John 6:41-42 -- So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
What immediately jumped out today was the more truth Jesus spoke to the crowd, the lower and lower regard they held for Him. Watch this.
John 6:14 -- When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
The Prophet: Jesus fed the large crowd bread and fish. There are no recorded teachings He gave to the people here, just feeding them till they were full. This sign, and their full stomachs, help them connect Him to what Moses said in Deuteronomy 18, about the coming Prophet. This is the closest the crowd gets to who Jesus really is, but it's not for Him, it's for what He'd done for them.
John 6:25 -- When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
Rabbi: Jesus had slipped away from the crowd as they were going to force Him to be their king. The next day they realize He somehow got across the Sea of Galilee. When they catch up with Him, they aren't calling Him, "Prophet" or "Messiah". He didn't fulfill the role of Messiah how they desired, by driving out the Romans, so now we find they call Him just "Rabbi".
John 6:34 -- They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Lord or Sir: Jesus doesn't respond how they expected. He instead directs them to the truth; they need to stop thinking about perishable bread and see the eternal bread before them. They are interested hearing about "bread" again, but now call Him, "Lord" or some translations, "Sir". They didn't mean like "Lord of Lords", this was just a respectful term. So not even "Rabbi" any longer, just, "Sir".
John 6:42 -- They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Son of Joseph: As Jesus continued to direct them only to the truth, the true heart, desire, and intentions of the crowd rises fully to the surface. When He passed out bread He was "The Prophet", but now He keeps saying it's about eternal bread and He is the bread...who is this guy anyway? How does He have the audacity to talk about all this religious stuff? All along the crowd only cared about getting what they desired right then and there. Their religious and respectful titles were just ugly deceitful attempts to get what they wanted. Now, it's not even about Him, because isn't this just the son of Joseph? That carpenter's kid? I mean we know Joseph and Mary, so what's up with their crazy son here?
We've watched this crowd go from calling Him, "The Prophet" all the way down to "son of Joseph". There is one final thing the crowd calls Him a bit further down in John chapter 6.
John 6:52 -- The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
This Man: In John 6:43-51 Jesus gives a final response to the crowd and He includes in it some much more direct things to snap these people out of their lukewarm, indecisive, self-focused worlds. He tells them the eternal bread is His flesh, referring to His death on the cross but to their minds, which wanted something eat right then, this repulsed them. No longer was He even the son of Joseph, someone they knew, we find they now just call Him "this man". Just some human who didn't deserve their respect, definitely not a title, and now not even an identity. Never mind all the miracles and truth they'd seen day after day, town after town, person after person.
Christian, who is Jesus to you? What role does He play in your life today? Are you seeking Him or seeking something for yourself from Him?
Beloved, I beg you to take the time to really think through this. Pray and talk with the Lord about it. Talk with a close Christian brother or sister about it. And of course, don't just take my word for any of it, be the Berean and get into God's Word yourself and read it. Let Him show you.
You are loved. You are prayed over. You are not alone.
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