Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God. The discourse on the bread of life that ensued following the miracle of the multiplication of loaves ended on a rather “negative” and sad tone. Not only was the crowd left “unmoved” by Jesus’ attempt to have the people open the eyes of their minds in order to perceive in the miracle something better that he was offering them, but some of those who had been accompanying Jesus (his disciples) also decided to part ways him! Their main reason for deciding to leave was the apparent incomprehensibility of the language Jesus had used in the discourse (the New Jerusalem Bible’s translation says the “intolerability of the language”). The crowd had found the language used by Jesus in the discourse intolerable because they had still not “crossed over” to where Jesus was. They were still stuck at the miracle of the loaves and were excited at the thought of a repeat of the great miracle of the manner. Forty years of freebies was certainly welcome. They were yet to see the deeper meaning of what Jesus had done. It didn’t matter that Jesus had tried to explain to them that even the great miracle of the manna was a sign pointing to the greater miracle that God was working in their midst (God gifting them with life). 
Jesus’ response to the shocked crowd was to invite them to a deeper reflection of what he had said by looking back at how God had journeyed with their ancestors in the past. For it was not manna (flesh) that was at the center of Israel’s life as a nation (“your ancestors ate the manna and they are all dead”) but rather God’s word(s) that was enshrined in the Law. It was the word(s) of God that led the Israelites as they navigated the treacherous ways of the desert. It was the word(s) of God that set Israel apart and ensured its survival as it interacted with pagan nations. God’s word was the real bread from heaven that fed and feeds God’s people (cf. Ps 119). 
Jesus then proceeded to invite those who were finding his teaching intolerable to stop looking at salvation purely in material terms. He invited them to realize that a human person’s hunger cannot be satisfied by bread but rather by knowing and doing God’s will. And what is God’s will?  That we believe in the one he has sent. That great sign to which the mighty signs God had worked in their midst through Moses had pointed was standing right there in their midst. The life-giving relationship with God which the gift of the manna had represented was there before their very eyes. All that they needed to do was to listen to what he was saying and take his words to heart. As Simon Peter rightly told Jesus, apart from Jesus is no life since it is Jesus’ words that give life.