Jesus Christ was a trouble maker. He was divisive. He split families, towns, nations, even our timeline (BC/AD). Jesus deliberately offended people. And there’s probably no better example than John 6:53. ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’ Just in case you thought Jesus got his words mixed up and He didn’t really mean what He said, the very next verses drive the point home.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
I find those verses embarrassing. Secretly I’ve thought to myself, ‘Jesus, I wish you hadn’t said that! These words are hard to take’. Not only is this self-mutilating, cannibal-like talk logically offensive, it’s also morally offensive to a civilized society. What on earth do these distasteful verses mean? The key to understanding the Bible is the Bible. In other words, don’t just read a few verses; read chapters, read the whole book! Only in context will you find the meaning. Treat the Bible like a recipe book. If you want theology that’s true, balanced, and eatable then you must read all the ingredients.
Starting at verse 1 of John 6 we read how Jesus miraculously healed the sick and attracted a large crowd. The crowd follows Him up a mountain and Jesus tests Philip by asking him, ‘Where are we going to buy bread, so that these people may eat?’ Philip, trying to be practical, gives Jesus an estimation on what it would cost. Jesus defies Philip’s human logic and miraculously feeds the multitude with 5 loaves and 2 fish. When evening came the disciples decided to row across the Capernaum Sea. A few miles into the journey the weather turned bad and at the same time they see Jesus walking on the water toward them. They become frightened and Jesus says, ‘It is I, do not be afraid’. By the next morning, the crowd had tracked Jesus down on the other side so He says to them, ‘You are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you’ (Verses 26-27).
The crowd asks Jesus for a sign so they can believe in Him. They wanted a miracle like that given to their Fathers in the wilderness when they ate bread from heaven (manna). Jesus then refers to Himself as ‘the true bread from heaven’. He also called Himself ‘the bread of life’ and reminded them that even though their Fathers ate the heavenly manna, they still died. Then Jesus drops the bomb: if you want life in eternity then you must eat His flesh and drink His blood, a point He drives home repeatedly. ‘When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” Jesus responded to their grumbling with a question He already knew the answer to: ‘Do you take offence at this?’ So great was their offence that ‘many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him’. Verses 67-71 say, ‘So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.’
The first thing that strikes me about John 6 is, unlike the Western church, Jesus does not care about popularity or numbers. He started this chapter with a multitude and finished it with 12, and even one of those was in question. Jesus is only interested in those who are interested in the right things. And His test for finding us out is offence. Jesus will deliberately offend each one of us.
Jesus’ first test is to offend our logic and intellect. Look at the context of this chapter. Is it logical to instantly heal the sick? Is it logical to feed 5,000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish? Is it logical to walk on water? Nothing offends the logic of us modern sophisticated people more than the miraculous. Just like Philip (verse 7), many people are held captive by their own intellect. They can’t see past it. They are unable to accept Christianity because of the miracles. Miracles may defy human logic and intellect, but isn’t it reasonable to believe God can exceed the physical laws He created? If we have a problem with the miraculous then we also have a problem with Jesus. He wasn’t just a good moral man. Everything about Him, from His incarnation to His resurrection, is miraculous.
So far as I can see Christianity is precisely the one religion from which the miraculous cannot be separated. — C.S. Lewis, Christian Apologetics
After we have stopped worshipping our human logic, Jesus will then offend our personal beliefs and that which is most sacred to us. Jesus’ talk about eating flesh and drinking blood was most offensive to the Jew and their religion (Judaism). Other cultures and religions engaged in human sacrifice, cannibalism and blood letting. But for the Jews, these things were strictly forbidden. Nor were they permitted to eat meat sacrificed to idols or meat that had not been bled. Blood, of any kind, was not to be consumed. Jesus’ invitation to eat His flesh and drink His blood was wholly offensive to their personal beliefs, their culture, and their religion. This offence sorted out what they respected most, and it wasn’t Jesus. These disciples who had witnessed many miracles, who knew Jesus personally, now ‘turned back and no longer walked with him’ (Verse 66).
Jesus tests us like this because He is serious about commitment. Jesus is like a groom who has sacrificed everything for His beloved. He has wedding vows in mind when it comes to humanity. We must take His love and invitation seriously. How would a groom react if his beloved bride started laughing during the vows? Or when it came time to say ‘I do’ she said, ‘I’ll see how it goes, but this had better fit in with my life and benefit me’. In the face of his self-sacrificing love it would not be unreasonable for the groom to reply, ‘You can’t be serious!’ If no groom on earth would accept a bride with that blasé selfish attitude, then why should Jesus accept that same kind of commitment from us? The Gospel is God’s invitation to marry ‘The Truth’ (see John 14:6), for better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness or in health…
Jesus frequently used parables and metaphors. He did this because they connect His truth to things we can see and understand. It’s blatantly obvious in the context of the previous verses that Jesus was using a metaphor when He started talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. The prevailing theme of this chapter is food. It was their stomachs that caused the crowd to follow Jesus across the Capernaum Sea (6:26). And Jesus immediately uses this to set up His metaphor, ‘Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you’ (6:27). When Jesus referred to Himself in verse 55 as ‘true food’ and ‘true drink’ it was the perfect illustration for the truth He was trying to convey.
Our physical body has a totally dependent and exclusive relationship with food. Without food the body will die. Food and drink are all the body really needs. Culture, art, education, sport, entertainment, music etc all add to life, but they don’t sustain it. Only food does. For food to give us life, we can’t just smell it or see it or go near it. Food must be consumed and become part of our body to be of any use. Our body exclusively requires food. It will not tolerate anything else. It might be ‘politically correct’ to approve of someone’s choice to eat gravel or plastic, but their body will not accept their ‘open minded’ decision. And if such a person continues to consume things that aren’t true food and true drink, they will die.
It may be ‘closed-minded’ and ‘intolerant’ to believe food is exclusive to the body, but it’s the truth. Truth is exclusive to reality like food is to the body. We don’t decide what is food and what is not. And neither do we decide what is true and what is not. What we can decide is how we respond to reality - to accept what is food and accept what is true. It is to our peril not to accept ‘true food’ (see John 6:55).
Hell is not eternal life with torture but something far worse: eternal dying. — Peter Kreeft
The true food we need for eternal life is exclusively Jesus Christ. He is to our spirit what food is to our body. Without Him we will die eternally. It’s not enough to find out about Jesus or go to church or sing songs about Him or feel His presence. We must eat. Our spirit must consume the flesh and blood of Christ. Unless Jesus becomes part of us, like food and drink, eternal death is unavoidable. True Christianity is life, not religion.
‘Life’ is not easy. I have struggled. There are many things I can’t make sense of. The mental anguish at times has been intense. But every time I try to run, these words ring in my ears, ‘To whom else shall I go? Christ has the words of eternal life’. As frustrated as I have been, and will be, what other serious options do I have? Run into the arms of atheism, to the meaninglessness of time and chance? Or embrace the new age and eastern religions in a futile attempt to save myself? Or pursue materialism and pleasure in a vain attempt to fill the void in my soul? They are all empty. Christ is my only hope.
Jesus is not asking us to believe; even Satan can do that. He is not asking us to get close to Him. Judas did that. Jesus is asking us to ‘taste and see’. He wants us to consume Him. ‘Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever’ (John 6:58).
(All Bible quotes from the ESV)