All four gospels report on the stories and metaphors Jesus used to teach the crowds following him. But John's gospel, above all, emphasizes these teachings. Here Jesus directly identifies himself as the spiritual food that everyone needs. Those who identify with Jesus will be led by him into eternal life.
John 6: 41-45, Oh but this is just the son of Joseph!
At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.
45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.
Jesus has clearly made divine claims and the Jews don't like it. "We know where he was born," they say. "He is just an ordinary man." Jesus responds to their grumbling by emphasizing again his divine nature and saying that people will be drawn to him only if the Father wishes it -- that those who hear God will be attracted to Jesus.
The quote in verse 45 is from Isaiah 54:13. in which Isaiah speaks of a future peaceful time for Israel, in which everyone is taught by God.
No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.
50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
In verse 46, it is Jesus who has seen God ("the Father").
The offer of eternal life is repeated. The teaching here is direct and not in parable. People need an "eternal bread" and Jesus offers it, with his body. This will be explained more as the gospel of John progresses.
Jesus will continue lecturing on the spiritual "bread" as we finish this long chapter.
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