Now the people whom Jesus had miraculously fed northeast of the Sea of Galilee find him near Capernaum and inquire: “When did you get here?” Rebuking them, Jesus says that they have come looking for him only because they expect to get another free meal. He urges them to work, not for food that perishes, but for food that remains for everlasting life. So the people inquire: “What shall we do to work the works of God?”

Jesus names but one work of the highest value. “This is the work of God,” he explains, “that you exercise faith in him whom that One sent forth.”

The people, however, do not exercise faith in Jesus, despite all the miracles he has performed. Unbelievably, even after all the marvelous things that he has done, they ask: “What, then, are you performing as a sign, in order for us to see it and believe you? What work are you doing? Our forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

In response to their request for a sign, Jesus makes clear the Source of miraculous provisions, saying: “Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father does give you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Lord,” the people say, “always give us this bread.”

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus explains. “He that comes to me will not get hungry at all, and he that exercises faith in me will never get thirsty at all. But I have said to you, You have even seen me and yet do not believe. Everything the Father gives me will come to me, and the one that comes to me I will by no means drive away; because I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me. This is the will of him that sent me, that I should lose nothing out of all that he has given me but that I should resurrect it at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholds the Son and exercises faith in him should have everlasting life.”

At this the Jews begin murmuring at Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They see in him nothing more than a son of human parents and so in the same manner as did the people of Nazareth, they object, saying: “Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that now he says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

“Stop murmuring among yourselves,” Jesus responds. “No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him; and I will resurrect him in the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by Jehovah.’ Everyone that has heard from the Father and has learned comes to me. Not that any man has seen the Father, except he who is from God; this one has seen the Father. Most truly I say to you, He that believes has everlasting life.”

Continuing, Jesus repeats: “I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness and yet died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.” Yes, by exercising faith in Jesus, the one sent forth by God, people can have everlasting life. No manna, or any other bread, can provide that!

The discussion regarding the bread from heaven apparently began shortly after the people found Jesus near Capernaum. But it continues, reaching a climax later while Jesus teaches in a synagogue in Capernaum.

Many Disciples Quit Following Jesus

JESUS is teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum concerning his part as the true bread from heaven. His talk is evidently an extension of the discussion that began with the people when they found him on their return from the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, where they had eaten from the miraculously provided loaves and fishes.

Jesus continues his remarks, saying: “The bread that I shall give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the world.” Just two years before, in the spring of 30 C.E., Jesus told Nicodemus that God loved the world so much that he provided his Son as a Savior. Thus, Jesus is now showing that anyone of the world of mankind who eats symbolically of his flesh, by exercising faith in the sacrifice he is soon to make, may receive everlasting life.

The people, however, stumble over Jesus’ words. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they ask. Jesus wants his listeners to understand that the eating of his flesh would be done in a figurative way. So, to emphasize this, he says something still more objectionable if taken in a literal way.

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood,” Jesus declares, “you have no life in yourselves. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day; for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in union with me, and I in union with him.”

True, Jesus’ teaching would sound most offensive if he were suggesting cannibalism. But, of course, Jesus is not advocating literally eating flesh or drinking blood. He is simply emphasizing that all who receive everlasting life must exercise faith in the sacrifice that he is to make when he offers up his perfect human body and pours out his lifeblood. Yet, even many of his disciples make no attempt to understand his teaching and so object: “This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?”

Knowing that many of his disciples are murmuring, Jesus says: “Does this stumble you? What, therefore, if you should behold the Son of man ascending to where he was before? . . . The sayings that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you that do not believe.”

Jesus continues: “This is why I have said to you, No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” With that, many of his disciples leave and no longer follow him. So Jesus turns to his 12 apostles and asks: “You do not want to go also, do you?”

Peter responds: “Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” What a fine expression of loyalty, even though Peter and the other apostles may not have fully understood Jesus’ teaching on this matter!

Although pleased by Peter’s response, Jesus observes: “I chose you twelve, did I not? Yet one of you is a slanderer.” He is speaking about Judas Iscariot. Possibly at this point Jesus detects in Judas a “beginning,” or an outset, of a wrongful course.

Jesus has just disappointed the people by resisting their attempts to make him king, and they may be reasoning, ‘How can this be the Messiah if he will not assume the Messiah’s rightful position?’ This, too, would be a matter fresh in the people’s minds. John 6:51-71; 3:16.

Jesus is perhaps in Capernaum when Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem come to him. They are looking for grounds on which to accuse him of religious lawbreaking. “Why is it your disciples overstep the tradition of the men of former times?” they inquire. “For example, they do not wash their hands when about to eat a meal.” This is not something required by God, yet the Pharisees consider it a serious offense not to perform this traditional ritual, which included washing up to the elbows.

Rather than answer them regarding their accusation, Jesus points to their wicked and willful breaking of God’s Law. “Why is it you also overstep the commandment of God because of your tradition?” he wants to know. “For example, God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Let him that reviles father or mother end up in death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother: “Whatever I have by which you might get benefit from me is a gift dedicated to God,” he must not honor his father at all.’”

Indeed, the Pharisees teach that money, property, or anything dedicated as a gift to God belongs to the temple and cannot be used for some other purpose. Yet, actually, the dedicated gift is kept by the person who dedicated it. In this way a son, by simply saying that his money or property is “corban”​—a gift dedicated to God or to the temple—​evades his responsibility to help his aged parents, who may be in desperate straits.

Properly indignant at the Pharisees’ wicked twisting of God’s Law, Jesus says: “You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you, when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”

Perhaps the crowd had backed away to allow the Pharisees to question Jesus. Now, when the Pharisees have no answer to Jesus’ strong censure of them, he calls the crowd near. “Listen to me,” he says, “and get the meaning. There is nothing from outside a man that passes into him that can defile him; but the things that issue forth out of a man are the things that defile a man.”

Later, when they enter a house, his disciples ask: “Do you know that the Pharisees stumbled at hearing what you said?”

“Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted,” Jesus answers. “Let them be. Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Jesus seems surprised when, in behalf of the disciples, Peter asks for clarification regarding what defiles a man. “Are you also yet without understanding?” Jesus responds. “Are you not aware that everything entering into the mouth passes along into the intestines and is discharged into the sewer? However, the things proceeding out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those things defile a man. For example, out of the heart come wicked reasonings, murders, adulteries, fornications, thieveries, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things defiling a man; but to take a meal with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Jesus is not here discouraging normal hygiene. He is not arguing that a person need not wash his hands before preparing food or eating a meal. Rather, Jesus is condemning the hypocrisy of religious leaders who deviously try to circumvent God’s righteous laws by insisting on unscriptural traditions. Yes, it is wicked deeds that defile a man, and Jesus shows that these originate in a person’s heart.