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John 6
26. Ye seek me, &c.—Jesus does not put them through their difficulty, says
nothing of His treading on the waves of the sea, nor even notices their
question, but takes advantage of the favorable moment for pointing out to them
how forward, flippant, and superficial were their views, and how low their
desires. "Ye seek Me not because ye saw the miracles"—literally, "the signs,"
that is, supernatural tokens of a higher presence, and a divine commission, "but
because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." From this He proceeds at once
to that other Bread, just as, with the woman of Samaria, to that other Water (Joh
4:9-15). We should have supposed all that follows to have been delivered by the
wayside, or wherever they happened first to meet. But from Joh 6:59 we gather
that they had probably met about the door of the synagogue—"for that was the day
in which they assembled in their synagogues" [Lightfoot]—and that on being
asked, at the close of the service, if He had any word of exhortation to the
people, He had taken the two breads, the perishing and the living bread, for the
subject of His profound and extraordinary discourse.
27. which the Son of man—taking that title of Himself which denoted His
incarnate life.
shall give unto you—in the sense of Joh 6:51.
him hath God the Father sealed—marked out and authenticated for that
transcendent office, to impart to the world the bread of an everlasting life,
and this in the character of "the Son of man."
28-31. What shall we do … the works of God—such works as God will approve.
Different answers may be given to such a question, according to the spirit which
prompts the inquiry. (See Ho 6:6-8; Lu 3:12-14). Here our Lord, knowing whom He
had to deal with, shapes His reply accordingly.
29. This is the work of God—That lies at the threshold of all acceptable
obedience, being not only the prerequisite to it, but the proper spring of it—in
that sense, the work of works, emphatically "the work of God."
30. What sign showest thou, &c.—But how could they ask "a sign," when many of
them scarce a day before had witnessed such a "sign" as had never till then been
vouchsafed to men; when after witnessing it, they could hardly be restrained
from making Him a king; when they followed Him from the one side of the lake to
the other; and when, in the opening words of this very discourse, He had chided
them for seeking Him, "not because they saw the signs," but for the loaves? The
truth seems to be that they were confounded by the novel claims which our Lord
had just advanced. In proposing to make Him a king, it was for far other
purposes than dispensing to the world the bread of an everlasting life; and when
He seemed to raise His claims even higher still, by representing it as the grand
"work of God," that they should believe on Himself as His Sent One, they saw
very clearly that He was making a demand upon them beyond anything they were
prepared to accord to Him, and beyond all that man had ever before made. Hence
their question, "What dost Thou work?"
31. Our fathers did eat manna, &c.—insinuating the inferiority of Christ's
miracle of the loaves to those of Moses: "When Moses claimed the confidence of
the fathers, 'he gave them bread from heaven to eat'—not for a few thousands,
but for millions, and not once only, but daily throughout their wilderness
journey."
32, 33. Moses gave you not, &c.—"It was not Moses that gave you the manna, and
even it was but from the lower heavens; 'but My Father giveth you the true
bread,' and that 'from heaven.'"
33. For the bread of God is he, &c.—This verse is perhaps best left in its own
transparent grandeur—holding up the Bread Itself as divine, spiritual, and
eternal; its ordained Fountain and essential Substance, "Him who came down from
heaven to give it" (that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was
manifested unto us, 1Jo 1:2); and its designed objects, "the world."
34. Lord, evermore give us this bread—speaking now with a certain reverence (as
at Joh 6:25), the perpetuity of the manna floating perhaps in their minds, and
much like the Samaritan woman, when her eyes were but half opened, "Sir, give Me
this water," &c. (Joh 4:15).
35. I am the bread of life—Henceforth the discourse is all in the first person,
"I," "Me," which occur in one form or other, as Stier reckons, thirty-five
times.
he that cometh to me—to obtain what the soul craves, and as the only
all-sufficient and ordained source of supply.
hunger … thirst—shall have conscious and abiding satisfaction.
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