET ANOTHER MIRACLE

CHRYSOSTOM: There is nothing worse, nothing more shameful, than gluttony, which clouds the judgment and reduces the soul to satisfying appetites…. For instance, nothing can be more unreasonable than their asking for another miracle, as if none had been given already. And they do not even leave the choice of the miracle to our Lord but would oblige him to give them just that sign that was given to their ancestors: “Our fathers ate manna in the desert.”… There were many miracles performed in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the desert, and yet they remembered this one the best of any. Such is the force of appetite…. They do not mention this miracle as the work either of God or of Moses, in order to avoid raising Jesus on the one hand to an equality with God or lowering him on the other by a comparison with Moses. Rather, they take the middle ground, only saying, “Our fathers ate manna in the desert.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 45.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:159-60**.

6:31-32 | The True Bread from Heaven

JESUS GRADUALLY REVEALS HIMSELF AS THE BREAD OF LIFE

CHRYSOSTOM: He calls this the “true bread,” not because the miracle of the manna was false but because it was a type and not the very truth itself. But in mentioning Moses, Jesus does not compare himself with him, for the Jews did not as yet prefer him to Moses, of whom they still had a higher opinion. So that after saying, “Moses did not give,” he does not say “I give” but says that the Father, and not Moses, gives. When they heard this, the people replied, “Give us this bread to eat.” They still thought that it was something material, and they yet expected to satisfy their appetites, and so they quickly ran to him. And what does Christ do? Leading them on little by little, he says, “The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 45.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:160**.

GETTING THEM ACCUSTOMED TO HIS BREAD AND WINE

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: From a little bread, our Lord made an abundance of bread in the midst of the desert, and in Cana he turned water into wine. At first he set out to give instruction to their mouths about his bread and wine, until the time came for him to give them his blood and his body also. He gave them the taste of a superabundance of transitory bread and wine in order to give them an eager desire for the superabundance of his living body and blood. He gave them these lesser things without price, so that they might know that this gift of his, of highest value, was free. He gave to them freely those things that they were able to purchase from him at a price. He therefore did not sell to them anything that they were able to buy, so that they might know that there was no fee he required from them for that which they did not have; for they were able to pay the price of his bread and wine, but they could not pay the price of his body and blood. It was in this way that he not only gave to us freely, but he was even enticing us as well; for he gave these lesser things freely to captivate us to come and receive this of highest value, which is without price. These lesser things that he gave of bread and wine delighted the mouth; that [highest gift] of body and blood brings aid to the mind. He captivated us with these things, which bring pleasure to the palate, in order to draw us to that which brings life to [our] souls. For this reason, he hid the sweetness in the wine he made, so that they might know what treasure is hidden in his life-giving blood. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 12.1. [1]

[1] CB709:74-76.

6:33 | The Bread of God Gives Life

CHRIST IS OUR DAILY BREAD BECAUSE HE IS OUR LIFE

TERTULLIAN: For Christ is our Bread because Christ is Life, and bread is life. “I am,” says he, “the Bread of life.” [1] And, a little above he says, “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven.” Then we find, too, that his body is reckoned in bread: “This is my body.” [2] And so, in petitioning for “daily bread,” we ask for perpetuity in Christ and indivisibility from his body. But, because “bread” is admissible in a carnal sense too, it cannot be so used without the religious remembrance of spiritual discipline. For the Lord commands that bread be prayed for which is the only food necessary for believers. ON PRAYER 6. [3]

[1] Jn 6:35.

[2] Mt 26:26.

[3] ANF 3:683*.

THE MANNA FORESHADOWED THE TRUE BREAD

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Imagine Christ saying something like this: “You foolishly suppose that the manna is ‘the bread from heaven,’ since it merely fed the people of Israel in the wilderness while there were countless other nations throughout the world. You suppose that God wanted to demonstrate his loving kindness so narrowly as to give food to only one people?… Let no one think,” says Christ, “that the manna was truly the bread from heaven; but one should rather choose that which is clearly able to feed and to completely give life to the whole world.” … The only begotten of God the Father is the true manna, the bread from heaven, given to all rational creatures by God the Father. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 3.6. [1]

[1] LF 43:362, 365**.

BETHLEHEM, HOUSE OF BREAD

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: He would be born nowhere else but in the place at Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, in the spot that is even now pointed out. [1] For no one is witnessed to by all the inhabitants as having been born there—in accordance with the Gospel story, no one remarkable or famous among all people, except Jesus Christ. Bethlehem is translated “House of Bread,” bearing the name of him who came forth from it, our Savior, the true Word of God, and nourisher of spiritual souls, which he himself shows by saying, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven.” PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 7.2.43-44. [2]

[1] Eusebius in the early fourth century was confident that the specific place of birth“the spot even now pointed out,” was the same as that attested by the Evangelists.

[2] POG 2:84*.

6:34 | Give Us This Bread

THE DESIRE FOR BREAD AND WATER THAT NEVER FAIL

AUGUSTINE: As the Samaritan woman, to whom it was said, “Whoever drinks of this water shall never thirst,” thought he meant natural water and said, “Sir, give me this water,” thinking she might never be in want again; in the same way these people say, “O Lord, give us this bread” that refreshes and sustains us and yet never fails. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 25.13. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:165**.