The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
At the Sea of Galilee (John 6)
- Chapter 43 -
The bread of life
But the next day, when we went out into the open after breakfast in order to look around at what was there, we met a great number of people at the shore who had followed us in the night from Tiberias with great difficulties. But they were the same people who had stood yesterday evening on the other side of the sea on the banks and indeed observed that the disciples had sailed away alone over the sea without Me. And these people now also saw that no other ship was there apart from their own recognizable ships and the one in which the disciples had sailed away alone, as well as that I did not entered the ship at its departure at all, and that My disciples had sailed away alone. (John 6:22)
2
But when we were walking up and down along the shore, other small boats arrived which had only left Tiberias early in the morning. They had first sailed to the place, got out and visited the place where they had eaten the bread through My giving thanks in order to convince themselves that I was no longer there. (John 6:23) But since they had not found either Me or My disciples there, they hurried quickly back to the ships which were waiting for them and sailed back to Capernaum with a good wind; for they knew that the disciples had gone to Capernaum. When they arrived in Capernaum at midday, they immediately sought the disciples and above all Me, to see if I was there. (John 6:24)
3
And when they found Me after a long search, namely in a school in Capernaum, as will be later shown later, and now saw clearly that I must obviously have come across the sea from Tiberias to Capernaum, since I would have needed a good few days to make the long trip by land over the many mountains and valleys to get to Capernaum, they (those who had followed) asked Me and said: "Oh Rabbi, (Master) how did you get across the sea?" (Joh.6,25)
4
But I quickly gave the disciples a sign not to tell this to anyone, for I was intending to teach these heroes of the old faith a lesson that would be quite suitable to separate the chaff from the wheat.
5
And so I said to the inquirers: "Truly, truly, I say to you all: You seek Me not because you saw the many signs which I have performed but because as hungry people on the mountain you ate of the loaves and were satiated. (John 6:26) You therefore have called Me a great prophet out of thanks and finally wanted to even make Me your king, because you thought to yourselves: 'Behold, he has sufficient power over our enemies, for whom we have to work and in addition he can also always provide us with bread and we will then no longer have to work!'
6
But I say to you all: The food does not work for the spiritual life of the soul, but only for temporal life of the fleshly body. I, as now the Son of Man, however, want and will show and give you all another food which remains and works for eternity in the soul. Since therefore the Father in heaven has sealed and destined Me. (John 6:27) And this food consists of truly performing God's will and thereby also doing God's work."
7
Then the inquirers said to Me: "Then tell us what we should do that we may effectuate the works of God? (John 6:28) We are only people and not prophets and can only live according to the laws of Moses."
8
I said: "Yes, if you had kept the law of Moses, you would have recognized Me long ago! But out of fear for worldly punishment you hold on to the statues of the world with secret fierceness and therefore do not recognize Me, despite the fact that I have performed such signs before your eyes which never ever before have been performed by any other person.
9
But I now want to tell you what the work of God is from now on. This is the work of God from now on, which can be effectuated by you thereby, that you believe in Me as in Him whom God prophesied through the prophets and now has sent to you all into this world!" (John 6:29)
10
Then all of them widened their eyes in amazement and said: "What other signs do you then perform beyond those already seen by us? Tell us and show us, that we may see, and believe what You say about Yourself! Thus which other signs do you perform? (Joh.6,30) Until now we only know that you have healed all kinds of illnesses and that you really have fed us in a truly miraculous way until we were satiated with a lot of bread from the few loaves on the mountain. However other prophets from Moses onwards have also performed similar and also even greater signs. Did not our fathers eat the manna in the wilderness, as it is written: 'He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.'" (John 6:31)
11
At this I said to them: "Truly, truly! It is not Moses who has given you bread from true heaven, but only from the visible, earthly sky out of the air; but it is My Father in the true, spiritual heaven who now gives you the true bread out of heaven through Me. (John 6:32) For the bread of God is which comes down out of heaven in Me and gives life to the world!" (John 6:33)
12
But they did not understand that, when referring to the true bread which gives the soul eternal life, I only meant My word and My teaching, which goes forth out of the eternally most living love and wisdom of God and thereby is life and wisdom itself and gives the soul true life.
13
Therefore, because they understood this only to be the bread that they had eaten on the mountain, they also said: "Lord and master, give us then this bread to eat evermore, and we will demand nothing further!" (John 6:34)
14
I then said: "What are you saying and what are you demanding? Have you then not understood what I was saying? I am the true bread of life! He who comes to Me shall not hunger and he who believes shall never thirst!" (John 6:35)
15
They then said: "Lord, we are still with you! And since we have had nothing to eat since this morning, so we are nonetheless beginning to be hungry and thirsty, although we believe that you are a great prophet, perhaps greater than Moses, about whom one can no longer say with great certainty that he truly once existed. We have never seen Moses; but we have seen you and still see you, and so you are obviously more than Moses and all the old prophets. But nonetheless we are already quite hungry and thirsty. What then does your word mean?"
16
I said to John quietly: "Do you see, what I secretly told you yesterday on the mountain, was it not true?! These people are still on the level of animals, and I am therefore speaking concealed so that they will become quite senseless and leave Me; for their time is not yet here."