The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
“I am the bread that came down from heaven, ”
and they said,
“Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (Jn 6:41-51)
How important is the Bread of Life Discourse! It raises all the right questions: the question of Jesus’ origins, his parents, where he is from, his authority for doing and saying what he does, his compassion for the hungry, the challenge of political power, his response to criticism when people complain, and when many of his disciples abandon him. And to all these challenges Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven . . . the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
