Progressive reflections on the lectionary #28

Monday 29th July 2024

John 6:24-35 Bread of heaven

There are seven ‘I am statements’ attributed to Jesus in John’s gospel, among them ‘I am the bread of life’ - which appears at the end of this week’s gospel passage.

The writer of John, attempts, throughout his text, to make a series of theological points about the nature of Christ. From the outset ‘John’ wants to make a point about the divine nature of Jesus (‘the word was God’).

It’s a mistake to say that ‘John’ is alone in undertaking a theological project, all of the gospel writers do this in one way or another - each one writes for a different audience and with a different goal in mind. ‘John’ is determined, in his work, to demonstrate that Jesus is the ‘logos’ - the ‘word of God’ as he makes clear in his prologue.

As part of this project he has Jesus use the seven ‘I am’ sayings - deliberately echoing the ‘I am’ language of Yahweh in the Moses story. The link is explicit, here, because of the repeated references to the experience of the Israelites, and the miraculous provision of ‘manna’ - the first ‘bread of heaven’. (It always makes me think of ‘Cwm Rhondda’, this).

The point then becomes clear - it was not Moses who gave the bread of heaven, but God. So it is also God who has given this new ‘bread’. John’s theological project is clear - he is working hard to make plain the idea that Jesus has a divine nature.

Just as there are seven ‘I am’ sayings, so there are seven dramatic ‘signs’ in John, and they come in the so called ‘book of signs’ - the book of signs makes up the bulk of the gospel, and includes this passage, of course. One of those signs is the feeding of the five thousand which precedes this ‘I am’ discourse. It’s helpful, I think, to recognise the very structured way that John works, if only to remind ourselves that these are remarkable pieces of literature, constructed carefully and with purpose.

John’s ultimate purpose will be made ultra clear when he has Thomas declare, in the closing moments of the book that Jesus is ‘my Lord and my God’ - a political-theological title also claimed by the Caesars. It bears repeating that theology and politics are not separate in the world of the Bible - they are at the very least intertwined, if not exactly the same thing. Jesus’ ability not just to provide for physical needs, but to minister to his followers on the basis of higher order needs too sets him out as a divine figure - making John’s point all the more clear.

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