Gospel in Art: I am the bread that came down from heaven

Hope, by Jonny Andvik , 2018 © Jonny Andvik, all rights reserved

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 11 August 2024
John 6:41-51

The Jews were complaining to each other about Jesus, because he had said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.' 'Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph' they said. 'We know his father and mother. How can he now say, "I have come down from heaven"?' Jesus said in reply, 'Stop complaining to each other.

'No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God, and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father. I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life.

'I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.'

Reflection on the painting

We all do our fair share of complaining, often with good reason, particularly about the weather or various other things. However, if we are not careful, we might find ourselves complaining for the sake of it, slipping into a negative mindset. This can lead us to focus solely on problems, missing the broader picture which often has brighter aspects that we fail to see. Our vision can become limited to what is wrong, missing, or lacking.

In this morning's Gospel reading, the Jews are complaining about Jesus. They saw him as a problem and couldn't see beyond that. To them, he was just the son of Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth, whose family they knew well. Yet, here he was, claiming to be the bread that came down from heaven! They were scandalised that someone they knew could make such extraordinary claims. Their response was to grumble about him. Simply complaining is rarely a sufficient response to any situation or person, and it is certainly not an adequate response to Jesus.

In our reading, Jesus calls for a very different kind of response. He speaks of this response initially as simply 'coming to him'. To come to Jesus is the first step on the way to faith. He tells us so many times to simply 'Come and see'. That is the first step we are all invited to take. He calls on us to come to him with a view to feeding on him. Yes, the language of the gospel reading is very graphic. Jesus speaks of himself as the bread that comes down from heaven and calls on us to eat this bread.

Our painting by Jonny Andvik is titled 'Hope', which is such an appropriate title. Andvik was born in Norway, in an isolated farming district in Telemark. That geographical isolation was in retrospect a blessing for the painter, as he recalls "Because I grew up in a close connection to the cultural heritage of Telemark, I wasn't taught the cliches. My experience of the local people, their minds and their way of living shows in my paintings." This painting is indeed beautiful in its simplicity and a sense of isolation of the loaf of bread is tangible.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's Reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/john-6-41-51-2024/