Charles Spurgeon Commentary John 6:41-42

"The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, I am the bread which came down out of heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how doth he now say, I am come down out of heaven?" — John 6:41-42 (ASV)

Because he said, I am the bread which came down from heavens. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he says, I came down from heaven!

There are always some who complain that the gospel is "too commonplace, too well-known." They already know all that is to be known about it, just as these people knew the mother and father of our Lord Jesus.

How could he, who was the son of the carpenter, have come down from heaven?

But this ought to have commended him to them: that though he was divine, he became so truly human, and so perfectly took upon himself our nature so as to be the son of Joseph—one whose father and mother they knew.

And should we not be glad of a gospel plain enough for a child to grasp, simple enough for the most ignorant to be saved by it? Let us not seek after signs and mysteries, but graciously accept the gospel which the Lord himself gives us.

Because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

They did know his mother; but they made a mistake, which may have seemed a very slight one to them, when they said that they knew his father. Yet that is how nearly all great errors spring from some slight and apparently trivial addition to the truth. They did know Mary, but they did not know that Jehovah was the Father of the Christ.

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

Familiarity breeds contempt. Because the Jews knew Jesus and his relatives after the flesh, therefore they would not believe that he came down from heaven. Let us beware of foolish prejudices, and let us not judge after the flesh. Why should Jesus not have come down from heaven, even though these men knew his reputed father and mother?