'They said therefore unto him, what sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Then Jesus answered said unto them, verily, verily I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.'
John Ball writes:
With his characteristic humour Jesus points out that there are two kinds of bread from heaven.
When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness God did indeed provide them with manna. This bodily sustenance was indeed 'bread from heaven' without which God's people would have indeed starved.
But the bread of heaven that is Jesus is bread of a different kind, for the manna in the wilderness might keep our bodies functioning like the beasts of the field, but the bread that is Jesus gives us life everlasting.
When we eat the bread that is Jesus, what it is to be human, what it is to be made in the image of God, is fed. In Christ we create, we love, we give, we live in faith and hope, we raise our faces to the heavens, unlike the ruminating cattle who stare at terra firma.
The bread of Moses may keep our bodies together, but the bread which is Christ keeps us alive in the love of God. It is the bread of Christ that gives us God's eternal love.
Today it is the Prophets of Baal who dominate the Church, the vine grafted onto the vine of Israel. The bread they talk about is of this world. These prophets know nothing of the poor, the powerless, the meek. They are not poor themselves. They do not love the poor. Indeed they would make poverty history if they only could.
Elijah is in hiding, but one day he will return, and Israel will once again taste the bread of heaven.
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