The Living Bread (John 6: 52-58) WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO EAT JESUS FLESH AND DRINK HIS BLOOD?

[Apostle Jacqueline Stewart]

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV

BELOW ARE SOME VERY PREVALENT POINTS REGARDING EATING JESUS FLESH AND DRINKING HIS BLOOD--WHICH IS TO IDENTIFY WITH HIS WORK ON THE CROSS. THE TEACHING OF JESUS BEING CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS, TO PARTAKE IN THE DEAD AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS, AND DEMOSTRATED IN A CHRIST LIFESTYLE (WALKING IN THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT, NOT THE CARNALITY OF THE FLESH), TO BECOME HIS FOLLOWER, TO WALK IN HIS HOLINESS, LOVE, POWER AND AUTHORITY TO SET CAPTIVES FEAR PER ISAIAH CHAPTER 61. AND TO LOVE JESUS WITH ALL OF OUR HEART MIND AND SOUL--

John 6: 52-58:

He who eats my flesh and drinks my’ blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever. (John 6: 56-58)

The main purpose of the fourth Gospel is to show who Jesus is. The fourth Gospel contains a number of long discourses which Jesus had with different people: with Nicodemus, with the Samaritan woman, with the Jews, and so on. These discourses are meant to bring out the significance of the person and work of Christ.

In this Gospel, different metaphors are used to describe the person of Christ. He is the living water, the life giving water; he is the living bread, the bread which gives eternal life; he is the light of the world, the light of life; he is the good shepherd, the shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. Whether he is water, bread, light or shepherd, whatever metaphor we use, he is the true source and giver of eternal life to the individual as well as to the world. He is the source of true and authentic human existence.

Chapter six of the Gospel contains a long discourse on Jesus as the true bread. The chapter begins with the feeding of the five thousand.

Jesus never neglected the physical needs of the people. He came to proclaim good news to the poor. He told them, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied’. He felt sorry and distressed when the people were hungry and sick. He did not want to send the people away with their stomachs empty. He fed them with five loaves and two fishes. The entire multitude was satisfied. Where there are proverty and curses, in this decaying world, the enemy, satan has came to kill, steal and destory--Jesus came to give life and life more abundantly. John 10:10.

God provides; the resources of God are sufficient, more than sufficient, for human needs. He asked the disciples to collect the leftovers so that God’s gift may not be wasted.

The next day the crowd followed him. Jesus knew why they had come. He told them that they had come because their hunger had been satisfied by eating bread, not because they understood who it was that gave it to them. People were interested in the bread but failed to see the giver behind it.

Our failure is in worshipping the gift rather than the giver, the creature than the creator. Jesus told the people, ‘Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life’.

This was the beginning of the discourse on the life-giving bread. People were fascinated to hear of a bread which gave eternal life, just as the Samaritan woman was excited to hear of the water of life. ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t be thirsty again’, she asked. Similarly the people asked: ‘What kind of work do we need to do to obtain the bread of life?’ Once a rich young man came to Jesus and asked: ‘What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?’ People of all ages and all places have asked this question. Many in India, China, Europe, Australia and America are asking the question: ‘What shall we do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus’ reply to the people was that there was no need for them to work to earn eternal life. It is a free gift of God. The prophet Isaiah told Israel:

Come, all who are thirsty, come to the waters; you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and labour on what does not satisfy. (Isaiah 55: 1-2)

This is the human predicament. We labour, labour very hard, and are not satisfied. We spend money on that which is not real bread. The prophet is calling people to come and drink freely of the living water.

Jesus told the people, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst’.

What is this bread that Jesus offers? Jesus said, ‘The bread which I give is my flesh, the drink which I give is my blood’.

The bread which Jesus gives is himself, his own flesh and blood, his body which was broken on Golgotha for our salvation. ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood’ means those who identify themselves with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

By eating this bread they become participants in his dying and so in his risen life.

Jesus went on to say, ‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him’. To eat his flesh and drink his blood is to abide in Christ. Jesus said: ‘I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who dwells in me, as I dwell in him, bears much fruit’.

For the fourth evangelist, to eat his flesh and drink his blood, is to believe in Jesus, to abide in him. It is to have an inter-personal relationship with Jesus.

Just as the life of the vine gives life to the branches, those who abide in Jesus participate in the life of Christ.

Jesus said: ‘The bread which I give is my own flesh; I gave it for the life of the world’. The fourth Gospel is very emphatic that Jesus Christ broke his body for the life of the whole world.

So eating his flesh and drinking his blood is not simply for the sake of our personal salvation alone. It is not a private affair, but a public matter. John 3:16.

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