Saturday 4th March
Read John 6:52-56
“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.” (NIVUK)
Jesus has stated the same thing negatively (v53) and positively (v54) repeatedly. Every restatement brings added hostility, which tends to suggest they are beginning to understand what He is saying. The challenge for us, so far distant in time and culture from this conversation, is to ensure that we also understand what Jesus is saying.
Historically a wide range of positions has been taken with respect to Jesus’ words. From the Catholic position that Jesus is speaking plainly of the sacraments – leading to the doctrine of transubstantiation (you are welcome to look it up…). To those who see little evidence of sacramentalism in these words because Jesus mostly is talking about being united to Him through this metaphorical ‘flesh and blood’ (v56).
As Baptists we lean much more strongly to the latter position. Part of the reason for this is found if we compare two verses:
“…everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’” (John 6:40) (NIVUK)
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:53) (NIVUK)
The parallels in language that Jesus uses, in the same conversation, strongly suggest that ‘eat my flesh’ and ‘drinks my blood’ are matched with ‘looks to the Son’ and ‘believes in him’. Far from being a literal command, Jesus is calling on people to unite with Him through trust and belief in what He will do. What that is would not yet be clear to either the disciples or the Jews with whom He is speaking – but, in the biblical context, reference to ‘blood’ almost always relates to sacrifice, and in this instance it is self-sacrifice on behalf of others.
Jesus provides a powerful, and immensely scandalous, metaphor for what is required to receive eternal life. Why is it scandalous? Because every faithful Jew would know that it is forbidden, on pain of death, to drink blood or even eat flesh with the blood remaining in it. Jesus says that truly, only those who ‘drink His blood’ will find life – those who unite with Him in His loving sacrifice. In contrast to what would eventually become the Catholic position, Augustine read John 6 and summarised it in this way: ‘Crede, et manducasti’ or ‘Believe, and you have eaten’. When we partake of the eucharist we are proclaiming our belief that when we look to Him, and Him alone, He grants us eternal life. Every day we believe, we have eaten of the bread from heaven and experienced His love.
