When the crowd in today’s Gospel reading “murmured” against Jesus, they were complaining about his apparent failure to fulfill the highly revered cultural expectation that a son would adopt his father’s line of work and maintain his family’s static position in society.  (Jn 6:41)  The purpose of maintaining an inherited status quo was that it provided social stability to people in a subsistence economy.  The crowd asked rhetorically, “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’?” (Jn 6:42) 

Jesus’ family of origin and their neighbors expected him to be a carpenter like Joseph.  It was somewhat scandalous to them when he left home to be an itinerant preacher; it was completely disorienting when he claimed that he had come down from heaven. (Jn 6:41) 

In this passage of John’s Gospel, Jesus appears to dishonor Joseph by abandoning Joseph’s trade and social status, but appearances can be deceiving – especially in John’s Gospel.  Jesus, in fact, brings great honor to his Heavenly Father by preaching the truth of salvation that creates a new family of faith.

In John’s Gospel, it is not only appearances that can be deceiving; words can be deceiving, as well.  The crowd claimed to believe in God who had fed their ancestors in the desert, but their lack of faith was demonstrated by their rejection of Jesus’ teaching.  Jesus described himself as the true “Bread from Heaven,” but the crowd was confused by Jesus’ words. (Jn 6:51)  Their confusion kept them fixated on getting more bread to satisfy their physical hunger and prevented them from understanding that Jesus was trying to focus their attention on their spiritual hunger for God.

The use of intentional ambiguities by the author of John’s Gospel is a literary technique intended to invite the Gospel’s readers to make a crucial clarification in their lives. 

The Gospel author wants us to ask ourselves if our claim of faith is real and if our appearance of religious practice is centered on God rather than self.  The Gospel explains the requirements of true faith in God, namely, that faith is not a matter of appearance or speech; true faith is demonstrated by heartfelt adherence to Jesus’ teachings.  Acknowledging the truth of Jesus’ teachings requires that we abandon the falsehoods preached by the unbelieving world. 

True faith in God requires the kind of disruption in our lives that was experienced by those first disciples who abandoned their sinful lives and became God’s children in name and in deed.  True faith doesn’t reject or denigrate the world.  Rather, it rejects the proposition that the world can offer anything more than imperfect goodness.  John’s Gospel teaches that lasting good doesn’t merely come from God, but that God is eternal Good.

As the language of John’s Gospel is intentionally ambiguous, there remains the possibility of misunderstanding Jesus in the same way the crowd misunderstood him.  He tried to teach them about God’s providence by means of a feeding miracle, but the crowd focused only on their appetites.  He tried to teach them about his divine mission by referring to the manna God gave the Israelites in the desert, but they thought he was irrational. 

Surprisingly, these repeated misunderstandings provide a way of having certainty about the legitimacy of our faith in Jesus.  Jesus was consistently compassionate, truthful, and patient toward people who did not reciprocate his gracious actions.  We are true disciples of Jesus when we show consistent compassion, honesty, and forbearance to those who misunderstand and misinterpret our faithfulness to God.

Those who know the Truth of God revealed by Jesus will necessarily stand out as quite different from the world.  It has always been the hallmark of Jesus’ disciples that we do not engage in the violent, deceptive, coercive, and destructive behaviors that are the hallmark sin.  Those who live the life of faith should expect to be accused of failing meet the expectations of the unbelieving world, but we should find consolation and encouragement in being misunderstood in the way that Jesus was misunderstood.