Eat my flesh, drink my blood

Tonight I'm going to summerise the sermon I just heard because it was so good. I had other plans relating to Palm Sunday and holy week but tonights talk was really really good.

It was based around this reading, it's from John chapter 6:

25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

26Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

28Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

29Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

30So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'^[c]"

32Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

34"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

43"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.'^[d] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just 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. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

It comes quickly after the feeding of the 5000 (5000 men probably 15000 men woman and children), and so the idea of bread and similarities between Jesus and Moses are very fresh in the minds of the roman oppressed Jews.

Then Jesus goes and says this! wow what is He going on about. If you ask 10 people 9 of them will likely say Communion.

Here are three reasons to think that communion is NOT what Jesus was talking about.
1. Timing. This was months if not years before Jesus had the last supper, the imagery of the body/bread blood/wine was not in peoples minds and would have meant nothing to them.
2. The wording. Not once did Jesus mention wine - only His blood. And he kept saying Flesh - in the last supper Jesus said body.
3. (And this is the biggy) If you take this as being about communion then it means if you don't have communion then you are not saved and not going to heaven. i.e. in order to go to heaven you have to do something (take communion)

This last point flies in the face of pretty much the entire rest of the New Testament. It is our faith in Jesus and what He has done that saves, not anything we do or could ever do.

So what is He talking about. Especially in verse 54.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Sounds a bit like cannibalism if it isn't communion.

Well the answer to that is to just go back 14 verses to verse 40. in the same speech.

For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Did you notice the similarity? Namely ... shall have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

Jesus is saying that eating his flesh and drinking blood is a metaphor, for doing God's will by looking to Jesus and believing in him.

You'd think with the number of metaphors and parables Jesus told people would start to pick up on this, but no. All through Johns gospel we read of Jesus using earthly things as metaphors to teach a spiritual truth and then people mistake Him and think He is being literal. Born again - you mean get back in the womb? I am living water - can you get me drink of it? etc Here Jesus says eat my flesh, drink my blood - immediately after saying believe in me and the people think he is literal and start to leave Him.

Communion does not save you, Christians are not cannibals. All we are, are people who recognize we sin, and have faith the the work of Jesus at Easter has paid the price and is the punishment for our sins. We believe in Jesus Christ. He is our salvation.