St. John 6:27-33 (5/13) CHRIST IS RISEN! Gospel for Tuesday of the Myrrhbearers
Little by Little: St. John 6:27-33, especially vs. 33: “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” To be an Orthodox Christian is to accept a life-long series of surrenders through which we are weaned away from this seemingly normal, material-centered life into which everyone is born, to be reshaped into a person submitted to Christ our God. Surrender to Him is a way of life based on a primary commitment that comes ahead of all loyalties, and that forms an unshakable bond between us and Christ as our Master.
Weaning, changing, and being reshaped do not come easily, since we are earth-bound. Observe a child when it is being taken away from the breast or the bottle and gaining a minimum facility with cup, plate, and table service. During such a season one discerns in microcosm an ikon of the spiritual struggle required by the life in Christ. No easy task!
In the present passage, the Evangelist John introduces his readers to the personal realignments that Christ our God requires of any one who would approach Him for whatever reason. The key to understanding these verses, as well as an appreciation of how revolutionary it is to be a Christian, is to grasp the profound conflict inherent in the interaction between the Lord Jesus and the multitude who had pursued Him ever since He had fed them (Jn. 6:1-14).
They determined to “take Him by force to make Him king,” which He resisted, departing “to the mountain by Himself alone” (Jn. 6:15). When they caught up with Him, He confronted their search for Him by pointing out that they had failed to see the point of His miraculous signs but instead sought Him only because they “ate of the loaves and were filled” (Jn. 6:26).
On the basis of His diagnosis of their purpose in life, the Lord Jesus advises them - and us - to change basic purposes: do “not labor for the bread which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life” (Jn. 6:27). Be an authentic follower of Christ Jesus: abandon the commonplace purpose underlying the lives of the majority of people in the world in favor of laboring for the spiritual Bread that not only “endures to everlasting life,” but also that the Son of Man alone can and will “give...because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (vs. 27). For fallen creatures, dominated by cravings for material returns, the demand is for quite a reversal.
According to our Lord Jesus, what then is the guiding commitment around which people should organize their energies? What ought to be the undergirding goal determining all of my loyalties and priorities? Christ our God states it very simply: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He sent” (vs. 29). Submission to Jesus Christ must be first and foremost.
What is more, as the Evangelist shows us, this demand of the Lord Jesus was and is difficult for many even to grasp. The mob quite missed the point: “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You?” (vs. 30). Still thinking in material terms, they hold up to Jesus the miracle of the manna in the wilderness that “our fathers ate...in the desert” (vs. 31) - a challenge that He top that ancient miracle. Ironically, their challenge was quite ill-informed, for the Christ had already fed them, five thousand strong, with fives loaves and two fish (Jn. 6:9).
The Lord Jesus is very blunt concerning the manna, or bread, which the people received under Moses. It was “not the bread from heaven,” but material food that fed physical bodies. Still, there is a “bread from heaven” that God the “Father gives...the true bread from heaven” (Jn. 6:32). The Bread is “He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (vs. 33), Jesus Himself. How He strives to gives us Himself ! Surrender to Him, the Bread of God!
O taste and see that the Lord is good, Who for our sake was made like unto us of old and once for all offered up Himself...sanctifying those who partake of Him.
