On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “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.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never 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 whoever comes to me I will never 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 on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that 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’?” 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. 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— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. 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. 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.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “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. Whoever feeds on 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 whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 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. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who 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.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him (John 6:22-66).

In today’s culture, it’s quite fashionable to be what we might call a “groupie.” You know the kind of person that term describes—someone who follows a band or person around, always present though often just on the periphery. This accurately describes many people who followed Jesus during His earthly ministry. He had several encounters with them, this one being one of the most well-known.

Unlike many today, Jesus often didn’t desire to have groupies. He set out to make disciples who would place their full trust and obedience in Him, going forth to make more disciples. We see this in His conversation with these groupies in John 6.

Context

This encounter is immediately after two well-known miracles of Jesus: the feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-15) and Jesus walking on the water (6:16-21). Jesus’ message is directly linked to the feeding of the 5,000 (through the discussion of the bread). It shows, once again, that He refuses to allow a discussion to remain on purely on the outward or physical plane. He calls anyone who would engage Him to see the emptiness in his soul and then turn to Christ to have that emptiness filled.

Introducing the Groupies

We begin by watching this group of people realize that Jesus has left during the night. They are obviously at least part of the group that was fed by Jesus the previous day (v. 26). After the feeding, He sent His disciples ahead to go on to the other side of the lake, while He withdrew by Himself to pray. Of course, that night He went to His disciples on the lake in the midst of the storm.

So, the people tried to figure out how Jesus had managed to leave the area. They knew that the disciples had started out without Jesus, and they knew (or at least were reasonably certain) that He did not take a different boat (this seems to be implication of verses 23-24). They were undoubtedly surprised to find Jesus with His disciples in Capernaum, as evidenced by the tone of their question in verse 25: “Teacher, when [and how] did you get here?” The miracle of Jesus’ walking on the water must have been solely for the disciples’ benefit, for He doesn’t disclose how He came to be at Capernaum. In fact, He doesn’t answer their question at all. Rather, He tells them, “I know that you were looking for Me because you were hungry, and you were filled with the food that was provided. In the same way, seek the food that gives you eternal life (not just physical life), which I, the Son of Man, will give you. For God the Father has given Me the seal of His approval” (vv. 26-27).

The crowd then asks a rather sensible question: “If we are to work and seek for eternal food, what is the work that God requires?” It’s the same question as the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas: “What must I do to be saved” (Acts 16:30, NIV). It’s the same question the expert in the law and the rich young ruler asked Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life” (Luke 10:25; 18:18). Jesus answers just as sensibly and simply: “This is the work of God, to believe in the One that He has sent” (v. 29). In typical fashion, like much of Jesus’ ministry, the people respond by asking for a sign “that we may see and believe you” (v. 30).

There is a sharp contrast between Jesus and the Jews regarding the definition of believe or belief. For the Jews, to believe meant mental assent based on Jesus’ credentials, which He should show by doing signs (i.e., “that we may see and believe,” v. 30). For Jesus, however, belief was more than mental assent, and it had little or nothing to do with signs. For Him, belief was commitment, placing one’s life and trust in the One that the Father has sent. For the Jews, belief was passive; to Jesus, belief is always active. And because they lacked true active belief, they really ha trouble with the rest of His message to them.

The Bread of Life

Jesus has already encouraged the people to work for eternal food—i.e., the food that God gives to meet the deep needs of the human soul. Like many previous conversations, He uses the physical to represent the spiritual (in this case, bread). He moves the conversation from a simple command (seek the true bread which the Father gives and is better than any that man can give) to a deep revelation of Himself. He pointedly says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (v. 35). He is the one that will fill every genuine need of the human soul. But, because the Jews had a faulty idea of what belief meant, Jesus could rightly say in verse 36, “You have seen Me but have not believed” (implying that even though they had seen the miracles establishing His credentials, they had not believed, therefore invalidating their definition of “belief”).

An Even Harder Message

After Jesus utters these words, the Jews start “grumbling” among themselves. By the words used, the sense is, “Hey, we know this man! He is the son of Joseph! Who does he think he is, saying he came down from heaven” (vv. 41-42)? As has been a common saying over the years, “familiarity breeds contempt” would be an accurate characterization of the people. In comparing Himself (the bread of life) to the manna that their ancestors ate, Jesus reminded the people that even though the Israelites in the wilderness ate the manna (that was given by God), they still died. On the other hand, Jesus asserts that what He provides to a person will cause such a one to never die (spiritually speaking). Then He stuns the Jews by stating, “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (v. 51).

It’s clear here that Jesus is not suggesting that people would literally eat His flesh and drink His blood. He is speaking of spiritual realities using earthly things, as was His habit. Here he is describing the new birth (see John 3) in a different way, by using the previous subject (bread). One is united to Christ and partakes of His flesh and blood (meaning His death, symbolized in the Lord’s Supper). Jesus promises that all who are united to Him will be raised up at the last day (vv. 54, 58).

Neither the crowd nor many of Jesus’ disciples seem to have understood this, however. We can almost hear them grumbling among themselves again. In fact, many disciples said, “This saying is too offensive for anyone to listen to” (v. 60, the idea of offense being suggested by Jesus’ question in verse 61). His question in response is similar to the one He asked Nicodemus in John 3. If the disciples could not understand this teaching, how would they understand his resurrection and ascension (v. 62, where His resurrection is implied). He acknowledges that there are some that do not believe (knowing their thoughts) and reminds them that in order to have life they must have an awakening by the Spirit. Earthly words (flesh) profit nothing, so He asserts that His words are “spirit and life” (v. 63). As He speaks words of spirit and life, the Father, through the Holy Spirit, awakens those to come to the Son (v. 65, repeating v. 37).

In the end, however, many of the disciples, instead of seeking to understand more, “turned back and no longer walked with Him” (v. 66). The idea seems to be that their hearts were simply too closed and offended to pursue Christ. He became their stumbling block. However, unlike many preachers and teachers of today, Jesus could not preach an easy or soft message simply as a means to get people to come to Him. But what He did do was offer the one thing that no earthly person could offer—life. Real, genuine, eternal life. This is the Gospel. It costs the disciple his life, but he gains the very life of Christ in return.