REFLECTION
This passage comes after Jesus has fed the
multitudes with five barley loaves and two fish
but in his explanation of this sign, Jesus refers to
himself as ‘living bread’, ‘bread from heaven’
which gives external life. The ancestor
who followed Moses out of Egypt had been sent
manna from heaven to nourish them
in the desert, but they had died.
The food which Jesus offers, himself,
will lead to life! As is typical in John’s Gospel,
this text can be read on two levels.
The words spoken by Jesus would have been
shocking to those who heard them.
For the Jewish people, to eat flesh and drink
blood was unthinkable; it was abhorrent.
Jewish laws forbade the eating of flesh with
blood in it. Blood was the symbol of the life
of the creature. At the end of the flood story in
Genesis, God gives to humans all the plants and
animals of the Earth as food for them ‘with this
exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is
to say blood, in it’ (Gen. 9:4) Now here is Jesus
saying that his followers must eat his flesh and
drink his blood in order to have life.
 

REFLECTION
Nicodemus, a member of the ruling elite
of the Jewish people, wants to believe
in Jesus but is afraid to do so publicly
so he comes to Jesus at night.
Darkness and night are often used in John
as symbols of an inability to accept the truth
of who Jesus is, but still Nicodemus is drawn.
He is open to the truth but fears the
consequences.
One of those consequences is that
belief in Jesus as the Son of the Father
leads to life, while rejecting that truth leads to
condemnation.
In John , “the world” is used as a symbol of
unbelief or darkness, but Jesus tells Nicodemus
that the world is not to be condemned because
the light has come into the world.
It is now up to individuals to recognise
that light and come to belief.
Only thus can the world be saved.
Jesus is also showing the relationship he has
with the Father- that of the only Son.

REFLECTION
Despite the promise of Jesus
that he would not leave his disciples ‘orphaned’,
after his death, they huddle
in fear in the upper room.
He comes among them, not offering
recriminations at their lack of faith,
but offering peace - a peace won through
the cross and resurrection.
Just as Jesus is transformed by
this experience, so too, the disciples’
fear turns to joy. In the giving of his Spirit,
Jesus literally breathes life back
into the disciples.
They go out and continue his work of
forgiveness, judgement and witness in the world.

REFLECTION
The Feast of the Ascension celebrates the
physical separation of Jesus from the human
story, but this text promises his continual
presence ‘to the end of time’.
After three years of living, working and praying
with the disciples, Jesus commissions them to
continue his work in the world.
This is a difficult challenge for some of the
disciples who, although prepared to go to the
appointed place, still hesitate! Despite their
misgivings and fragile faith, He sends them out
to all nations. Jesus has been given the authority
which was once the exclusive domain of the God
of Israel; Jesus has become the presence of the
living God and his presence will continue with his
disciples through the Holy Spirit.

REFLECTION
This text again alerts the disciples to that time
when Jesus will no longer be with them.
His departure will be a severe challenge to their
faith, and Jesus gives voice to the challenge,
‘If you love me keep my commandments’.
This challenging call to follow the
commandments of Jesus is accompanied by a
gift - the gift of someone else, the advocate,
who will be by their side during the interim
period between the two comings.
Jesus does promise to return, and in the
meantime, his presence, and that of the Father,
lives on in the love which is to be the way of life
of the Christian. The Holy Spirit is not a thing
apart from God and Jesus, but the bond of love
between them, and the believer is drawn into this
love and becomes a part of it through living the
way of Christ. Through the Spirit, Jesus remains
forever present to the Church and all Christians
are brought into the very life of God.