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The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
- John 6:52-59
In recent readings, it is near the time of Passover, in the second year of Jesus' ministry, approximately one year before His death. Jesus has fed a multitude in the wilderness, for which they wanted to make Him king. They have followed Him across the Sea of Galilee, and He's in the midst of a discourse about the true bread of life, or bread from heaven. Yesterday we read that the leadership in the synagogue at Capernaum complained about Jesus, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." And they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." My study bible says here that "Christ was crucified in the flesh and His blood was shed on the Cross, and on the third day He was raised in a glorified state. We receive the grace of Christ's sacrificial offering by coming to Him in faith and by receiving Holy Communion in faith. In Communion, we truly eat His flesh and drink His blood, and this grants the faithful eternal life, with Christ abiding in us and us in Him." St. Hilary of Poitiers writes: "There is no room left for any doubt about the reality of His flesh and blood, because we have both the witness of His words and our own faith. Thus when we eat and drink these elements, we are in Christ and Christ in is us."
"Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. My study bible comments on the Eucharistic significance of today's entire passage. It says that Christ's declaration that He is the living bread that gives life reveals the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church. John's focus is on the significance and truth of these events such as the Last Supper (events that were already known to his hearers in the early Church, by reporting Christ's own words.
Again, we go back to relationship. Jesus wants us to be as reliant upon Him for life as He is upon the Father. The Father sent Him and He lives because of the Father -- so He wishes those who will "feed on Him" to live because of Him. It's a kind of relationship that will form the basis for all other relationships, because as "food" He will be more deeply a part of us, and we will be more dependent upon Him, than anything else. That is the nature of the Kingdom that He is a part of and represents. I think it's important to note that Christ wants us to rely on Him, fully and deeply to rely on Him. This flesh and blood as food and drink implies something much more than a kind of elective choice on our part of something added to us, although we may think of it that. Jesus' food and drink that are offered to us speak at once of the tremendous import of His sacrifice of body and blood for us, and at the same time of something so necessary that all our lives should depend upon them and upon our regularly taking them in. In fact we can't really go far enough into this metaphor to extract the real depth of this dependence and urgency which He is implying. It just goes beyond understanding. But somehow what He implies is a kind of deliberate and absolute need coupled with His willingness to make the greatest sacrifice for us. And if we think about that sort of urgency -- both the levels of our dependence and of His willingness to sacrifice for us -- then perhaps we get a hint of the great and unsurpassing value of the life He is offering us. I don't think this is life as we know it, because it's far too valuable to be "only that." Somehow this life is worth all the pain and suffering He will go through, as well as His command that we are to take up our crosses, too. It's a life that is so rich and so valued, so much a part of the Father's love, that its worth goes beyond everything else and is worth every sacrifice. It's the pearl of great price, as He put it. That is, something worth selling everything else to have it (see Matthew 13:45-46). I don't think the value of this gift can be overestimated, nor its great significance to us. The Eastern Fathers are known to teach that God certainly doesn't "need" anything in God's perfection, so what we have to see here is the great love that is at work behind this gift. We return over and over again to the love of God for us, and the gift that is the product of this love. This pearl of great price, this great gift of the flesh and blood that will feed us for an eternal and abundant kind of life, this deep dependency and the great sacrifice -- all are products of a tremendous love. And that's really what we always will return to, the love that is there in the gift and the offering, and in the sacrifice and dependency at our deepest levels. It's up to us what we understand and learn about that gift, and where we allow it to take us, because we have the gift of choice as well. Love doesn't compel, but wants our voluntary response in kind. We know what He's done for us and what is on offer, His flesh and blood and the mystical significance of the Eucharist. And how do we view this gift?
The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." My study bible says here that "Christ was crucified in the flesh and His blood was shed on the Cross, and on the third day He was raised in a glorified state. We receive the grace of Christ's sacrificial offering by coming to Him in faith and by receiving Holy Communion in faith. In Communion, we truly eat His flesh and drink His blood, and this grants the faithful eternal life, with Christ abiding in us and us in Him." St. Hilary of Poitiers writes: "There is no room left for any doubt about the reality of His flesh and blood, because we have both the witness of His words and our own faith. Thus when we eat and drink these elements, we are in Christ and Christ in is us."
"Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. My study bible comments on the Eucharistic significance of today's entire passage. It says that Christ's declaration that He is the living bread that gives life reveals the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church. John's focus is on the significance and truth of these events such as the Last Supper (events that were already known to his hearers in the early Church, by reporting Christ's own words.
Again, we go back to relationship. Jesus wants us to be as reliant upon Him for life as He is upon the Father. The Father sent Him and He lives because of the Father -- so He wishes those who will "feed on Him" to live because of Him. It's a kind of relationship that will form the basis for all other relationships, because as "food" He will be more deeply a part of us, and we will be more dependent upon Him, than anything else. That is the nature of the Kingdom that He is a part of and represents. I think it's important to note that Christ wants us to rely on Him, fully and deeply to rely on Him. This flesh and blood as food and drink implies something much more than a kind of elective choice on our part of something added to us, although we may think of it that. Jesus' food and drink that are offered to us speak at once of the tremendous import of His sacrifice of body and blood for us, and at the same time of something so necessary that all our lives should depend upon them and upon our regularly taking them in. In fact we can't really go far enough into this metaphor to extract the real depth of this dependence and urgency which He is implying. It just goes beyond understanding. But somehow what He implies is a kind of deliberate and absolute need coupled with His willingness to make the greatest sacrifice for us. And if we think about that sort of urgency -- both the levels of our dependence and of His willingness to sacrifice for us -- then perhaps we get a hint of the great and unsurpassing value of the life He is offering us. I don't think this is life as we know it, because it's far too valuable to be "only that." Somehow this life is worth all the pain and suffering He will go through, as well as His command that we are to take up our crosses, too. It's a life that is so rich and so valued, so much a part of the Father's love, that its worth goes beyond everything else and is worth every sacrifice. It's the pearl of great price, as He put it. That is, something worth selling everything else to have it (see Matthew 13:45-46). I don't think the value of this gift can be overestimated, nor its great significance to us. The Eastern Fathers are known to teach that God certainly doesn't "need" anything in God's perfection, so what we have to see here is the great love that is at work behind this gift. We return over and over again to the love of God for us, and the gift that is the product of this love. This pearl of great price, this great gift of the flesh and blood that will feed us for an eternal and abundant kind of life, this deep dependency and the great sacrifice -- all are products of a tremendous love. And that's really what we always will return to, the love that is there in the gift and the offering, and in the sacrifice and dependency at our deepest levels. It's up to us what we understand and learn about that gift, and where we allow it to take us, because we have the gift of choice as well. Love doesn't compel, but wants our voluntary response in kind. We know what He's done for us and what is on offer, His flesh and blood and the mystical significance of the Eucharist. And how do we view this gift?
