John 6:48-59
"I am the bread of life.
"Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
"This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"
Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
"Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
"For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
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 feeds on Me will live because of Me.
"This is the bread which came down from heaven--not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."
These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum."

Message:
To most of us this is a very difficult passage, hard to understand. It speaks in language and moves in a world of ideas which are quite strange to us and which may seem even fantastic and grotesque. But to those who heard it first, it was moving among familiar ideas which went back to the very childhood of the race.
These ideas would be quite normal to anyone brought up in ancient sacrifice.
The animal was very seldom burned entirely. Usually only a token part was burned on the altar, although the whole animal was offered to the god. Part of the flesh was given to the priests as their perquisite; and part to the worshipper to make a feast for himself and his friends within the temple precincts.

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At that feast the god himself was held to be a guest. More, once the flesh had been offered to the god, it was held that he entered into it; and therefore when the worshipper ate it he was literally eating the god. When people rose from such a feast they went out, as they believed, literally god-filled! We may think of it as idolatrous worship, we may think of it as a vast delusion; yet the fact remains these people went out quite certain that in them there was now the dynamic vitality of their god. To people used to that kind of experience a section like this presented no difficulties at all.
But for us...what do these words mean?
Let's begin first by noting what they do not mean. Many have looked at the sixth chapter of John and the verses before us as referring to the Lord's Supper. But this is certainly a mistake, and that for the following reasons. First, the Lord's Supper had not been instituted when Christ delivered this discourse. Second, the eating and drinking here spoken of are in order to salvation; but eating and drinking at the Lord's Table are for those whose hearts and lives have been touched by the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ...it is a memorial to that great event when salvation was procured at Calvary.
The Lord's Table or Communion is not the subject that Christ is dealing with here in our text.
This text is used by those whose theology gives a high and mystical value to the sacraments. Generally speaking, there have been three major views of the Lord's Supper. The first is highly literal...it is the view of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions, as well as of some high church Anglicans and Episcopalians. According to these churchmen, the bread and the wine of the communion service are literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ by an ordained priest and thus become, at least to some, a reenactment of Christ's sacrifice.
Clearly, to those who take such a position, the words of Christ in this passage must refer to the Mass, or Eucharist. They literally describe what is happening. The worshipper literally feeds on the Lord.
The second view of the Lord's Supper is that it is a mere memorial or testimonial. This understanding

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focuses on the words "Do this in remembrance of me" and on Paul's statement "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). Certainly, there is truth in this view, but it is weak in that it does not indicate how Jesus can be present in any special way to those taking part in the service.
The third view is that Jesus is actually present in the communion service, but that He is present spiritually, not in any physical way. Some theologians refer to this as the "real presence" or the "mystery" of the Lord's Table. We often say, in speaking of God, that God is everywhere present. It does not mean that He is physically present in physical objects, for that would be pantheism. It means that He is present spiritually. We also say that God is present in a special way with those who are His children; that is, He dwells within them. So He is present in Christians in some ways more than He is in the world. Moreover, even as Christians we often say that God is with us more at some times than at others, by which we mean that we are more aware of His presence or that the lines of communication are more open. It is in this progression but in an added sense that we speak of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper. This presence is spiritual. It is, therefore, received spiritually, which is to say, by faith.
These, then, are the three great understandings of the meaning of the Lord's Supper which have prevailed in the church and according to which, particularly in the first instance, the sayings of Jesus in this passage have been interpreted.
Then the question is..."If these verses do not refer to the Lord's Supper, then what is their meaning?
What does it mean to feed upon Jesus? When Jesus spoke these words, we must remember that the Jews of that day often used the language of eating and drinking when they wanted to refer to taking teaching into their innermost being. It is easy to listen to a teacher's words in a superficial way. We may say, "What a fine teacher!" but take no notice of what he says. We may perhaps say of someone who profits from the teaching that he takes to heart what he has heard:

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the Jews of the day spoke of eating or drinking the teaching (do we not sometimes also speak of "drinking in every word"?). For example, there is a rabbinic treatment of Proverbs 25:21: "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink." This is said to mean: Resist your enemy "with the bread of the Torah" [i.e. the Law of God], as you read "Come, eat of my bread" (Prov. 9:5); and "if he be thirsty, give him water to drink" --the water of the Torah, as in the verse, 'Ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye for water' (Isaiah 55:1)." Such statements could be multiplied. The word of God is often likened to food and drink, which must be taken within oneself.
The figure of "eating" is very suggestive, and one deserving of careful meditation. Eating is a necessary act if I am to derive that advantage from bread (Jesus had just said in our text: "If any man [no matter who he be] eat of this bread he shall live forever.") which it is intended to convey, namely, bodily nourishment. I may look at bread and admire it; I may philosophize about bread and analyze it; I may talk about bread and eulogize its quality; I may handle bread and be assured of its excellency—but unless I eat it, I shall not be nourished by it.
All of this is equally true with the spiritual bread, Christ. Knowing the truth, speculating about it, talking about it, contending for it, will do me no good. I must receive it into my heart.
Eating is responding to a felt need. That need is hunger, unmistakably evident, acutely felt. And when one is really hungry he asks no questions, he takes no demurs, he raises no quibbles, but gladly and promptly partakes of that which is set before him. So it is again, spiritually. Once a sinner is awakened to his lost condition; once he is truly conscious of his deep need, once he becomes aware of the fact that without Christ he will perish eternally; then whatever intellectual difficulties may have previously troubled him, however much he may have procrastinated in the past, now he will need no urging, but promptly and gladly will he receive Christ as his own.
Eating implies an act of appropriation. The table may be spread, and loaded down with delicacies, and a liberal portion may have been placed on my plate, but

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not until I commence to eat do I make that food my own. Then, that food which previously was without me, is taken inside, assimilated, and becomes a part of me, supplying health and strength. So it is spiritually. Christ may be presented to me in all His attractiveness, I may respect His wonderful personality, I may admire His perfect life, I may be touched by His unselfishness and tenderness, I may be moved to tears at the sight of Him dying on the cruel Cross; but, not until I receive Him as mine, shall I be saved. Then, He who was before outside, a figure of history, now becomes my indwelling Savior and Lord. Now, in very truth, shall I know Him as the Bread of Life, ministering daily to my spiritual health and strength.
Eating is an intensely personal act: it is something which no one else can do for me. There is no such thing as eating by proxy. If I am to be nourished, I must, myself, eat. Standing by and watching others eat will not supply my needs of nourishment. Thusly, no one can believe in Christ for you. The preacher cannot; your loved ones cannot. And you may have witnessed others receiving Christ as their personal Lord and Savoir, you may later hear ringing testimonies; you may be struck by the unmistakable change wrought in their lives; but, unless you have "eaten" the Bread of Life, unless you have personally received Christ as yours, it has all availed you nothing. "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever."
Verse 51 in our text reads: "And the bread that I will give is my flesh." Exceedingly solemn and exceedingly precious is this. To "give" His "flesh" was to offer Himself as a sacrifice, it was to voluntarily lay down His life. Here then, Christ presents Himself, not only as One who came down from heaven, but as One who had come here to die. And not until we reach this point do we come to the heart of the Gospel. As an awakened sinner beholds the person of Christ, as he reads the record of His perfect life down here, he will exclaim, "Woe is me; I am undone." It is only in a crucified Christ that poor sinners can find that which meets their spiritual need. And His "flesh" He gave in voluntary and vicarious sacrifice "for the life of the world": not merely for the Jews, but for all mankind who will believe in and trust in Him as their Redeemer and Lord. Jesus is saying,

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then, that His death is the one means of salvation and that we appropriate His dying for us when we come to Him in faith. This is the one way of salvation, for unless we receive Him in this way we "have no life" in us. The cross is at the heart of the Christian way, and it is only by the death of Jesus that we are able to enter into the life He died to provide.
Verse 52 in our text reads: "The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" Note that these strivings of the Jews about the meaning of the Lord's words were among themselves. None of them seemed to have stated, their sentiments to our Lord, but He was perfectly aware of what was going on among them. He does not however, proceed to explain His former statements. They were not ready for such an explication. Instead of illustrating His statement, He reiterated it. He in no degree explains away what had seemed strange, absurd, incredible, or unintelligible. On the contrary, He becomes, if possible, more paradoxical and enigmatical than ever, in order that His statement might be more firmly rooted in their memory.
In a way characteristic of this Gospel, we have the negative, "unless you eat...and drink...you have no life," followed by the positive, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal." (v. 54) The twofold form of expression puts emphasis on the truth being stated. We are left in no doubt that the life of which Jesus is speaking comes only in this one way. Without the eating and drinking, we have no life. If we eat and drink, we have life. This is the great, central truth that Jesus is bringing out throughout this entire discourse.
Yet once more Jesus refers to eating His flesh and drinking His blood, this time connecting it with the thought of abiding (v.56). John delights in the language of "abiding" and has the verb forty times in all. We see something of how important it is to him when we notice that Matthew has this verb three times, Mark twice, and Luke seven times. Clearly it is an aspect of Christianity that appealed to John and to which he kept coming back. It is important that Christians do not simply have a fleeting contact with Jesus but that we "abide" in Him, just as He abides in us.

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John's thought of abiding is a part of Christianity that we cannot do without. The word "dwelleth" or "abideth" has reference to our communion with Christ, our unbroken fellowship as the result of constantly eating and drinking from His spiritual life.
"As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me" (Verse 57).
Jesus now points to Himself in His relationship with the Father as a model of the vital union and mutual dependency that He would share with each believer. As the Son is dependent upon the living Father for His (the Son's) life and lives "because of the Father (i.e., the Son lives because the Father lives, and the Son is a recipient of that life), so the believer who feeds on Jesus will derive his life-supply and live "because of" Jesus (i.e., the believer lives because Jesus lives, and the believer is a recipient of Jesus' life). In chapter 5, verse 26, Jesus had declared: "For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself." Human beings do not have life in themselves; they receive their life from God. But God does not receive His life from any exterior source. He has life in Himself and is life; He is the source of His very own life. In eternity, the Father gave His Son the same capacity—to have life in Himself. John opened his Gospel with these words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:1-4). The Father's bestowal of life-in Himself on the Son [is not] something which began with His ministry on earth, or with the Incarnation; it is an eternal act, part and parcel of the unique Father-Son relationship which existed already "in the beginning.' In the eternal order the Father, as Father, imparts to the Son, as son, that life-in-Himself which it is the Father's to possess and impart; on the temporal plane the Son reveals that life to men and women.
Note again in verse 57 the language shifts from "eat my flesh and drink my blood" to "eat me."

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This way of putting it makes it clearer than ever that it is the taking of Christ within oneself that is meant by the metaphor of eating and drinking.
Dr. Barnes in his excellent commentary writes:
God is the source of all life. He is thence called the LIVING God; in opposition to idols which have no life.
Acts 14:15: "We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities (idols) UNTO THE LIVING GOD." All creatures derive their life from Him. Psalm 104:30": "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust." But God is underived...He always existed as He is. "From everlasting to everlasting thou art God" (Psalm 90:2).
We are alive physically only because the living God gives us physical life, and we are alive spiritually only because the living God gives us spiritual life.
That living Father is so interested in giving us spiritual life that he sent His son into the world to live and die for us!
In conclusion, this passage may be paraphrased as follows:
So Jesus said to them; I most solemnly assure you, unless by a living faith you accept, appropriate and assimilate the Christ, trusting in His sacrifice (broken body and shed blood) as the only ground of your salvation, you do not possess everlasting life (the love of God shed abroad in the heart, salvation full and free). On the other hand, he who does accept my sacrifice with a believing heart, digesting it spiritually, has everlasting life for the soul, and I will raise up his body gloriously at the last day, the great day of judgment. For My sacrifice (broken body and shed blood) is the real spiritual food and drink. He who spiritually digests this food remain in the closest and most vital union with me. As the Father, the Ever-living One, commissioned Me, and is for Me the fountain of life, so also he who spiritually digests Me, he, indeed, will find in Me the source of life for himself. (Pointing to Himself?) This is the real bread, the genuine source of spiritual life and nurture, even the One who does not owe His origin to this earthly sphere but came down from heaven. He who spiritually digests Me as the true bread of life will live forever and be gloriously raised on the last day!