The first nine months of the year 32 A.D. Jesus continues preaching in Galilee

When, at the beginning of the year 32, all the apostles were back with Jesus, after they had been preaching in Galilee in little groups of two for weeks, they really wanted to spend some time with Jesus in a quiet place, but they were discovered and before long they were surrounded by large numbers of people every day.

One day a crowd of some 5,000 people spent the whole day listening to Jesus’ preaching. When night began to fall the apostles panicked a little when they realized that many of the thousands came from far away and there was nothing to eat for them. Jesus remained calm and asked how much food there was to be found anywhere. All they could find were five loaves of bread and two fishes. Jesus ordered the people to sit down together in little groups and wait for their dinner quietly. He spoke a prayer of thanksgiving, divided the loaves and the fishes among the apostles and ordered them to hand out all the available food in equal portions to the 5,000 people who were present. And the miracle happened: everybody got enough to eat that night and when dinner was over it turned out that there were 12 baskets of bread left over.

That same night He ordered His disciples to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee in a boat. He Himself stayed behind to pray. The disciples had a very strong adverse wind and hardly made any progress with their boat. Then Jesus went to the place where the disciples were going: on foot, walking on the water. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea like that they got very scared, but Jesus calmed them down, sat down in the boat and ordered the storm to lie down.

In the spring of the year 32 Jesus gave His disciples an extremely clear exposition on how they could achieve eternal life in God’s Kingdom through believing in Him. In this context He called His body food and His blood wine. And He told them that in order to acquire eternal life in God’s Kingdom they had to eat His body and drink His blood. To be able to do this they needed first of all faith: the certain expectation that by eating Jesus’ body and drinking His blood they would acquire eternal life.

When Jesus uttered the words my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink He naturally did not mean that the people present should start to consume His physical body cells and blood cells. With His body and His blood He meant everything that He was and everything that He did and everything that He said as a human being: the ultimate reason for His stay on earth. People who desire eternal life must, symbolically speaking, suck up everything that Jesus was and did and said, making these things part of their own bodies and their own minds, making these things matters that have penetrated into every body cell and will never be able to leave them.

People who want to achieve eternal life must desire to get the maximum profit from the fact that God’s Son has been willing to leave heaven and to become a man with a physical body, with real body cells and blood cells. They must be determined to get the maximum profit from the fact that Jesus once had real body cells and blood cells, and used them to redeem people of good will of death and to offer them eternal life. In this sense anyone who wants to enter the Kingdom of God must get the maximum profit from the fact that Jesus was on earth with a human body, that He has performed actions on our earth and that He has spoken on our earth.

In this same exposition on eternal life in God’s Kingdom Jesus also explained when people would be able to enter this kingdom and how they would be able to do this. As regards the when question: people can only enter God’s Kingdom on the last day (see John 6:30), which means at the end of the history of mankind as it is developing now.

As regards the how question: people who deserve to enter God’s Kingdom just die in the same way as people who do not deserve this, but those who have eaten Jesus’ body and drunk His blood (in the sense explained earlier in this text), will be resurrected from the dead, as soon as God’s Kingdom will have been established. See John 6:40.

This exposition by Jesus in which again and again He called Himself the bread of life and emphatically stated that the eating of this bread of life was an absolute prerequisite for being resurrected and being allowed to enter the Kingdom of God was experienced as offensive and unacceptable by many of His disciples.

This is very understandable: when discussing the requirements that people would have to meet in order to be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God Jesus completely ignored all aspects of religious life which had been considered essential among the Jews up to that moment: the law of Moses (not mentioned at all), the temple (not mentioned either), the priests and the scribes (not mentioned)

Completely ignoring the Law of Moses, the priests and the scribes Jesus, in His discussion of the requirements to be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God, only pointed to one thing: Himself, His existence as a human, His flesh and blood, His physical presence.

In the eyes of many of His disciples Jesus went far over the line: they left Him and never came back to Him.

(people who want to read Jesus’ exposition on the “bread of life” in their own Bible, can find it in John 6:22-71: an essential text within the Christian faith).

After this very clear exposition on the reason for His coming to earth, the statements that Jesus made on a large number of topics during the last year of His public ministry became clearer, more pronounced and sometimes also harder.

When a group of Pharisees demanded from Him an explanation with respect to the fact that the disciples did not wash their hands before they had a meal (among the Jews of those days a generally accepted, almost religious ritual), Jesus reproved them harshly and explained to them in words that could not be misunderstood why they would never be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God.

He told them that they were hypocrites who honored God with their lips, but whose hearts were far removed from Him. But worst of all: they attached much more importance to traditions that they had instituted themselves than to the words of God. When their own commandments and their own ideas conflicted with those of JHWH, as to be found in the Scriptures, they preferred to follow their own commandments to obeying the commandments of God.

When one day a large crowd of some 4,000 people stayed with Jesus for three days to learn as much as possible from His teaching there was again a problem concerning the question of how to give these people something to eat and drink. Many of them came from far away. Jesus did not want them to undertake the far journey home, hungry and thirsty. Just like He had done before Jesus had His disciples find out how much food there was still to be found. It appeared that there was no more to eat than seven loaves and a few fishes.

Just like the first time Jesus asked the people to sit together in small groups. He ordered the disciples to divide the seven loaves and the few fishes among the people. They did this. And again Jesus worked a miracle: everybody could eat as much as they liked and when the meal was over there were seven baskets with bread left over.

Not long after the Passover feast of the year 32 Jesus started to prepare His disciples for the fact that He would have to go to Jerusalem and that there He would be given a great deal of suffering from the side of the leading class of priests and the scribes. He told His apostles that they would kill Him in Jerusalem, but that He would be resurrected on the third day after His death.

He also explained to them that there was a connection between this suffering and this death and the Kingdom of God that He was going to establish on earth one day in the future.

Six days after He had given His disciples this information about His future Jesus climbed a high mountain with three of His apostles: Peter, James and John. Here Jesus underwent a transformation before their eyes: the three apostles mentioned got to see Jesus in the splendor and the glory which He had in heaven before He came to earth and which He would get again on His return to heaven. They also heard JHWH’s voice saying to Him: this is my son whom I love and whom I have approved of; listen to Him.

A few weeks later Jesus again reminded His apostles of the fact that He would have to die. Also at this second time the apostles got very sad at this prospect, in spite of the fact that Jesus again assured them that on the third day after His death He would be brought back to life.