47 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which people may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
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, "Very truly I tell you, 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 them 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 them. 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 ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Dig Deeper
I had one basketball coach in my past that stands out from all of the others that I had. I didn’t play for him for very long but he was particularly tough. He would demand the very best effort out of us in everything that we did, including things that weren’t seemingly directly related to basketball like grades. He would come to our dorm rooms and make sure that we went to classes, he would drive alongside of us when he sent us on long runs, and he would stand behind us and scream at us to work harder in whatever drills or activities we might be engaged in. He demanded maximum effort and got it most of the time. I remember after one particularly challenging practice I passed the dean of students in the cafeteria and he asked how basketball was going at that stage when we were practicing but had yet to play any official games. I told him that the coach was "sucking us dry." This, of course, is a bit of a veiled reference to vampire imagery, drawing on the lore of vampires sucking all of the blood from their victims. It was, in fact, a colorful figure of speech. Figures of speech can mean very real and important things, but can also be easily misunderstood if we attempt to inappropriately take those words to be literal. Can you imagine the misunderstanding that would have ensued if he had truly thought that I was being literal.
Almost every human culture that I have ever heard of, uses figures of speech in some form or another, and the Jewish people were no different. In fact, they used some of the most colorful idioms and imagery in the history of the world. Jesus was a man of his times and culture and used many of those idioms. Sometimes those images could be misunderstood, but usually other Jews clearly understood what Jesus meant. It is often the readers of his words, hundreds of years later who read some of the things that Jesus said and completely misunderstand what he was saying. We must, in situations like those, take special effort to understand Jesus’ words in the context and culture in which they were spoken so we can clearly comprehend his meaning.
Jesus begins this passage by summarizing what he has already stated. He is the bread of life and anyone who believes will possess the life of the age to come, eternal life. In the Jewish way of thinking, bread was the very sustenance of life. It stood for the thing that was needed in order to live. But the kind of life that he is talking about is not the typical sort of physical life that the Jews were so interested in. When Jesus began speaking of bread, they wanted the kind of bread that would keep them supplied forever. They wanted more manna. Think, after all, of all the resources you could save if God sent manna once again. The problem is that manna kept Israel sustained physically in the wilderness, but those people died. That manna had it’s limitations because its purpose was limited.
His life is the true bread that comes down from heaven. Jesus is not just referring to the source of the bread, because presumably the manna also came from God, but he is referring to the nature of the sustenance. The manna came from God but was limited to physical benefits. Yet, this is all the Israelites can think of. Shouldn’t they know better? Shouldn’t they want something more? This bread comes directly from the presence of God and will usher those who partake of it into eternal life. Whoever eats of this bread will have eternal life both now in the present age and, of course, the promise of the age to come. This bread is Jesus’ life, his very flesh that he will give for the life of the world. "Flesh" is a striking word that stands apart from "my body" or "myself." It focuses on the fact that Jesus will (notice the future tense) give his physical flesh and body so that the world might have life. Truly the kernel of wheat must fall and die (Jn. 12:24) before life can be granted to the world. Jesus would die, in other words, so that whosoever would could enter into his life and live. This is not just an idea or simple imagery. He is using the imagery of bread as the very sustenance of life to make the very real point that he would be the only way for the world to have life.
It seems unlikely that the Jews have so missed Jesus’ point that they think he is actually urging them to cannibalism. That would have been detestable to the Jew to the point that there would be no argument from any of those present. John tells us that they began to argue amongst themselves, indicating that at least some, perhaps just the twelve, were taking Jesus’ side. We can’t seriously think that even the disciples would argue in favor of Jesus if they thought he was speaking of literally eating his flesh. The crowd well understands what Jesus is saying, but how can he provide the type of sustenance that he is talking of? How could his life, and even more puzzling, hi death possibly feed them spiritually for eternity? They simply could not wrap their minds around such a thing.
But Jesus says plainly that unless people eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, they have no life in them. Many people think, at first glance, that Jesus was speaking of the coming institution of communion, the Lord’s Supper here, but that simply cannot be the case. It is possible that, as John was writing this down years later, he saw echoes and foreshadowing of the communion ritual, but in its direct form, Jesus is simply not referring to the communion meal. This is clear by the entire context but most notably by his assertion in verses 53 and 54 that the eating of the flesh and the drinking of his blood are the only means to eternal life. Even those who read this passage in a woodenly literal fashion and argue that this is about communion where believers literally eat the flesh and drink the transubstantiated blood of Jesus, would not argue that partaking in the communion is the only means to eternal life. This makes it clear that Jesus is referring to his own sacrifice and life rather than the communion meal.
But what about the talk of drinking the blood? Drinking blood was strictly forbidden in the Old Testament, but again, Jesus is speaking metaphorically. In 1 Chronicles 11:16-19, we are told of an account where David, embroiled in battle, desires a drink of water from the well near Bethlehem. After three of his bravest soldiers broke through Philistine lines to retrieve water from that very well, David "poured it out to the LORD," saying, "God forbid that I should do this! Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?" This demonstrates the type of figure of speech that Jesus uses here. David refers to the act of benefiting from the sacrifice or even death of others as drinking their blood. This is Jesus’ point, and it is similar to his point of the need to eat his flesh. Not only would they need to find sustenance from his very flesh, they would, in some way yet unknown to them, benefit directly from his sacrifice and death.
Those who embrace the need to eat his flesh, being sustained by the life of Christ, and drink his blood, benefiting from the sacrifice and death of Jesus, will remain in him. They are the ones who truly believe in his life, truly die to themselves, and truly remain in his life. They in turn will find that he will remain in their lives for eternity, transforming them into his own image. Truly the only thing that can separate us from the life of Christ is our own decision to walk away from it.
Jesus’ words were challenging but clear to his hearers. They wanted the Messianic signs that they were expecting. They didn’t want something new. They were hoping for another manifestation of manna from God, but, in the process, they were selling themselves short. Their ancestors ate manna and died, but those who feed on the life of Christ will live forever.
Devotional Thought
We are trained, by the world around us, throughout our lives to believe that we need many different thing in order to truly have and enjoy life. We must, we are told, be well-rounded. Yet, Jesus says that in order for us to have eternal life, the only thing we must do is eat his flesh and drink his blood. Is the life of Christ enough for you or are you constantly tempted to look to other things for enjoyment, comfort, and security? What changes, if any, would have to be made in your life in order for you to truly eat nothing but his flesh and drink nothing but his blood?
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