In the time of Jesus different Old Testament prophecies were blended into a widespread expectation of the new exodus. The salvation will be inaugurated by the new Moses, who will lead Israel into a new exodus, the new Passover. On this journey there will be again nourishment for Israel, just as there was during the 40 years in the wilderness. The Messiah will bring about the new manna. There will be a new covenant (cf. Ex 24:5-11; Jer 31:31-33) and the new Moses will lead them to the new land (Amos 9:14-15; Hosea 1:10-11; 2:16-23; Jer 3:15-19) understood as the World to Come.
The historical liberation from the slavery of Egypt (Passover, Ex 11 –14) becomes a paradigm of hope for divine intervention in the time of the disaster of the Assyrian invasion in 722 B.C. (2 Kings 15-17) and that of the Babylonian one in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25-27). Later, by the 1st century B.C., it becomes the paradigm of the final, eschatological liberation, when the World to Come will be inaugurated.
The feast of Passover was always a time of raised expectations regarding the prophecies of liberation. Even today during the Seder (Jewish Passover celebration), families leave the door of the house open and one seat at the table empty should the Messiah come. The Messiah, being the son of David, was associated with kingly power, inaugurating the World to Come. There are many extra biblical, Jewish testimonies.
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Rabbi Berekiah said in the name of Rabbi Isaac: As the first redeemer [Moses] was, so shall the latter redeemer [the Anointed One, Messiah] be. What is stated of the former redeemer? ‘And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass’ (Ex 4:20). Similarly, will it be with the latter redeemer, as it is stated ‘lowly and riding upon an ass’ (Zech 9:9). As the former redeemer caused manna to descend, as it is stated, ‘Behold, I will cause to rain bread from heaven for you (Ex 16:4), so will the latter redeemer cause manna to descend, as it is stated, ‘May he be as a rich grain field in the land’ (Ps 72:16) (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:28).
Moreover, in the time of Jesus the Rabbis were convinced that God from the very beginning of creation had in mind the exodus and therefore created the manna. It was kept in the heavens and in the time of exodus God opened the heavens and let the manna come down to feed Israel (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 16:4; Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 12b).
And it will happen […] the Messiah will begin to be revealed […] and those who are hungry will enjoy themselves and they will, moreover, see marvels every day […] and it will happen at that time that the treasury of manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years because these are they who will have arrived at the consummation of time (2 Baruch 29:3.6-8).
This is the wider context for the events described in the Gospel of John 6. People expected the dawn of the new exodus, which would start with the revelation of the new Moses. He would lead them and give them the new manna as nourishment on their journey to the new promised land, understood as the eschatological end of time World to Come (heavenly kingdom). Keeping in mind this background, it helps us to better understand what Jesus was doing and saying.
Bread of life discourse. When Jesus speaks, he repeatedly talks about the food that endures to eternal life, bread from heaven, bread of life (John 6:27.32-33.35.41.48-51.58) and makes it clear it is the Son of Man that will give it (John 6:27).
So far it is understandable for the Jews who were listening to Jesus, and it copes with the general expectations. However, Jesus makes a new connection. The new manna, the bread from heaven, is not ‘something’ but ‘someone’: Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:32-33).
There is a switch from the past tense (gave) to the present (gives, comes, gives life)! Furthermore, Jesus proclaims I am the bread of life (John 6:35). It is here where the troubles for them start. How can he say so? They grumbled! Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? (John 6:41-42). Jesus, being a simple carpenter from Nazareth, does not qualify in their view for the Son of Man from the revelation of the prophet Daniel (Daniel 7:13-14).
In the Jewish view that Son of Man from Daniel is the Messiah and not this carpenter from Nazareth! Yet, Jesus refers to himself as ‘son of man’ as well (Mt 8:20; 9:6; 12:8; 13:37.41; 16:13.28; 17:9.22; 20:18.28; 24:27.39.44; 25:31; 26:2.24; Mk 2:10.28; 8:31.38; 9:9.12.31; 10:33.45; 13:26; 14:21.41.62; 15:39; Lk 6:5; 7:34; 9:22.26.44.58; 12:8.10.40; 17:24.26.30; 19:10; 21:27; 22:22.48.69; 24:7; Jn 3:13.14; 5:27; 6: 53.62; 9:35; 12:23.34; 13:31).
Furthermore, he uses the divine name. Whenever we read in the Greek text that Jesus says ‘I am’ (ego eimi), he uses the divine name YHWH (I am; I am who am). There is an emphasis. The Greek verb in its form already has the personal pronoun (as in many other languages, like Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian and all Slavic ones). It is enough to say ‘eimi’ and it is clear the implied personal pronoun is ‘I’, or to say ‘eistin’ and the implied personal pronoun is ‘he/she/it’. Consequently, when Jesus says “I am” he is using the divine name YHWH. Otherwise, it would be enough to say ‘eimi ho artos…’ – I am the bread (no emphasis).
In John 6 there is the first time that Jesus uses the divine name, and it is used seven times! This is an emphatic statement pointing to the divine revelation, to the fullness of revelation indicated by the number seven. Jesus reveals that he is the Bread of God, the new manna, and that he is the Son of Man, the Messiah. Moreover, he says God himself became the Bread of life, the new manna, the Son of Man and the Messiah.
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In him all the prophetic expectations become one! He alludes indirectly to the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14) about the Emmanuel (God with us; literally ‘with us [is] God’, the emphasis on with us). However, this requires faith and trust.
Keeping in mind the historical context we described above, Jesus switches the focus from the miracle of the physical bread to a higher level. Instead of a shallow understanding of a political and social provider (king), Jesus wants them to understand more. He talks about everlasting life (v. 27), opening the expectations of the new exodus. The reaction of the crowd shows they did not focus on this, however, but on social, earthly, very limited needs.
Jesus wants people to eat him, literally chew (v. 54) his flesh. From the perspective of the first audience, it is not clear yet ‘how can they eat’ Jesus’s flesh. It becomes obvious from the perspective of the Last Supper, when Jesus transforms the bread into his flesh and the wine into his blood. It is interesting to note, however, that people do not question Jesus’s words, whether he meant them literally or symbolically. They took it literally and they were right. Jesus did not use the usual literary device to indicate symbolic speech (as, similar to or like; cf. Mt13:31-33.45-50; 22:2ff; Mk 4:30-34; Lk 13:18-21). Their problem was rather how can Jesus, the son of a carpenter, whose family they knew, be the bread of life or the Son of Man from the prophecy of Daniel.
When we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, we abide in him and He in us. Through this mutual abiding we come in contact with His divine life and so become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). St. Cyril of Alexandria (Commentary on John) described it in this way:
If someone were to join wax with other wax, they will surely see that one has come to be in the other. In the same way, I think, the one who receives the flesh of our Savior Christ and drinks his precious blood, as he himself says, is found to be one with him, mixed together, as it were, and mingled with him through participation so that they are found in Christ, and Christ in them.
This is the source of our eternal life—here and now in the present, but also a pledge of our future life with God in Heaven: he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. This is why Ignatius of Antioch (Epistle to the Ephesians,20) called the Eucharist the medicine of immortality, the antidote we take in order not to die but to live forever in Jesus Christ.