"22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”"
John 6:22-34
The remainder of the chapter falls into four sections: 26-34, 35-50, 51-59 and the Woman of Samaria in 60-71. In the first of these, Christ underlines the interpretation suggested in the Notes on 15-21 about the danger of making material considerations our concern and preoccupation instead of spiritual considerations (27). There is, of course, no suggestion, in the use of the word 'labour', of salvation by works. When they said, 'What shall we do that we might work the works of God?' (28), Jesus replied, 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent' (29). What is clear is that our Lord's injunction is that we must 'labour to believe', as if to say, 'Make it the great business of your life, and something engaging all your energies and might, to come to saving faith in Me'. Behind the questioning in 30, 31 lies the Jewish belief that the coming of the Messianic kingdom would restore again the gift of manna from heaven. Hence their word about the 'sign': 'If you are the Messiah, prove it by sending manna from heaven again'. Two points arise here. Firstly, had He not already given them bread from heaven, in the feeding of the five thousand? Were they so blind to the realities of the situation that they could not see in this a fulfilment of their cherished belief? Secondly, He went on to reply to them in the words of 33 and 35. The manna in olden time was the divine provision for the wilderness journeyings to the Promised Land, and it was given day by day right to the end. That, points out Jesus, was not the true bread, but it was a symbol of it, and an illustration, and the true bread is likewise for the pilgrim journey of the people of God on their way to the Kingdom. But they did not understand, in spite of the seeming response in 34. They wanted bread, but He was offering Himself (35), and Him they were refusing. The same kind of misconception was at work in them as in the Woman of Samaria in 4:15.