I guess it’s about the search for truth. He was speaking to those who would be seriously interested in finding spiritual truths but the language seems to be all mixed up. Those who have ears…or those willing to create some sense of it - it’s like people’s interpretations of a painting or a sermon - everyone gets something different - maybe even nothing of the artist’s or preacher’s intent. Fraught with danger I’d suspect. Like the disciples said - why, mate, don’t you just speak plainly??

“I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty.” v35

Bread that gives life would have been meaningful perhaps as the staple of life - but what level was he addressing. Simple people might have thought he meant magic, no food shortages, always water in the jug. But is this true even on a spiritual level…? Who hasn’t had a ‘dry’ time in their faith, in spite of continued believing? What believer hasn’t hungered for more understanding or insight or comfort at some time or other, if not often?

I think Jesus speaks to those who seek spiritual truths and you have to walk the walk to find them….it’s experiential or nothin’. There may be some other level of understanding that can be given to the Word He gave us, for all I know - but it sometimes doesn’t seem too accessible or transparent to an ordinary 20th Century person once you start to seek the meaning, relevance and truth of Jesus, without the patriarchal judaic cultural context, the in-jargon and church cliches.