Often, when a popular public figure starts making comments that are just too outrageous, a movement to cut them down to size will kick in. (I’m waiting for this to happen with the bizarre Republican fascination with Donald Trump… here endeth any conceivable comparison!) We certainly see that process unfold when Jesus begins to talk about being the “bread that came down from heaven.”
The people who had come to him, eager for his teaching, waiting for his next miracle, now start to grumble.
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (This week's gospel passage is here.)
Knowing Jesus’ roots, they couldn’t stomach what sounded like grandiose claims. In fairness to the grumblers, his words do sound far-fetched, especially if you know his human ancestry and have no reason to guess divine origins. Much of the Gospel of John is taken up with exploration and confrontation about Jesus’ connection with God the Father. But he lays it out quite clearly and boldly:
Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”
If anything this is more outrageous still. Jesus rests his authority on his divine Son-ship – and says that if anyone fails to discern his Son-ship, that person has not been drawn by the Father. For those who believe Jesus is indeed the Son of God, that makes perfect sense. For those who don’t, it just makes him sound all the more mad, and more than a little manipulative.
And there it is: the life, teachings, actions, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ make sense if you believe that he came from the Father and returned to the Father. And that he is entitled to call God “Father.” If you don’t buy that, if you see him solely as a human creature, he would be someone to be feared, not revered. Given that, the fact that so many billions across so many centuries have recognized Jesus’ divine origins lends some support to the truth we claim about this one who said he was Truth itself.
So how do we make this Truth known to the people around us? Should we bother? I think we introduce him as the friend and redeemer we know, and ask the Holy Spirit to make the spiritual introduction that initiates faith. We don't have to convince, only bear witness, in our actions as well as words.
We have not seen the Father. But we have seen Jesus, and can know Jesus. And in Him, the God is.
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