52 At this, the Jews began to argue among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him 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 him. 57 Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. REFLECTIONSWritten by Stephen Shead A word of clarification first: Jesus isn’t talking about the Lord’s Supper here. He’s speaking in metaphors about his death on the cross, when he would sacrifice his flesh-and-blood body for the sins of the world. When he says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (v 54), he does not mean, “Whoever takes the Lord’s Supper has eternal life”. He means what he said back in verse 47: “he who believes has eternal life.” Of course, the Lord’s Supper is pointing to Jesus’ death as well, but this passage isn’t about the Lord’s Supper. It’s about faith in Jesus. I find this passage a bit shocking. The Jews who have been interrogating Jesus are showing stubborn blindness and unbelief. But instead of dumbing down his message, Jesus makes it even harder to digest (pardon the pun!). It’s like he deliberately chooses the most offensive-sounding and obscure metaphor for his saving work – and as we’ll see tomorrow, they do get offended. And yet, as I reflected on it, I realised a couple of things. First, Jesus doesn’t simply walk away from them. He patiently persists in telling them about his saving death – even if they aren’t going to be able to understand the meaning until after the cross. So maybe this isn’t Jesus confusing them to cut them off from the gospel. Maybe this is Jesus preparing them for a later time, when they will be ready to remember, understand and come to faith. After all, despite their unbelief, he continues repeating the same message of astounding grace and hope – a promise of being raised from death to eternal life, an invitation to be joined to Jesus, remain in him, and receive his life that never ends. How many of the people who were totally confused in this passage went on, after Jesus’ resurrection, to have their eyes opened and be drawn to Jesus by the Father? I feel a little bit validated by Jesus in one of my personal life principles, which is: It’s OK to offend people, but only with the gospel. Some people will be deeply offended when we share the gospel with them. When that happens, we don’t need to back down or be embarrassed by the gospel. But this passage encourages me to remember that their offence might be one stage in their crumbling spiritual resistance to God’s grace, and to trust and pray that God will later bring them to true understanding and joyful acceptance of those words. ABOUT THE AUTHORStephen is our senior minister.
