SKANDALON 4 (i): [i] the stumbling-block of Jesus' identity

The first problem seems to be simply this: who is Jesus ? He first checks their enthusiasm in v.26, where he tells them that their eagerness to find him and follow him was not because the feeding of the five thousand was a miraculous sign which had convinced them of his divine power, but simply because they had eaten a lot of bread. The miracle had filled their stomachs, but not opened their eyes to the truth about Jesus. He goes on to tell them that the bread that they really need , the bread that “gives life to the world”, is the bread that “comes down from heaven” – that is, Jesus himself. It is this that gives them indigestion. “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph?” they murmur among themselves, in words very similar to those of the Nazarenes in Mark 6.3 that we looked at earlier. But they were ‘scandalized in’ him, it seems, more because familiarity bred contempt for an apparently unqualified teacher than because his paternity was in question – there is no mention of Joseph there. Today, too, the virgin birth, and hence the full deity of Jesus, is a stumbling-block for many in the way of meaningful discipleship, though they may respect and admire him as an historical figure. But if Jesus was just “the son of Joseph”, his claims that he could give people eternal life, and that he would “raise them up on the last day” seem rather hard to swallow