“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:56, NKJV)
This teaching needs to be read along with the previous three teachings, that of Day 1130-1132 – please read them again and refresh your memory, so that the various lines of argumentation running throughout them can be tied together.
The previous teaching concluded with a focus on the fact that like Jesus came down from heaven (John 6:38), rhema words also descend from the heavens, the spiritual realm, to the physical realm. The prominence of the term “come down” was pointed out, as well as the fact that the term is very similar to what is used in Rev. 21:2 to describe the Bride’s transitioning from the spiritual realm to the physical realm.
Please also remember the exposition of the four parts of John 6 that was offered. We finished Part I, as well as Part III. We are currently discussing Part IV, which is the section consisting of verses 59-71.
Part III is on the one hand characterised by the strong emphasis Jesus places on that which has “come down”, and on the other hand on the fact that Jesus’ followers struggle understanding what He means with his graphic metaphors of flesh and blood. A more direct and grisly articulation than John 6:56 is hard to imagine: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” This seemingly unacceptable conversation upset many of His disciples and followers. The scribe John reports that they were offended by the fact that Jesus likened himself to God (verse 41). They then discuss amongst themselves His physical appearance, that He is merely Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother they are acquainted with (verse 42). They clearly doubt the truth of his statement, but the blasphemy of the statement is clearly an even bigger issue. About this they quarrelled (verse 52), moaned, and took offense (verse 61); what Jesus had said, they couldn’t/wouldn’t believe (verse 64). Their collective reaction to this is thus voiced in quite strong terms: “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
The New Jerusalem Bible translates this verse in a very insightful manner: “This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?” This is a very important, unsaid implication that is foregrounded in this translation, namely the language Jesus chooses to use. One would think that Jesus would do everything he can to choose this words on this contentious matter very carefully, so that He does not offend anyone. For those of us who are used to the metaphors surrounding the wine and bread of the communion this statement Jesus makes seems tame, acceptable, as it has acquired a cultural softness over the course of centuries. Yet Jesus presented this entire conversation outside of the context of communion, remember – this would only start taking place much later, just before His crucifixion.
Also: if Jesus is speaking in clearly symbolic language here, his explanation ability fails one of the simplest principles of communication, that of not confusing your audience with intricate metaphors, the so-called KISS principle: Keep It Short and Simple. No one who was listening to Him understood his words as symbolic.
Seen in this light the statement “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56) definitely seems to have a cannibalistic undertone. This perception is strengthened by the graphic word choice. In John 6:50-53 there are various forms of the Greek verb phago, which means eating. Yet after Jesus realises how disgusted people are with the way He sketches His unity with them, His choice of offensive words intensifies! In verse 54, the Greek word trogo is for instance used instead of phago. Trogo is a much more illustrative term, meaning “to chew on”, or “to gnaw on” – reminiscent of an animal laying into his prey.
There are apologists who try to soften John 6 by noting that the audience could clearly understand the Hebrew Old Testament metaphors, and would thus not be affronted by it. A good example of this is Eddy & Boyd’s The Jesus Legend (p. 219), where they note that: “Jesus’ language about his own blood (particularly at the Last Supper) finds its home within concepts of Jewish covenant theology.” This is alas a desperate attempt to render a half-truth believable. This is done in order to sugar-coat Jesus’ words, so that it does not become “a sort of crass literalism that would reduce his words to a cannibalistic understanding”, as one commentator, Tim Staples, aptly notes. In the sections in the Old Testament where we find mentions of eating human flesh and drinking blood, it is always presented metaphorically, and also, it is always coupled with the ungodly, the adversary, the enemy, the wicked. Have a look at the following examples:
- “When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.” (Ps. 27:2)
- “Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire; no man shall spare his brother. And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry; he shall devour on the left hand and not be satisfied;
Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.” (Isa. 9:19-20) - “I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.” (Isa. 49:26)
- “You who hate good and love evil; who strip the skin from My people, and the flesh from their bones; who also eat the flesh of My people, flay their skin from them, break their bones, and chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh in the caldron.” (Mic. 3:2-3).
It is thus understandable that non-Christians experience this statement Jesus makes as quite bizarre and grotesque, and often this is used as an argument by opponents of Christendom in explaining what they consider the gruesome ridiculousness of the faith. On the website www.godisimaginary.com the following is noted: “Imagine that you are a normal person, and you have never been exposed to Christianity before. Now imagine that a Christian comes up to you and quotes John 6:53. Any normal adult would rightfully assume the Christian to be insane. Thus, you never see a bumper sticker that says John 6:53. However, the assumption is accurate. The dictionary describes cannibalism in the following way: The usually ritualistic eating of human flesh by a human being. What Jesus is demanding is cannibalism.”
The Roman Catholic Church contributes to this when they allege that the communion bread and wine LITERALLY BECOMES the body and blood of Jesus when it is used. (This is referred to as the liturgy of the Eucharist.) In his The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown refers to it as “God-eating”, his contempt clear. According to Brown this practice is directly adopted from earlier pagan religions.
The Old Testament prohibits eating or drinking blood (Lev. 17:12 & 14), and eating human flesh is seen as (the result of) a curse (Deut. 28:53-57; Lam. 4:10; Ezek. 5:10), but also in the New Testament it is forbidden (Acts 21:25).
To summarise – Firstly: To thus see this strange statement Jesus makes as a suggestion that His physical body and blood needs to be eaten and drunk, is not at all thought-through, and this never happened. In fact, Jesus makes it absolutely clear in this passage, also with regards to his own flesh: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” (John 6:63; also see 2 Cor. 5:16; 1 Pet. 3:18). Secondly: That He absolutely does not dress it in symbolic or metaphoric terms is also the case. It would have been very easy for Him to, at least within the inner circle of his disciples, explain to them that He is using symbolic terms (as we find in other instances, like John 15’s imagery of the vineyard and the branches, or in His many parables), but He does not do this. In fact, it almost seems as if He is encouraging them to be disgusted by his statement, and to choose to walk away from Him, as He notes, “Do you also want to go away?”. Thirdly: Within this context He does not once refer to communion as a symbolic rite. In this context it thus cannot be accepted as a logical explanation, especially because the bread and wine are symbols, and He is not speaking in symbolic terms here.
To what does this statement thus refer? Preceded by two miracles (Part I and Part II of John 6), it is thus the absolutely perfect time to explain to humanity one of the greatest mysteries of God and his incarnation. He presents this also as a miracle, but not one that is physically manifested. As Old-Testament counterpart He uses the manna in the desert, and explains that there will be an increase of His Body that will be similar to the way in which the manna came down to earth. This manna is Him (John 6:48), but it is presented in smaller portions, “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.” (John 6:50).
Here Jesus definitely speaks of the rhema words that come down from heaven (like rain – Isa. 55:10-11), of which we eat, and live: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Jesus is here referring to Deut. 8:3 – “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” Note the direct coupling with manna here.
In order to understand the entire concept well, it is important to note that Jesus has this conversation take place within the framework of the Jews pining for miracles, and his later statement in Matt. 12: 39-40, a watershed moment: “But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’”
There is only ONE sign that will be given to everyone in the New Covenant – the sign of Jonah, which in symbolic terms is likened to Jesus’ death and His rise from the dead. The only sign which the world will be given, is the risen body of the Son of man, Jesus Christ. If the believer is crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20), it necessarily implies that he/she will also be risen from the dead with Christ, something that has immense implications for the body of the believer: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom. 8:11).
This mystery makes each person who dies in Christ (not Jesus), and arises in Christ (Eph. 2:6), a miracle. More on this in the next teaching.
- Selah: Explain to someone the notion of the manna as symbolic counterpart.
- Read: 2 Cor. 10-13; Rom. 1-7; Acts 20:1-3.
- Memorise: 1:17.
