NOTES for Joh 6:35
Different people perceived Jesus Himself and everything connected with Him differently. He Himself always spoke of only one thing: the Kingdom He brought into the world. He knows He has nothing else, and no other tasks stand before Him except to make the Kingdom accessible to every seeker. Calling Himself the "bread of life," Jesus wants to convey to His listeners a simple thought that still does not fit into their consciousness: He has brought them the fullness of life. Not temporary life, here today and gone tomorrow, but real life, the life that has no end because it has no beginning either, abiding wholly in God and opening in His Kingdom. It is clear that those listening to Jesus do not understand at all how such life can exist. Separate, concrete manifestations of this life are more familiar and understandable to them.
For example, manna: here everything is more or less clear. God by His power worked a miracle, and some, rather small, part of that life now being opened to the world in fullness was connected with this manna. Jesus, however, speaks not of a part, but of the whole. Here a misunderstanding arises: this whole is inaccessible to an ordinary earthly view. It is invisible to it. With manna it is simpler: there is something visible to everyone, and this visible thing so changes its properties that the action of the invisible becomes completely beyond doubt. But the fullness of the life of the Kingdom turns out to be completely inaccessible to physical sight.
Something else is needed here: will. It is will that determines a person's spiritual life and spiritual state. And only by will can one see and experience the fullness of the life of the Kingdom about which Jesus speaks. But His listeners are completely unready precisely for this. They want the external. They want signs, preferably supernatural ones, that would become proofs that Jesus is really the Messiah. And from the Messiah they expect above all miracles like feeding thousands of people with a couple of loaves. Miracles that would change their life, but not radically. And certainly would not change them themselves.
Therefore they do not need the Kingdom. One does not enter the Kingdom so simply; here one will have to change, and seriously. But those listening to Jesus want to enter the Kingdom of the Messiah without radically changing anything in themselves. Therefore they do not need the fullness of life. What good is it if, in their present state, most of the listeners cannot even see it? Manna is better here. Better still, miraculous bread that is enough for everyone and is free. But this is not the Kingdom the Savior brought into the world. It does not save. And it does not give real life.