Seeking or Settling, 4
In John 6:22-40, we meet the crowd again.  John 6:22-24 provides the setting:  "On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had only been one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.  Other boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.  So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus."
How did the crowd know that the disciples had left without Jesus?
What is so important about the phrase, "near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks"?
When the crowd went to Capernaum seeking Jesus, were they really seeking Jesus?  After all, when the crowd arrived and found Jesus, the question allegedly was, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"  But Jesus answered their real desire:  "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."  Unspoken: and you expect that provision to continue.
Jesus told them, "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.  For on him God the Father has set his seal."
As was common with them and is with us, this elicited a question as to how to work the works of God.  To them and us, Jesus made the point that believing in him is what is required.  And naturally, they replied not with faith but a requirement for a sign or work to be done first.
Manna of course signifies the temporary bread God provided.  Even when Jesus pointed out that God was the real source of the manna and that the bread of God is a Person, they didn't seem to understand.  "Sir, give us this bread always" makes me think the still had an object rather than a Person in mind.
In verses 35-40, Jesus makes the clearest statement of who and what he is:  "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.'"
In verse 41, a subset of the crowd, the Jews, makes its loud, and not its last appearance.  Grumbling, in verses 41-51, they have the first of two disagreements with Jesus.
The initial response appeared to be to his statement that he had come down from heaven.  How could that be?  They knew he was the son of Joseph. 
Jesus rebuked them and restated, "I am the bread of life," as well as reminding them that those who ate the manna died.  He is different:  "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I given for the life of the world is my flesh."
This leads to the second dispute in verses 52-58:  "How can this man give us his flesh to east?"  After additional expansion in the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood for salvation, Jesus comes back to this point:  "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.  Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever,"
Was this the end of the matter?  Hardly.