Crowd rejects Jesus' heavenly origins

August 13, 2006 -- 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Michael Stubbs

	Fr. Mike Stubbs

If you think that parishioners don't ever read the bulletin, then just misspell one of their names sometime. You will quickly discover how thoroughly it is read. People often will latch on to something that we would overlook. The same thing happens in the scriptures.

When Jesus announces, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," we might expect the crowd to hesitate about his claim to be bread. But initially they ignore that aspect of his statement. Instead, the crowd attacks Jesus' claim to have come down from heaven. "They said, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, "I have come down from heaven?"

The crowd's rejection of Jesus, based upon their familiarity with him, echoes a similar argument voiced in the gospel reading on July 9. "Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him." (Mark 9:1-6) In that respect, John's gospel shares a common theme with the synoptics. But in John, the crowd's rejection focuses upon Jesus' heavenly origins, not so much upon his Messiahship.

That is why the gospel of John focuses so heavily upon Jesus' heavenly origins, as opposed to his earthly origins. For example, the gospels of Matthew and Luke begin with stories about Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, which figure so prominently at Christmas time. In contrast, the gospel of John starts with a theological reflection on the Divine Word, which existed from all eternity and which condescended to take on human flesh out of love for us. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

The prologue of John's gospel is a poetic masterpiece, sublime in its theology. But interesting enough, it does not even mention the name "Jesus." In emphasizing Jesus' heavenly origins, it understates Jesus' earthly origins. And the gospel consistently takes that approach throughout its course, as we see in Sunday's gospel reading.

In response to the crowd, Jesus reaffirms his connection to God, whom he calls "Father." He warns them, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him," And again, "Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father."

It is not clear why Jesus is speaking of himself in the third person. But it is clear that he is claiming that God has sent him into the world and that he is on intimate terms with God. He has seen God.

Jesus restates his original claim. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." But then he extends that claim. "Whoever eats this bread will live forever; the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

This new assertion causes the crowd to forget their earlier objections. Their attention shifts to the idea of Jesus being bread, food that can be eaten. They will also oppose this claim, as we will see in the following Sunday's gospel.

(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)