JOHN 6:52-59 EAT WHAT?

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

The reaction of the Jews was a natural one. Jesus appeared to be speaking in direct contradiction with the Scriptures. In Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 3:17 and Deuteronomy 12:23 the drinking of blood was expressing forbidden. And in Psalm 72:2 and Zechariah 11:9 the eating of a person’s flesh was the expression of hostility toward them. At one level, their problem was that they were listening to Jesus of Nazareth and not hearing Jesus the Son of Man.

This problem in the response of the Jews is demonstrated by their use of three phrases: “this man,” “his flesh” and “to eat.” If Jesus is merely a mortal man, then we cross the line into the taboo of cannibalism. If his flesh means this man’s skin and muscle, then we are dealing with the sickest of masochistic individuals, a man of such mental imbalance as to be defined as demonic. If we are to understand eating him in the material sense, then we are being commanded to participate in a ritual that rivals only those of the most horrible pagan cultures in human history.

However, if we know Jesus as the Son of Man, then these same phrases lead us to the only source of eternal life. “This man” is Jesus and Jesus is God Incarnate, the source of life. “His flesh” is the very Word of God (John 1:14), on which we were created to be nourished for all eternity. “To eat” is to receive and assimilate God’s revelation and wisdom. Eating and drinking give eternal life and form the basis for the interior and intimate experience one may have with Christ. Jesus, then “is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever”.

A perfect, fresh-baked loaf of bread may be wonderful and inspiring to gaze upon and the aroma it gives off may be comforting, but if you do not eat the bread it will not provide anything but a transient experience.

Open my eyes so that I may truly see the feast and through the lens of faith know that it is the banquet of eternal life. Lord, feed me now and forever and grow me in the knowledge of you, bringing me day by day into a more perfect understanding of you and relationship with you. May I always hunger for righteousness and seek to fulfill that hunger with the Bread of Life. Amen.