28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6: 30-34, Give us more bread!
So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
The quote in verse 31 is from the event in the exodus in which God gave the Israelites manna from heaven, see Exodus 16:4. This event is then later quoted in Nehemiah 9:15 and Psalm 78: 24-25. In recalling that incident, the people are relying on their Jewish heritage, harking back to a time that God took care of them directly.
The challenge that the crowd gives Jesus is dishonest. They are following Jesus because of the intriguing miracle he did the day before, feeding them all. Yet they ask for a sign and seem to be interested in him providing this miracle on a regular basis. The gospels report numerous times in which Jesus responds to urgent personal needs but this is not the main focus of his ministry.
Jesus responds by pointing out that in that time (like this one), it was God who was the actor. But the people still focus on food....
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
Jesus makes the metaphor plain. He is that eternal bread; he is the One who will keep people from being "hungry" and, as in an earlier teaching, he is the One who will keep people from being "thirsty."
This teaching continues further. We will look at the rest of the passage tomorrow.
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