The Feast of Flesh and Blood

  

  As  I was translating John 6,  I came to the section where Jesus talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, starting around verse 51. This pericope begins with one of John's "I am" pronouncements. "I am the bread which came down from heaven".... After Jesus made this statement an argument started among the Jews. Who can blame them? It is hard for me to understand that this bread was the "food of angels". Do angels eat?  So I could see the Jews murmuring. Then Jesus said He was that bread. What does that mean, in a practical sense? I think scholars are still surmising what that meant in any sense!
      Jesus of course knowing that this caused a stir, proceeded to stir the pot more. Naturally.  Remember He is in the synagogue in Capernaum teaching! If you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will not die like your fathers did. That's an eye opener.  I bet no one was asleep during this service.  You eat my flesh and drink my blood you will live forever. If you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, I have no part in you! Wow, He said this to clean, pure, sanitary, kosher Jews no less, eating human flesh and drinking blood!  Even symbolically that sounds crazy.


 oJ trw◊gwn mou th;n sa◊rka kai… pi√nwn mou to; ai»ma e“cei zwh;n ai∆w◊nion, ka˙gw˝ a˙nasthvsw* aujto;n th≥: e∆sca◊th≥ hJme√ra/.  The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day.


      This sounds like your reading from Twilight. It is small wonder some of his disciples had a hard time with this. Some have argued that Christ is talking about the Eucharistic Feast (Brown), but that is a little revisionism. I think he was challenging those he was teaching, rather than talking about the sacrament. What would those Capernaum Jews known about the Eucharist? He had not instituted the sacrament, yet. He was talking about a deeper dedication and that is why we see a few of the disciples leaving. Have you ever googled images of "bread and wine?" Beautiful pictures of the communion table and it should be, I suppose. But Christ was not talking about "bread and wine and the communion table". Google "flesh and blood" and see what you get! Yeah, we might have been offended that Saturday morning too sitting in the prime seats of the synagogue, you know by the window with the sea breeze blowing gently through the curtain from the Sea of Galilee. 'Flesh and Blood', some commentators say is the Hebrew way of referring to the whole man. Why were the disciples offended?  No it is what it is. As Robertson said, "Jesus has here presented to this Galilean multitude the central fact of his atoning death for the spiritual life of the world."  And I might add real life of the world. This type of talk (teaching?) is challenging. Often to me, Christ's demands to follow him and "drink" his cup have a humbling aspect to them. Acceptance of this teaching takes obedience graced with humility.
     Christ was obedient to the Father unto his death. This is why He related eating his flesh to the resurrection.* Obedience and life are tied together in both the OT and the NT. In Deuteronomy 30 Moses told the Israelites to choose life or death. You chose life, Moses said, by obeying the voice of God.  In NT, Paul said Christ was obedient to death, therefore God exalted Him (Philippians 3).  That Saturday morning in Capernaum,  Christ invited us to "eat my flesh and drink my blood in obedient practice and I will raise you up and you will live forever." The words "eat" and "drink" are present participles, which carry a continuous action in their Greek aspect (Robertson). You keep eating my flesh and keep drinking my blood and you will remain in me.  Our continual dedication to be obedient to God, will have us remaining "in Christ".  He said as much in verse 56.


 oJ trw◊gwn mou th;n sa◊rka kai… pi√nwn mou to; ai»ma e∆n e∆moi… me√nei ka˙gw˝ e∆n aujtw/Ç.  The one who eats (again the present participle) my flesh and drinks (pp) my blood remains in me and I in him. 


       The insititution of  the Lord's Supper was the night before the Cross. He gave his life that I might live. And he gave us the Eucharist so we could practice this oneness with Him.  I am finding that as I am obedient to Him in his death, it brings life to me.  The areas in my life where I am being obeidient there is life. Otherwise there is striving and death. The fathers ate the bread in their disobedience and died in the desert, verse 49. We eat Christ food of obedience and keep practicing it, we will live. This is what it means to be a disciple of Christ. 
      As an application I am going through my life and the areas I find where I am not obedient to His will,  I am taking communion in faith that it will change. The areas I don't know His will, I have faith He will reveal it. His death in exchange for my life, righteous for the unrighteous. I may be taking a lot of communion in the days ahead. Bon Appetite.