Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
JOHN 6:24-35 (Exodus 15:2-4, 12-15; Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24)
This Sunday’s gospel reading is the second in a series of five Sunday gospels taken from John 6, the Bread of Life Discourse. The first in the series dealt with the sign (miracle) of Jesus feeding five thousand in the wilderness on Passover. In the Gospel of John a sign is narrated in such a way that it becomes a sign of some identity of Jesus. The miracle of feeding the five thousand with five barley loaves and a few fish proclaimed Jesus “the Prophet like Moses,” of Deut. 18:15-18. It also proclaimed Him the Messiah/King awaited by the people of Israel to establish His own kingdom and free them from political oppression. A problem occurs when the choice of a Sunday gospel for the second in the series of five Sunday gospels fails to include a second sign preceding the Bread of Life Discourse. That second sign: Jesus walks on water and proclaims His divine identity.
After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus knew that they were about to proclaim Him Prophet and Messiah/King. He escapes onto the mountain alone. Moses and Exodus themes permeate this story. The disciples embark by boat to cross the Sea of Galilee to the western shore in the area of Capernaum. It was a dark and stormy night! They had rowed three or four miles. A strong wind arose. Jesus had remained in the hills. Suddenly He comes walking across the water. He approaches the boat. They were frightened. Jesus reassures them, “I AM. Do not be afraid!” They took him into the boat. Immediately they were at their destination. Recalling that the seven great signs John attributes to Jesus are signs of His identity, what identity does this sign indicate?
In the Old Testament, only God walks on water. Even Moses did not walk on water but the sea had to be cleared away so that he and his people could walk across on the sea bottom.
Therefore we have a case of one-upmanship, Jesus doing what Moses could not do. This contin-ues a theme John weaves into the earlier parts of his gospel – Jesus is #1, Moses #2. More impor-tantly, as noted above, only God is said to walk on water. See Job 9:8; Psalm 77:19; Isaiah 43:16. But this is only John’s first claim of Jesus’ divine identity in the narration of this second sign before the Bread of Life Discourse. The second claim is much more daring, as Jesus claims for Himself the Divine Name, I AM. See Exodus 3:14. Thus the two signs preceding the following discourse have proclaimed Jesus the Prophet like Moses, Messiah/King, and God. Therefore the difficult teaching that follows must be recognized to be absolutely true. This is why John depicts Jesus repeatedly beginning crucial statements with the oath, “Amen! Amen!”
As this Sunday’s gospel begins, Jesus, the disciples, and the stomach-filled crowd have gathered back on the western shore near Capernaum. The people had noticed that Jesus was not in the boat when His disciples left the eastern shore, so they can’t figure out how Jesus got back to Capernaum. “When did you get here?” He gives no direct answer, but speaks His first double Amen statement. He accuses them of not looking for Him, but looking for more free food. He tries to raise them to a higher level, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you . . . .” What is the meaning of this mysterious statement? The context and ensuing statements will reveal the meaning.
The people raise the subject of Moses feeding the ancient Israelites with manna, “the bread from heaven.” Jesus corrects them with a second double Amen statement: “Amen, Amen, I say to you. It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father is giving you (right now) the true bread from heaven!” To get to the meaning of this statement we must conclude that John has in mind Deuteronomy 8:3. In that passage the authors of Deuteronomy give a new spin to the manna, when they write, “He .. . . fed you with manna, which you did not recognize, nor did your ancestors understand, that he might make you recognize that one does not live by bread alone but by every word the comes from the mouth of the Lord.” “Every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” is the Torah, the revelation given to God’s people through Moses. The authors of Deuteronomy proclaimed the manna as a sign or symbol of the Torah. This proclamation has important consequences for revelation contained in John’s gospel.
In the Prologue to his gospel, John 1:1-18, the author proclaimed Jesus the ultimate and perfect Torah or teaching or revelation from God. Through Him God created all things, and this Torah (this Word of God) is Himself God. When John depicts Jesus proclaiming that the Father is giving them the true manna, the true word or Word of God, then the bread which just fed the multitude becomes a symbol of the teaching Jesus reveals through this Bread of Life Discourse. John proceeds in three steps. In this first step John reveals that the revelation Jesus brings from the Father is the true Bread of life now being given in this gospel. This is not yet a revelation about the Eucharist. The second step: Jesus himself is God’s ultimate revelation, but not yet as Eucharist. That second step begins with the closing words of today's gospel, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger. Whoever believes in me will never thirst.” This second step is the subject of next Sunday’s gospel reading.
