And this morning we come to one of the most difficult teachings or sayings of Jesus in the Bible.
Jesus said a number of things that were difficult.
Some are difficult because they're hard to put into practice.
Some are difficult because they offend our sensibilities.
And some are difficult because they're just hard to understand what Jesus means.
This particular saying of Jesus is difficult for all three of those reasons.
So let's read what Jesus said in John chapter 6 starting in verse 48.
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves.
How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
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.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
And I will raise them up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food.
And my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me.
And I in them.
Just as the living Father sent me.
And I live because of the Father.
So the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Your ancestors ate manna and died.
But whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Wow.
Let's start with what is clear here.
Jesus said this while teaching in the synagogue.
We're not sure just when this conversation transitioned into the synagogue.
Or maybe it started in the synagogue.
And that's where he met up with some of the people who had been at the feeding of the 5,000 just the other day.
But here Jesus is in the synagogue.
He's in the place where devout Jewish people go to worship God.
And he's been teaching the crowd who's gathered there.
And we've already looked in a fair bit of detail at most of what Jesus has said in this conversation.
It's been a bit tense.
Jesus has told them that they have some majorly misplaced priorities.
He's told them that God, his Father, wants them to believe in him.
They demand a sign.
Give us some proof and then we'll believe.
Maybe do something like the miracle of the manna in the wilderness.
Jesus tells them basically God is right now giving them bread from heaven.
He says, I am the bread of life that has come down from heaven to give life to the world.
And of course we've talked about this.
Jesus is talking about eternal life and spiritual life as we've seen.
But then the crowd started to grumble because Jesus said that he was from heaven.
In their thoughts, he was just a man.
He was just the son of Joseph and Mary.
And so again, as we just read, he tells them, I am the bread of life.
He says, your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.
In other words, listen, you need more than just the manna like they had back then.
Having some manna appear on the ground tomorrow isn't going to help you with the problem of death.
They ate the manna provided from heaven, yet they died.
You can almost imagine it.
Jesus essentially saying, if I was to make some manna appear for you right now,
it wouldn't solve that problem.
You could eat it, and yet you would still die.
No, you need something more.
You need something better than that manna or bread of long ago.
He says, but here is the bread that comes down from heaven,
which anyone may eat and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
So the manna like they had in the wilderness long ago,
it's not enough to meet your true need,
your deep need, your deeper need.
There is a provision of God, however, that can meet that need.
That provision is me, says Jesus.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Literally, in the original, there's quite a lot of emphasis in those words.
He says, I am the bread, the living bread,
which from heaven came down.
So far, we're tracking with Jesus.
We've got some metaphor here.
I mean, we know, we all know that Jesus is not a loaf of bread.
He's a person.
He's a person claiming to be from heaven,
just like the manna was from heaven.
He's a person claiming to give life,
just like the manna did.
Only Jesus has made it clear.
The kind of life he's talking about is not just physical, bodily life.
It's spiritual.
It's relationship with God.
It's eternal life kind of life.
And especially the kind of life that happens at the last day
when he raises us up.
So, if we're listening carefully,
I mean, it seems pretty clear that Jesus is using a metaphor.
He's using a figure of speech.
He's making a parallel between that provision of God long ago
and the provision of God right now,
that he is standing in front of them.
There's a big difference between the bread of long ago
and the bread of today.
The word living draws our attention to that in verse 51.
I am the living bread.
That bread of long ago, it came from heaven, yes,
but it was still just bread.
But I am the living bread.
God's provision for your life today
has come down from heaven in the form of a living person.
And Jesus continues on with this metaphor.
He says,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
This bread is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world.
And it's at this point that a sharp argument arises among the people who are listening that day.
Verse 52,
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves.
How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
So obviously the crowd has missed the metaphor.
They've not fully picked up on the fact that Jesus is not talking about physical eating.
He's talking about himself as a living, breathing provision of God from heaven.
He's talking about how someday he will give his flesh for the life of the world.
How he will surrender his fleshly body to death.
So that anyone who believes in the whole world may have this eternal life that he's been talking about.
But the Jews there that day, they missed the metaphor.
They're still thinking about some kind of physical something that they can put into their mouth and chew.
How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
That sounds disgusting.
That sounds like cannibalism.
And even if he really intends to do that,
it would be wrong for anyone to actually eat his flesh.
We don't do that.
We eat the meat of animals, not people.
That's what I imagine they're thinking.
As the Old Testament scriptures teach,
man is a special and distinct creation of God.
Unlike the animals.
He says, I give you the animals for food.
But if anyone sheds the blood of man,
there's consequences.
Everywhere throughout the Old Testament that it's talked about eating the flesh of a human being,
it's something horrific and horrible that people do out of desperation
because of their own wickedness.
It's talked about as a curse.
And so I imagine these are the kinds of things that the people in the synagogue are thinking
as Jesus says this.
They totally misunderstand, it seems, what Jesus meant to say
when he said,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
This bread is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world.
But then,
in response to all this,
Jesus says something that stirs them up even more.
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.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise them up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food,
and my blood is real drink.
You can just imagine the eyes of the crowd in that moment go wide.
Like, whoa.
You can just imagine the eyes of the disciples of Jesus going wide.
Can you imagine what Peter's thinking at this moment?
Like, oh, no, Jesus, don't say that.
You're embarrassing us.
You can't seriously mean that, can you?
Like, if this is all just a metaphor or an analogy,
just tell us with plain words.
Don't say it like that.
I wonder if that's how some of us followers of Jesus today
feel about these words that Jesus said.
Do these words embarrass you?
Do you wish that Jesus hadn't said them?
Maybe do you think you know better than Jesus
how to get the truth across
to a hardened and unbelieving crowd like this one?
There are some words that I keep hearing
playing over in my mind as I think of this passage.
Something Jesus said to Peter on another occasion
and to the whole crowd.
He said, if anyone is ashamed of me
and my words in this sinful and adulterous generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of them
when he comes in his Father's glory
with the holy angels.
It's something to think about.
We should not be ashamed of what Jesus said here.
As shocking as it sounds,
I think Jesus meant to say it that way.
I think he meant to shock the people that day
and to get them to really think.
I mean, let's stop and think about this for a moment.
If Jesus was just trying to get a following
for his own ego,
like all of these people on YouTube these days,
why would he look at his followers
and say this to them?
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood?
My answer is that Jesus intended to shock them.
He intended to say it this way,
to get them really thinking about what he's saying.
I can't help but think of the paddles.
You know, the ones that the doctor uses
when a patient is flatlining in a hospital bed,
the shocker paddles, defibrillators,
or whatever they're called.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like
to get shocked with those
while you're wide awake and healthy?
Apparently it's been described
as getting kicked in the chest by a mule
or as a small bomb going off inside of your ribcage.
Extremely painful.
And yet it's a shock
that we can be deeply thankful for
because there are times
when it can save our life,
when our hearts go out of rhythm.
And that's what I think is going on here.
Jesus has already said back in verse 36,
you have seen me
and still you do not believe.
Their hearts are out of rhythm.
They're spiritually flatlining.
The provision of God is right there in front of them
in the person of Jesus
and some of them have seen him do miracles already.
They ate the bread that he made
out of just five loaves.
And yet they won't come to him.
They won't believe in him.
And so perhaps Jesus says it like this
in such a shocking way
to pierce through the hardness of some
to get them really listening
and thinking about the words that he's saying.
Words which for some may be the words which give life.
So the big question is
what does Jesus mean
when he says this?
Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood
has eternal life.
We all know the answer
intuitively.
We just do.
It's just,
it's one of those things.
You could ask anyone.
You could ask any person in this room.
Even the children know the answer.
I'm sure.
Does Jesus really want us
to take a bite of his flesh
and swallow down his blood?
No.
We just know it.
We know the answer
from the rest of the Bible.
Eating the flesh of people
and drinking their blood is horrible.
And it's wrong
as the scriptures portray.
We know the answer
from how the rest of Jesus' story unfolds.
If we watch how the story goes,
there never comes a moment
where Jesus turns
and instructs his disciples
to take a bite
or starts letting his blood out
for them to drink.
And we can know this answer
even just from the conversation
because we have to keep these words
in the context of this conversation.
All along until this point,
if we're listening closely
to the words Jesus chooses,
we can see that he has been speaking
in metaphor.
He's using bread from heaven
as an analogy,
as a parallel,
a figure of speech.
And so when he tells them
to eat his flesh
and drink his blood,
we need to continue
to interpret it that way.
We might paraphrase his words like this.
Very truly, I tell you,
you need to take
the provision of God
from heaven
into yourself
or unto yourself.
If you do not take
this provision of God,
which I am unto yourselves,
you will perish.
You will die.
I think that's the plain meaning
of Jesus' words.
But what keeps us
from hearing it that way?
Why do we trip over
his words so easily?
I want to suggest two things.
First, I think we have to be careful
about how we understand
the words truly, truly
or very truly.
The crowd says,
how can this man give us
his flesh to eat?
And Jesus says,
truly, truly,
unless you eat the flesh
and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.
What does truly, truly mean?
Is Jesus agreeing with them
and saying,
yes, indeed,
you do need to eat my flesh
and drink my blood
in the same sense
that you're thinking?
I don't think so.
That might be what some of them
thought Jesus meant.
But we might take
truly, truly
a different way.
He's not necessarily
agreeing with their
understanding of
how they need to
eat his flesh.
We might take it more
as something like,
in all seriousness,
or I tell you the truth.
unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man
and drink his blood,
in the sense that I mean,
you have no life in you.
The second thing I think
we need to be careful about
is verse 55.
This verse is part of why
we stumble over Jesus' words,
because we think,
well,
you can't really be meaning.
Eat your flesh
and drink your blood.
And then he says
in verse 55,
for my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
The natural sense of that
seems to be that,
yes,
my flesh is actually food
that you need to eat
and my blood,
real drink that you need to drink.
But,
again,
we need to read
these words carefully.
Let's remember
how Jesus has talked
about food
in this conversation
already.
Back in verse 27,
he said,
do not work
for food that spoils.
but for food
that endures
to eternal life
which the Son of Man
will give you.
We saw back there
how Jesus was using
the word food
somewhat metaphorically
already.
Almost as a proverb
or a principle.
Don't work
for provisions
that don't last,
but for provisions
that last
into eternal life.
And I think
we should carry
that same sense forward
to these words
as well.
for my flesh
is real provision
from God
and my blood too
sent down from heaven
to meet your real need.
Both the body
and the blood
of Jesus
are critical
to this salvation plan
working.
this is what God
has been pointing to
for centuries
through the
Old Testament scriptures
through the sacrificial system
and the sacrifices
that had to be
brought to the tabernacle
and the temple
and be offered
for atonement of sins.
Blood had to be shed.
An animal had to be slain
bodily.
If Jesus has no body
and just comes down
as a spirit,
he cannot fully atone
for our sins.
We are bodily creatures
and so for justice
to be done,
an acceptable substitute
must take our place,
must take our punishment
upon himself
and to be
an acceptable substitute
for complete
and final forgiveness,
Jesus had to be human.
He had to be one of us.
He had to have a body
like we do
and blood coursing
through his veins
like we do.
He had to face
the punishment
we deserved
which was
no less
than bodily death.
His flesh,
this comes through
really clearly
in the words
of the author
of Hebrews.
Since the children
have flesh
and blood,
he too
shared in their humanity
so that by his death
he might break
the power
of him who holds
the power of death,
that is,
the devil,
and free those
who all their lives
were held
in slavery
by their fear of death.
There you see,
flesh and blood
are required
to make atonement.
His flesh,
his blood
is real,
true,
genuine provision
from God
that meets
our need
so that we
can be spared
what we deserve
for our sins
and have
that eternal life
that he's been
talking about.
Notice the word
real.
The word real
can also be
translated as true.
Real isn't the same
as the word
literal.
He's not saying
my flesh is
literal food.
He's saying
it's real,
it's true,
it's genuine
food or provision
that you must
take unto yourself
and participate in
or you will die.
So we have to
read this carefully
or else
we'll find ourselves
in the same spot
as the crowd
and kind of
asking that same
question.
Will he really
give us
his flesh to eat?
the context
by the way
points to this
as well.
We see this
in verse 51.
He says,
this bread
is my flesh
which I will
give for the
life of the
world.
And if we read
that with the
full story of
Jesus in mind
we can see
the way that
his flesh
gives life
is through
his death.
it's through
his giving
over of
his flesh
to death
which will
happen
at the cross
as the story
goes.
Not only that
but we have
already heard
Jesus drop
the metaphor
for a moment.
If you think
back to verse 35
he said it
what they need
to do
very plainly
there.
He said,
whoever
comes to
me
will never
go hungry
and whoever
believes
in me
will never
be thirsty.
So the way
that you get
your need
to eat
of Jesus
satisfied
forever
is simply
to come
to him.
The way
that you get
your need
to drink
of Jesus
satisfied
your thirst
quenched
is simply
to believe
in him.
That's what
it means
to eat
and drink
of Jesus.
And yet
in all this
I think
Jesus is
quite deliberate
in calling
them to eat
and drink
of him.
Why?
Well we already
talked about
the gracious
shock paddles
for an
unresponsive
heart
but beyond
that there's
something very
rich
and intimate
about the
language of
eating and
drinking.
Eating and
drinking
when it's
used in
metaphor
communicates
a depth
of participation.
When you
eat or
drink something
it goes
from being
outside of
you
to inside
of you.
It goes
from
you know
food
drink
it goes
from doing
nothing
for you
to now
when it's
inside of
you
giving life
to the
body
as it's
used
by the
body.
in the
same way
I think
Jesus is
making a
point here
unless you
participate
unless you
partake
of my
death
my
flesh
and my
blood
which I
will give
for your
life
unless you
take
what I'm
going to
do
for you
on that
cross
into
yourself
unto
yourself
to the
very
depths
you will
die
but if
you do
you will
live
forever
so what's
the significance
of all
this
well I guess
we could
say that
in a
veiled
sort of
way
Jesus
without
them
fully
realizing
it
is
telling
them
about
how
he
is
going
to
suffer
and
die
for
the
life
of
the
world
as
a
gracious
provision
of
God
from
heaven
which
unlike
the
manna
will
give
them
life
beyond
the
grave
if
only
they
will
eat
and
drink
what
God
has
provided
if
only
they
will
come
to
him
and
believe
in
him
and
this
is
exactly
what
Jesus
prepared
his
disciples
to
understand
on the
night
of
his
betrayal
he
sat
down
with
them
to
eat
the
Passover
meal
and
they
sat
around
the
table
at
that
meal
and
Jesus
again
used
metaphor
while
they were
eating
Jesus
took
bread
and
when
he
had
given
thanks
he
broke
it
and
gave
it
to
his
disciples
saying
take
and
eat
this
is
my
body
then
he
took
a
cup
and
when
he
had
given
thanks
he
gave
it
to
them
saying
drink
from
it
all
of
you
this
is
my
blood
of
the
covenant
which
is
poured
out
for
many
for
the
forgiveness
of
sins
it
wasn't
his
own
flesh
that
he
broke
and
gave
out
and
that
they
ate
neither
was
it
his
own
blood
that
he
poured
into
the
cup
and
then
passed
out
his
own
flesh
was
broken
the
next
day
when
he
died
on
the
cross
his
own
blood
was
poured
out
the
next
day
and
he
gave
it
for
the
life
of
the
world
in
the
same
way
it's
not
eating
or
drinking
from
this
table
that
gives
us
life
what
his
disciples
did
that
night
didn't
give
them
life
it
was
what
Jesus
did
the
next
day
as
his
flesh
and
blood
was
given
for
the
world
a
special
gift
of
God
from
heaven
that's
what
the
table
the
meal
points
to
it's
symbolic
and
even
today
as we
come to
this
table
it points
back to
that same
reality
drinking
from
this
cup
and
eating
this
bread
it
doesn't
give
you
salvation
we
don't
believe
as some
do
that
this
bread
and
cup
actually
become
the
blood
and
body
of
Jesus
in
some
mysterious
way
it's
just
ordinary
bread
and
grape
juice
but
partaking
of
this
table
is
one
of
the
most
important
things
that
we
do
as
Christians
as
a
church
it's
something
we were
instructed
to do
by
Jesus
himself
it's
our
way
of
saying
with
our
actions
yes
Jesus
I
have
come
to
you
yes
Jesus
I
do
believe
in
you
and
I
take
I
receive
and
I
take
into
myself
what
your
death
accomplished
on the
cross
what
your
body
and
blood
accomplished
for
me
eternal
life
and
forgiveness
of
sins
and
so
let's
take
a
moment
as
we
prepare
to
eat
and
drink
from
the
table
to
pray
quietly
to
our
Lord
we're
going to
have
some
music
play
and
I
want
to
encourage
you
to
take
a
few
minutes
in
the
quietness
of
your
own
heart
to
confess
to
thank
God
to
reflect
on
what
Jesus
suffered
for
you
on
the