NOTES for Joh 6:27-33
Jesus’ listeners do not always understand Him correctly; He often gives familiar words, long since customary, a completely new meaning. The new meaning He gives them is often completely unexpected, changing what we would today call a paradigm of thought. Thus they ask Him about the works of God, meaning roughly what we would now call religious duties. They ask about the works of God in the sense in which teachers of the Torah and learned rabbis often spoke of them: to observe the Torah fully, one must fulfill the commandments and, in addition, do this and that as well. But Jesus speaks of trust and of a relationship with Himself as the chief work of God. This is not surprising, for many of Israel’s teachers likewise regarded all religious duties as a means of establishing and strengthening a relationship with God, considering this relationship to be the chief and only work of God. Now the One has come into the world upon a relationship with whom depends the possibility not merely of establishing a relationship with God, which was possible before, but of participating in the life of the Kingdom in all its fullness. Yet they ask Him what additional religious duties they must assume so that when the Messiah comes they will certainly be among the remnant that meets Him. It is the same with the bread of which Jesus speaks. He tells them about the breath of life that permeates the Kingdom, and they reply: well, there once were times when God gave our fathers manna in the wilderness; what will You give us? Can You show us something that would become convincing proof of Your words? The main problem here is evidently that those who ask cannot see the chief thing for which Jesus came into the world: the Kingdom. They therefore ask Him about many things that have no direct relation to the Kingdom. Again and again He tries to return them to the main point, for the meaning of His mission is precisely to bring as many people as possible into the life of the Kingdom, so that the history of the Kingdom in the world will not end with His earthly ministry.