Conversation Points for John 6:56-69

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• At the heart of John’s Eucharistic theology is relationship and presence. The key of v. 56 is the verb “to abide” (meno). Meno is a very common word in John’s gospel to express the interrelationship between Jesus and the believer, and that relationship as an extension of the interrelationship between Jesus and God.
• V. 58 is the summation of the whole Bread of Life narrative, that Jesus is the bread of life who gives eternal life, which is never ending relationship with him and through him with God.
• V. 59 serves to locate Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue, the traditional Jewish location of teaching and learning.
• The disciples’ grumbling in v. 60 is described with the same word as the crowd’s grumbling in v. 41, (gongyzō, sometimes translated in the NRSV as “complain”).
• Jesus challenged the disciples’ complaints with an open-ended statement, “what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending…” V. 62 connects the offensiveness of Jesus’ Bread of Life teachings with his whole life, the Son of Man language connects to Jesus’ return to God (3:13; 20:17), the eternal nature of the Son of Man (1:1-2, 18; 8:58), and his descent from God (3:13; 6:38, 51). 1:51 (“And [Jesus] said to [Nathanael], ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”) works in the same way to move the disciples past their immediate response, be that response faith or doubt. In this way the ascent of the Son of Man (Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension is all tied up in the ascent) is greater than anything the disciples have yet experienced.
• V. 63 is confusing because it seems to undo all Jesus had taught about the importance of eating his flesh. O’Day argues Jesus is pulling from 1:14, “and the Word became flesh.” Flesh alone, the eucharist alone, is not magic. Rather it is bread/flesh with the Word that gives life. From Luther’s Small Catechism, “These words [“given for you” and “shed for you”], when accompanied by the physical eating and drinking, are the essential thing in the sacrament.”
• V. 64-65 deals with one of the key tensions, that between God’s work and human decision. V. 65 reiterates the statement in v. 37, 39, and 44, we cannot reach Jesus without God reaching us.
• The reference to “the Twelve” in v. 67 is rare in John’s Gospel, it only happens here and at one of the post-resurrection accounts (20:24). Unlike the synoptics, in John the group of disciples is much more fluid. The reference appearing here means John probably pulled this section from another account, a Johannine version of Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi.
• Peter’s confession in v. 68 uses both “believe” and “know,” two words that are used interchangeably in John’s Gospel. The repetition serves to intensify the confession.
• The title “Holy One of God” is only used here in John’s gospel, though it was the term used by demons in Mark. “Holy” is the Greek hegiasen can also be translated as sanctified, and it means to be set apart.

Works Sourced:
O’ Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.