Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. John 6:56 NABRE
Jesus speaking to a great crowd whom He had previously fed, is bringing them deeper and deeper into the mystery of who He is and where He wants to take them. He has said He is the bread of life that came down from heaven, a connection to Moses and manna in the desert. But now He seems to over step by saying we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. This would have been offensive to a Jewish listener, as they believe the blood has the life of the being it comes from, so drinking its blood is taking in its life. Of course Jesus could have meant this very connection. He will say eating His flesh and drinking His blood we will remain in Him. Many Christians connect this eating flesh and blood to Jesus prayer at the Passover supper; bread is spoken of as “my body” and wine as the “blood of the new covenant.” For this group it is not symbolic, it is taken as literally eating Jesus Body and drinking His Blood. Other Christians interpret this as symbolic, doing these things in remembrance of Jesus. It is odd that Jesus switches the language, in John he uses the word flesh and in the other gospel accounts He is offering His body. We can imagine Jesus would be aware of this conflict in points of view, and John writing specifically flesh allows those who need to ingest His flesh the path to believe it is truly Him. Others who see Jesus as the Word of God, not needing to ingest bread and wine, they ingest His word as the means of having Jesus dwell in them (see Ezekiel 3:1-3.)
Jesus never teaches our doctrine is to be perfect. Rather Jesus desires we love and do the will of the Father. As a teacher, Jesus opens doors to meet God, which door is not important as long as it leads to God.
How do you ingest Jesus? How are you responding to Jesus?
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