Today's passage from St John's Gospel shows us how Jesus could interpret Scripture as competently as any Rabbi. We have a demonstration of the Rabbis' method in Jesus' analysis and explanation of the text, He gave them food from heaven. The people seem to expect Jesus to act like a new Moses. Jesus, however, is intent on demonstrating that he cannot be understood according to old categories. He is neither a new Moses, nor a new Prophet, nor a Rabbi. Something entirely new is present in him, and this newness demands a new way of reading Scripture, a new and more authentic way of interpreting it, and a new life-giving way of applying it to ourselves in the present.

Thus Jesus explains each word in the text: "He" does not refer to Moses but to God the Father. For the word "gave," Jesus tells us to read "gives". God's gifts do not belong merely to the past; we must experience them again in every present moment, since the Father continually gives whatever gifts we need. Finally, Jesus asserts, the real meaning of "bread from heaven" goes far beyond the manna in the desert: it refers to Jesus himself, especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.