Wrestling with the focus Scripture for this coming Sunday. We are picking up where we left off in John 6 and this week going with verses 51-61. This is an extremely difficult passage to deal with because of the language that Jesus uses. Here's the text from The Message:
I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self."
At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves: "How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?"
But Jesus didn't give an inch. "Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always."
He said these things while teaching in the meeting place in Capernaum.
Many among his disciples heard this and said, "This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow."
Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, "Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this." (Jesus knew from the start that some weren't going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, "This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father."
Some things that immediately stand out to me...
The disciples themselves have a hard time with what Jesus is saying. They question it and if you read further beyond verse 63, many of his followers left him after. What were they reacting to? Were they reacting to a literal understanding of what Jesus was saying? (important note - one of the major things that Christians were persecuted for in the early years of the movement was for suspicions of cannibalism - flesh, blood, etc). Or were they reacting to the "deeper" message within what is being shared of the level of commitment required to follow?
What would a person who has had no connection to Christianity in their lives do if / when they heard this passage? Would they hear a "deeper" meaning or would they hear only the literal?
I know many people who struggle with the language of flesh & blood in the Lord's Supper some from their own experiences in the past and some just from what it "feels" like.
Some commentators look at this passage as John's institution of the Lord's Supper since his Gospel does not include the same "institution" that the other three Gospels include. This passage is a big shift from what precedes it, while also covering some of the same ground. Did John bring this here to connect what we now know as Communion (or as John might have known it at the time - the Agape Meal) to the Feeding of the 5000 and the rest of Jesus' words of being the bread of life?
There is also the issue of the greek used here. Gerard's Sloyan's commentary on John notes that the word used for eating here is different that what proceeds it - the word shifts from "regular" eating like one would do for lunch or dinner to something that implies more of a craving, munching, etc. More of the sense of one not being able to get enough of this food, rather than eating just to satisfy basic hunger.
As you read these words and think back of your own experiences, what comes to mind for you? I personally am really wrestling with the idea of our cravings in life. The things that we crave on a daily basis and how we have a tendency to crave those things that are not necessarily best for us - whether that is in the foods we eat (and how cookies at midnight taste so much better than a bowl of carrots) or the other things we "consume." And where do our cravings for God fit into this picture? Note Jesus' words near the end of the above passage of how "The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen." What does that say about our replacing our "natural" cravings with the "supernatural" cravings for God?