Murmuring (6:41-51)

Jesus is giving a sermon on "the bread of life" in John 6. As the crowd listens, they are starting to murmer.

[41] The Jews then murmured at Him, because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
[42] And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that He saith, I came down from heaven?
[43] Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
[44] No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
[45] It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me.
[46] Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, He hath seen the Father.
[47] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.
[48] I am that bread of life.
[49] Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
[50] This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
[51] I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Murmuring (vv. 41–51). The religious leaders were upset when our Lord said, "For I came down from heaven" (John 6:38) because they knew it was a claim of divinity. They thought they knew who Jesus was and where He came from (see Matt. 13:53–58; John 7:40–43). Jesus was legally Joseph's son but not his biological son because He was born of a virgin (Luke 1:34–38). The leaders thought that Joseph was Jesus's real father and that Jesus was from Nazareth in Galilee, not Bethlehem in Judea. If they had looked into it, they would have found out who Jesus really is.

The Jews were known for complaining even in the days of Moses (Ex. 15:24; 17:3; Num. 14:2). Some leaders and crowd members may have gone to the synagogue to continue talking. The main question was, "Where did He come from?" Five times, Jesus said, "came down from heaven," but they didn't believe Him.

Jesus went on to explain how a sinner can get to God: through the truth of the Word (John 6:44–45). The Father uses His Word to draw the sinner to Him. Jesus used Isaiah 54:13 (or maybe Jer. 31:33–34) to show His point was, "And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; . ." God uses the Word to bring people to the Savior. (See John 5:24, which stresses the importance of hearing the Word.) The sinner hears, learns, and comes when the Father calls him. What a mystery! Yes! A blessed truth? Yes!

This was pretty much the same thing He said after He healed the man who couldn't move (see John 5:37–40). The people in the crowd wanted to see something, but what they really needed was to learn something. We "see" God and obtain the faith to come to Christ and trust Him through the Word (Rom. 10:17).

He did not state that He was precisely akin to the manna when He referred to Himself as "the Living Bread." Instead, He declared that He was even superior. The manna only kept the Jews alive, but Jesus provides life to everyone. The Jews ate the daily manna and eventually died, but if you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you will live forever. God only gave a gift when He gave the manna, but when Jesus came, He gave Himself. God didn't have to pay anything to send the manna every day, but He did have to pay a lot to send His Son. The Jews had to eat the manna every day, but the sinner who puts their faith in Christ once obtains eternal life.

You can easily see how the manna is like our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews didn't know what the manna was. The word "manna" means "What is it?" (see Ex. 16:15). People who saw Jesus didn't understand Him. Manna came down from heaven at night, and Jesus entered this world when people were morally and spiritually lost. The manna was small (His humility), round (His eternal nature), and white (His purity). It was sweet to the taste (Ps. 34:8) and it was enough to meet the needs of the people.

God gave the manna to a people who were rebelling. All they had to do was bend down and pick it up. They walked on it if they didn't pick it up. No sinner is too far away from the Lord. The sinner only needs to be humble and accept what God has to offer.

Jesus ended this part of His message by mentioning His flesh, which will come up six more times. John 6:51 says that the Son of God will give Himself as a sacrifice "for the life of the world." A key idea in John's gospel is that Jesus Christ died in place of others. Jesus would die for the world (John 3:16; 6:51), for His sheep (John 10:11, 15), for the nation (John 11:50–52), and for His friends (John 15:12). Paul made it personal when he said, "who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). We must not put limits on what Christ did on the cross. He is the sacrifice not just for our sins, but for the sins of everyone (1 John 2:2).