Session 4 - “Believe in Me”: Trust and Surrender (John 4:43–6:71)

 

Scripture Handouts 

Scripture handouts for Session 4 & Session 5:

• Thurs 4/30 - Session 4 - “Believe in Me”: Trust and Surrender (John 4:43–6:71)
• Thurs 5/7 - Session 5 - Encountering Mercy (John 7–9)

Links

For a collection of links on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, see this page for Episode 7 of Bishop Barron's Catholicism series.

Commentary on John 4:43–6:71

• 7 Signs in Gospel of John
• Most people say:
• The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-12) 
• Cure of the Official's Son (John 4:46-54)
• Cure on a Sabbath (John 5:1-47)
• Multiplication of Loaves (John 6:1-14)
• Walking on Water (John 6:16-24)
• Cure of a Man Born Blind (John 9:1-41) 
• Raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-44)
• Dr Sri says:
• The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-12) 
• Cure of the Official's Son (John 4:46-54)
• Cure on a Sabbath (John 5:1-47)
• Multiplication of Loaves (John 6:1-14)
• Walking on Water (John 6:16-24)
• Cure of a Man Born Blind (John 9:1-41) 
• Raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-44)
• Resurrection (20:1-31)

• "a prophet has no honor" (4.44)

In the Synoptics, the same statement about “a prophet . . . without honor” is linked to Jesus’ being rejected in Galilee (Mark 6:4), whereas John suggests that this lack of honor is his very reason for leaving Judea and going to Galilee.

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Note from ICSB:

4:47 Judea to Galilee: Geography plays a symbolic role in John. For the most part, the northern regions of Samaria and Galilee accept Jesus in faith (1:43-49; 2:11; 4:39, 53-54), whereas the southern region of Judea with its capital in Jerusalem is persistently antagonistic toward him (5:18; 7:1; 9:22; 10:33; 11:7-8, etc.). This tension between north and south is underscored by repeated emphasis on Jesus' withdrawal from Judea to Galilee (4:3, 45, 46, 54) and elsewhere when the Judean opponents of Jesus make derogatory remarks about Galileans and Samaritans (7:52; 8:48). It is against this background that John classifies the enemies of Christ as "the Jews", i.e., the unbelieving leaders of Judea and Jerusalem.  

(1:19 Jews: The term has a geographical tint and can sometimes be translated "Judeans".)

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• "they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast" (4.45)

2.18: After cleansing of the temple, they asked "they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast"

Doesn't seem like He answered, but then 2.23: "many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did"

• "a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum" (4.46)
• this episode resembles two other Gospel accounts where Jesus heals a Gentile’s child at a distance (the centurion’s boy in Matt 8:5–13; Luke 7:1–10; the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter in Mark 7:24–30).
• The prophets Elijah (1 Kings 17:17–24) and Elisha (2 Kings 5:1, 8–14) are also reported to have cured Gentiles by a prophetic word.

• "he and his whole household came to believe" (4.53)

He takes the last step of faith and, like the Samaritan woman, becomes an evangelist by declaring his faith.

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Note from ICSB:

5:1 a feast of the Jews: John usually identifies the religious festivals that Jesus attends, whether it is Passover (2:13), Tabernacles (7:2), or Dedication (10:22). Here the unnamed feast may be Pentecost (Weeks), which celebrates the spring harvest as well as the giving of the Torah to Israel. It is one of three pilgrim feasts that required Israelite men to travel to Jerusalem (Deut 16:16; 2 Chron 8:13) (CCC 583). 

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• "so that nothing worse may happen to you" (5.14)

Jesus’ remark here can mean that sin causes something worse to a person than physical illness: spiritual illness that can be eternally fatal.

• My Father is at work until now, so I am at work (5.17)

5.19-29: Jesus's work is that He gives life (like the Father, granted by the Father) and conducts judgement (granted by the Father)

• "whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life" (5.24)
• Sounds like salvation by faith alone, but is followed by 5.28-29: "the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation." [Resurrection - Ezek 37:1-4]
• Parallel to 3.36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them."
• Jesus puts belief and obedience together, as if two aspects of a single thing.

• "I can do nothing on my own authority" (5.30)

Jesus's list of witnesses (from ICSB): 5:30-47 Jewish legal tradition required two or three witnesses to sustain a claim in court (Deut 19:15). Jesus has a list of witnesses beyond the required number: (1) John the Baptist (5:33), (2) his miracles (5:36), (3) the Father (5:37), (4) the Scriptures (5:39), (5) and Moses (5:46) all bear witness to his divine authority and mission.

• "the food that endures for eternal life" (6.27)
• These words about food enduring for eternal life run throughout the discourse and reflect biblical traditions in which God’s wisdom and word, meaning the †Torah or the Mosaic law, were likened to food and drink. The psalmist prays, “How sweet to my palate are your words, / sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Ps 119:103, our translation). Proverbs depicts God’s Wisdom as inviting people to understand her as a woman making a dinner invitation: “Come, eat of my food, / and drink of the wine I have mixed!” (Prov 9:5). Sirach likewise uses the imagery of food and eating to describe learning from God’s wisdom and law: “Whoever fears the LORD / [and] . . . is practiced in the Law will come to Wisdom. . . . / She will feed him with the bread of learning, / and give him the water of understanding to drink” (Sir 15:1, 3).
• But Jesus doesn't say "my word" or "God's word" or "God's wisdom" is the Bread of Life

• "I am the bread of life." (6.35)

This is the first of seven “I am + predicate” titles in John’s Gospel in which Jesus says “I am” and then includes another term:

the light of the world (8:12; 9:5), the gate (10:9), the good shepherd (10:11, 14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way and the truth and the life (14:6), and the true vine (15:1, 5).

• "The Jews murmured about him" (6.41)

Some of Jesus’ listeners object to his claim to be the bread from heaven because they know his earthly family (6:41–42). With an allusion to the book of Exodus, Jesus treats their response as rebellious grumbling (6:43) and then develops the theme of God’s working. The Father works within people by teaching them and drawing them to faith in Jesus (6:44–45). Jesus exhorts his hearers to yield to the work that God is doing and so come to the Son, the only one who knows and reveals the Father. By believing in Jesus and receiving him, one receives the gift of eternal life that he offers (6:46–47).

. . . They are thinking primarily in earthly terms and not the heavenly terms to which Jesus has summoned them (6:27).

• "Stop murmuring among yourselves." (6.43)

Jesus does not regard this as innocent questioning but as murmuring (gongyzō). This Greek word describes the rebellious grumbling of the Israelites against the Lord and Moses in the wilderness (Exod 17:3; Num 14:26–35). In effect, Jesus is telling his listeners that their hearts are as hard as those who murmured in the desert, to whom Moses declared, “Your grumbling [gongysmos] is not against us, but against the Lord” (Exod 16:8 LXX).

• "whoever eats this bread will live forever." (6.51)

The food that gives immortality is an allusion to the tree of life in the garden of Eden.

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Word Study: Eats (Jn 6:54)  [from ICSB]

τρώγω (Gk.): A verb meaning "chew" or "gnaw". It is used five times in the Fourth Gospel and only once elsewhere in the NT. Greek literature used it to describe the feeding of animals such as mules, pigs, and cattle, and in some cases for human eating. In John, the verb is used four times in the second half of the Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6:54, 56, 57, 58). This marks a noticeable shift in Jesus' teaching, which up until Jn 6:54 made use of a more common verb for eating (Gk. ἐσθιω, Jn 6:49, 50, 51, 53). The change in vocabulary marks a change of focus and emphasis, from the necessity of faith to the consumption of the Eucharist. The graphic and almost crude connotation of this verb thus adds greater force to the repetition of his words: he demands we express our faith by eating, in a real and physical way, his life-giving flesh in the sacrament.

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