NOTES for Joh 6:41-71

In this verse there is an answer to a paradox: salvation is received by me through faith in Jesus Christ, that is, as a result of coming to Him as Savior and Lord. In other words, everything happens as a result of my action; I turn out to be at the beginning of my salvation, while Christ is only the means. Jesus puts everything in its place: at the beginning of everything is God. First, if not for Him, I would have no One to come to, since it was the Father who sent the Son into the world. Second, if not for Him, I would not exist at all and there would be no one to come. And third, it is the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, who directs our heart toward the desire to love, to trust, and to seek the truth (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3).

So, God is at the beginning of my life, God is at the beginning of my conversion, God is at the beginning of my salvation, and God, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, is at the beginning of my eternal life.

Here in this verse - the answer to a paradox: I obtain salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, that is, in result of my coming to Him as to the Rescuer and to God. That is to say everything takes place as a result of my action, I'm at the beginning of my salvation, and Jesus Christ is only the means. Jesus puts everything in its place: at the beginning of everything - God. Firstly, if it wasn't Him, I would have had nobody to go to, since it is the Father Who sent the Son in the world. Secondly, if it wasn't Him, I would not even have existed and nobody would have had to come. And thirdly, it is the Holy Spirit coming from the Father that directs our heart towards the desire to love, to trust and to seek the truth (see 1 Cor. 12:3). Thus, God is at the beginning of my life, God is at the beginning of my invocation, God is at the beginning of my salvation and the God Who resuscitated Jesus Christ is at the beginning of my eternal life.

It is no surprise that Jesus' words about His blood and His flesh, which He would give those who believe in Him to eat, left His listeners bewildered and then grumbling. They saw Jesus as an ordinary man, since traditional Jewish ideas not only about prophets but also about the Messiah assume that the matter concerns ordinary people whom God calls at some point in their lives to a special ministry; after that calling, the person becomes what God wants him to be, whether a prophet or the Messiah. And human flesh and human blood were associated for them not even with murder, but with something far worse: human sacrifice, which from the point of view of the Torah is not only murder and defilement, but also the worst kind of idolatry.

Meanwhile, when Jesus addresses His listeners, He speaks of something that should have been clear to them, at least on the level of symbol or allegory. Flesh and blood were, in both Hebrew and Aramaic, symbols of life, of the life force every person carried within himself while he was alive. Of course, if this had concerned an ordinary person, such a statement, even understood allegorically, would have left many questions. How can one person give his life to many people, perhaps even to an entire nation? How is that possible? And what will remain for the one who gives it away?

But if we remember the fullness of God that Jesus bears in Himself, the fullness of the life of the Kingdom by which He lives, everything falls into place and becomes clear. He can truly give each person His life, and nothing is diminished in Him by doing so: the life of the Kingdom is as infinite as the fullness of God, of which it is a projection into the created world. And everyone who enters the Kingdom truly shares with Jesus His life, which He willingly and joyfully shares with each person. He shares it so that the Kingdom will not remain His possession alone, but will truly enter the life of those who seek it. And so that at the end of time it will enter the world completely and be revealed in it in all its fullness, cleansing the world from sin and transforming it.

Reading the Gospel according to John, a normal person should almost constantly be in existential shock. Who is this Man? A violent madman? A maniac? Who is He to proclaim such a thing as the norm of life?

Or let us admit for a minute that all His words are true and that He is God and Savior. What kind of God is this, calling people to cannibalism, offering Himself to be eaten, saying that the condition of salvation is His blood, which must be drunk? If He is a man, He is sick. If He is God, how are we to understand His words? What does He want from us?

Always one thing, and the comparison with cannibalism can help us. A person begins to eat his own kind when hunger has already driven him mad, when the thirst for life in him is such that nothing can stop him. Jesus tells us that this is exactly how we must thirst for union with God, filling ourselves completely with Him alone and forgetting everything else. From the outside this will, of course, look like madness, like something strange and improper. But God, who came to die for us, says that life is possible only if this insatiable hunger is satisfied.

Most of the time, a normal person is going to be in an existentialist shock after reading the Gospel according to John. Who is this Person? Raving mad? A maniac? Who is he to proclaim such a thing as standard of life? Or shall we admit a minute that all his words are truths. He is the God and the Rescuer. Who is this God who calls up to cannibalism, proposing himself as food, saying that the condition for salvation is his blood, which is necessary to drink? If he is a person, he must be sick or gone mad. And If He is God, then how to understand His words? What does He want from us? Always one thing, the comparison with cannibalism can help us here. The person begins to eat people similar to him, when he becomes already crazy of hunger, when the thirst of life in him is such as nothing can stop him. Jesus tells us we have to be thirsty of the relation with God effectively the same way, fill ourselves completely only with Him and forget about everything. It will of course be perceived from outside as madness, as something strange and indecent. But the God, Who came to die for our sake, says that life is possible, only if we satisfy this insatiable hunger.

If we were not so used to these words of the Lord Jesus, we would probably repeat after the bewildered disciples: "What strange, frightening words!" He had just been speaking about the heavenly bread that comes down from heaven and satisfies everyone who partakes of it, and now it turns out that this bread is Jesus Himself, and that believers are to "chew His flesh" - these frightening, harsh words are softened by the Russian translation. And immediately the Lord tells the troubled disciples that His words are spirit and life, that it is the Spirit who gives life, and that "the flesh is no help at all" (63).

We already know that the central message of John's Gospel is that "the Word became flesh," and that faith in the bodily coming of God's Son gives people eternal life. On the other hand, the very description of the breaking of the loaves - "having given thanks, He broke and distributed," and the gathering of the leftovers from the meal - connects the reader with the breaking of bread at the Last Supper. In this way the evangelist binds together faith in the flesh of the Son of God, the eternal life given by the Spirit, and the eucharistic meal that nourishes the faithful.

What do the Savior's words mean about the impossibility of coming to Him unless the Father draws a person? Absolute predestination? The futility of any human effort when it comes to the Christian life? Or something else?

Of course, there is no question of absolute predestination when it comes to a person's destiny. After all, Jesus tells us nothing about what guides the Father when He brings one person or another to Jesus, or how far He takes that person's intentions and desires into account. And the whole biblical context compels us to think that God still takes a person's free choice into account, so that He will not drag anyone to Christ or after Christ by force. But He can certainly make use of the sincere desire of a seeker to find the living truth.

But the point may not be at all what criteria guide God as He directs a person along one spiritual path or another. Jesus Himself appears to be speaking about something else. People do not understand Him; many leave, troubled by His words. A minority remains. These people cannot leave because they have nowhere to go. In Christ they have found that very living truth, the very meaning of their own life without which this life is no longer needed by them, without which it is simply unthinkable for them.

This vividly felt and experienced uniqueness of the only possible spiritual path, this impossibility of leaving not because someone or something is holding them from outside, but because spiritually there is nowhere else to go - this is the action of God. Such a result cannot be achieved by human effort; human nature is not inclined to drive itself into a trap, into a psychological dead end from which there is only one exit. By nature, a person always tries to leave an alternative open. When it disappears, we are almost always facing the result of an external spiritual influence on the situation or on the human soul. A dark influence, if the absence of alternatives becomes hopelessness that dooms to death. A light-filled influence, if it points to the only path leading into the Kingdom.

Christ's word about Himself as the Bread of Heaven, given by the Father, is so incredible that even some of the disciples choose to leave the Teacher. There is nothing surprising in this: when we look at ourselves and at the history of humanity, we see that we very often turn away from Christ precisely because His Word surpasses our understanding. Learning to be faithful to God, whose ways and thoughts infinitely surpass our ways and thoughts, is not simple at all.

And therefore the words of the apostle Peter at the end of today's passage sound like such a victory, such a bright flash of truth: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." We may prefer a God who is more understandable, rational, and, dare I say, primitive, but there is no other. So our choice is the one the Lord Himself spoke of in Deuteronomy 30: "I have set before you today life and death, blessing and curse." What matters, however, is that without these mysterious and difficult words of Christ, we would not have had a choice, but only a curse.

How familiar to almost each of us is the condition of the disciples listening to Jesus. Unfortunately, there have been moments, and they still occur now, when inwardly, even if not openly, something protests against the truth of the Lord. A murmur rises up, the thought that He wants the very best for us goes away. His request for trust and for the surrender of one's life begins to seem impossible.

And what comes next? How are we to fight this? Before us stands the choice that once stood, and more than once, before every person listening to Christ. Some went forward, paying no attention to doubts and disturbances; some, like many of His disciples, "turned back and no longer walked with Him" (John 6:66), unable to accept His word; and some fought. They did not allow every disturbing thought to drown out the earlier words of Jesus that had called them after Him. They took a step into the unknown and continued to walk, giving their life to the Lord.

So in such moments the Lord invites us as well to show trust, repeating to ourselves the words of the apostles: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (John 6:68-69).

Jesus understands perfectly well that what He says cannot be understood by human reason alone. The point here is not any special complexity in what is being discussed, but that such things cannot be explained purely theoretically. The matter is a new life, about which it is almost useless to speak if a person has no practical experience at all of this life. In essence, everything Jesus said to His disciples during His earthly ministry was said in advance. So to speak, for growth.

With their further spiritual growth in view. For the time being they could only accept what was said on trust. But this is a voluntary matter, and therefore Jesus invites those who wish to leave to leave Him. He knows that He will be able to prove nothing to anyone. To show, yes, in due time. And then those who see will see something quite different from what they might have expected. And that will be the best proof. But that is in the future; for now there is only trust.

Still, not on empty ground. Peter does not speak of "words of eternal life" by chance. The disciples of Jesus had already seen something. They had seen clear signs of the presence of the Kingdom and the action of God's power. Signs that neither they nor anyone else had ever had to see before. And now their Teacher says something that cannot fit into consciousness at all. And each disciple finds himself before a choice: accept the Teacher as He is, or leave.

He speaks impossible, unbelievable words, sometimes sounding almost blasphemous. But the power of God is with Him, and the Kingdom too is with Him. One has to choose. To choose between God and the familiar boundaries and limits of human nature, human reason, human religiosity. Believing the impossible is always a matter of choice. And only readiness to follow God no matter what makes it possible to believe. That is why Jesus says that unless the Father draws a person, he cannot set out on such a path by himself.

Only God gives a person strength and confidence on the path along which faith in the impossible leads. Human nature is powerless here. But this was a necessary lesson, because one will have to enter the Kingdom in the same way. In an absolutely impossible way. Following the Risen One, and that is still less possible. On the way to the Kingdom everything around is constantly impossible, unbelievable, unable to fit into consciousness. And it is better to get used to this beforehand, so that later it will be easier to walk.

Continuing His word about salvation and life, the Lord tells us today that the will of God is that everyone who entrusts himself to the Son of God, everyone who, according to the word of the prophet and the apostle, "calls on the name of the Lord," will be saved. And at the end of today's passage the Lord says that the one whom the Father draws can come to Him. Yesterday we heard His word that the Father's will consists in the salvation of all. This is not simply the hope of the world and of humanity. I dare say that these words of Christ are the only hope of the world; everything else is deception. And one cannot help rejoicing in this, because the difficult path to life is still incomparably better than hopelessness.

What do they answer Christ? In essence, the answer of the Jews comes down to a crude formula: "Who are you, anyway?" "Prove that this Jesus of yours is God..." Christians have heard this for centuries. This cannot be proved, if only because He does not belong to us; we belong to Him. But that is not even the main point. Such a protest against Christ's words only means that I am trying to shift onto Him the responsibility for my own distrust. Fortunately, the Gospel gives us an example of the right position, when a person gives Christ not responsibility for the feat of faith, for the act of trust, but asks Him for help in it, saying, "I believe, Lord; help my unbelief."

Is it not strange that the One who comes from heaven takes care to feed crowds of His listeners and followers with bread? Is that what He came for? And yet the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves for five thousand people is the only miracle described by all the evangelists, and that means it is especially important. It is this miracle that serves as the starting point for the conversation about the true bread by which a person truly lives, the bread of life.

We have heard since childhood that a person does not live by bread alone. But if we try to understand what makes up our spiritual diet, will we find in it what can truly satisfy the heart, rather than a substitute that leaves only a hangover and nausea?

The Lord offers us this kind of bread. It is not teaching, not commandments, not faith in God - the Jews already had all this, and it exists in many spiritual schools and religions. Jesus speaks of the bread that truly comes down from heaven and gives real, eternal life. It is He Himself.

Today's reading helps us better understand what is usually called Jesus' "messianic secret." In speaking of it, people mean the fact that Jesus Himself, until the last days of His earthly ministry, almost never spoke directly about His messiahship, at least not openly. The evangelist's account takes us back to the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves (vv. 1-14). And the reaction to it, as we can see, was an attempt to proclaim Jesus "king," to make Him the leader of a new messianic movement (v. 15). This is no surprise: according to the commonly accepted ideas of that time, the Messiah was to become king, restore an independent Jewish state, and introduce in it laws corresponding to the Torah. But Jesus, of course, was not going to become the leader of any religious-political movement.

But Jesus had another, more important reason to conceal His messiahship. He Himself speaks of it directly to those who went looking for Him in Galilee: most of the people seeking a meeting with Him did so not because they thirsted for the Kingdom, but because they wanted, in time of need, always to be able to receive free bread (v. 26). Jesus, however, speaks with them about eternal life and about the main thing without which one cannot partake of it: trust in the One whom God sent into the world to give people the Kingdom (vv. 27-29).

But they do not understand Him. They ask Him: where are the proofs that Your words are true (v. 30)? And at once they give an example of what proofs would convince them: manna from heaven, as in the days of Moses in the wilderness (v. 31). Jesus again tells them that the Kingdom is greater than any miracle, and that the bread of the Kingdom is more important than manna (vv. 32-33). And again they do not understand Him.

His listeners cannot grasp that with the Savior's coming into the world a new era has begun, and that what happened to them on the shore of Lake Gennesaret was not a miracle in the sense in which manna was a miracle. Simply by being with Jesus, they found themselves in the Kingdom and lived for a while according to its laws, but, as we can see, they did not understand fully what had happened to them. That is why they ask Jesus for bread and expect to receive it just as their fathers once received manna from God (v. 34). And Jesus again and again tries to explain to them that the point is not bread, but the Kingdom and that fullness of God's life which is given there to everyone, so that no manna will be needed there anymore.

A miracle is the Kingdom's invasion of our world, the manifestation of its laws where completely different rules usually operate. But now the Kingdom is entering the world, transforming it, and the times of miracles are passing. The time of the Kingdom is beginning - open to everyone who seeks it and wants to enter.