In the last lesson we were looking at John 6 and Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of life. The lesson ended with verse 52 that said, “Then the Jews began to angrily contend among themselves, saying, ‘How can He give us His flesh to eat?” Jesus has been using illustrative terms to describe Himself as One Who came down from heaven, has an intimate relationship with the Father, is the central, necessary figure involved in eternal life and has the power and authority to raise from death to life those who trust in Him. And, as before, the Jews rejected this as they recognized Him only as the son of Joseph (verse 42).
And as I also mentioned in the last lesson, Jesus is getting ready to further anger the Jews when He begins to talk about the necessity of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. “Then Jesus said to them, ‘I assure you, I’m telling you the truth, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood. He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise him from the dead on the last day.” (Verses 53-54) Here, eating and drinking are used figuratively of accepting the promises related to the future death of Christ. This is a principle long established in the Old Testament where eating and drinking were required in the various rituals and sacrifices depicting the future death of the Savior. It was always understood that these actions illustrated the fact that the participants both understood and trusted in the truths taught by the ritual. But, understandably, these Jews were not able to make the connection, since they refused to recognize Jesus as the One Who would make that sacrifice.
“For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink. He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood dwells continually in Me, and in the same way I dwell continually in him.” (Verses 55-56) And at this time no one except Jesus knew what He would eventually establish when He celebrated His last Passover with His disciples and instituted the Lord’s Supper or Communion (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22). In Communion Jesus used the cup to illustrate His blood and the bread His flesh. And both were to be consumed as proof of each participant’s trust in what they both represented.
When we observe Communion, we’re reaffirming our faith in the physical death, resurrection and spiritual death of Jesus Christ. By eating the bread and drinking the cup we acknowledge the promise of our own future resurrection and eternal life. The key verse in the passage above is verse 54 that is underlined.
Paul reaffirms the same in 1 Corinthians 10:16, “The cup of wine at the Lord’s supper for which we ask God’s blessing, does it not mean that we share in a fellowship (a communion) in the blood of Christ when we drink it? And the bread that we break, does it not mean that we share in a fellowship (a communion) in the broken body of Christ when we eat it?
Anytime we observe Communion we must realize (again) that we are reaffirming our trust in the death of Christ on the cross, as referenced by “the blood of Christ” represented by the cup, and our confidence in our own resurrection through our trust in His resurrection represented by the bread. And don’t fall for the false, controlling religious view that one can only observe communion if the proper religious authority figure is supervising it. You can observe Communion on your own, with your family or with a like-minded group anytime you wish. There are no such restrictions given either by the Lord or later by the apostles. I always suggest people read 1 Corinthians 11:20-34 to see what Paul says about it, then observe it with a clear conscience and understanding of truth (he clearly says in verse 26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…”).
And since I’ve mentioned the blood of Christ, let’s make sure we understand the meaning of the term. The phrase “blood of Christ” is found several times in the New Testament along with similar terms such as, “His blood”, “My blood”, “shed blood”, “innocent blood” and “blood of the covenant”. Every reference to the blood of Christ is a synonym for the saving work of Christ on the cross, His spiritual death.
To understand the payment required for the sins of the world we must know what the penalty is. That was established in Genesis 2:17 when God warned Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would surely die. In that verse the verb muth is doubled and should be translated “dying, you will die”. When Adam failed to heed God’s warning, he did not die immediately, he lived for approximately 900 years after that. However, he lost his relationship with God and that is spiritual death. Physical death was never the penalty for sin. The payment Christ had to make for the sins of the world had to be the same as the penalty.
The Gospel record is clear that Jesus suffered spiritual death on the cross. His crucifixion lasted approximately six hours, from nine o’clock in the morning until three in the afternoon. At twelve noon the earth was thrown into total darkness and remained in darkness for the next three hours (Matthew 27:45). We know Jesus was being judged for our sin during this time because He kept screaming over and over, “My God (the Father), My God (the Holy Spirit), why have You abandoned Me?” (Matthew 27:46) In this verse the verb is in the imperfect tense indicating the action of the verb was continuous and repeated throughout the time described in the previous verse.
“He bore our sins in His body on the tree…” (1 Peter 2:24) This is what Peter is describing when everything that was vile and evil in the world, every sin that had been committed or that would be in the future came into direct contact with the holy and innocent Son of God. This must have been an indescribable pain, so intense and fierce that three hours would have seemed like an eternity. This is the real suffering of the cross that most religious groups know nothing about, emphasizing Christ’s physical death as the only focus of the cross is either a denial of obvious truth or evidence of gross ignorance.
Let’s move on, this is verses 57-58. “Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, in the same way whoever continues to feed on Me shall live because of Me. This is the Bread that came down from heaven. It is not like the manna that your
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forefathers ate, and yet died. Anyone who takes this bread as his food will live forever.” I just realized how repetitious Jesus has been throughout this passage. He says He was sent from heaven three times (verses 38, 41 and 42) and that He was sent by the Father five times (verses 38, 39, 40, 44 and 57). He claims to be the true, life-giving Bread that came down from heaven five times (verses 32, 33, 50, 51 and 58). And finally, He says He is the source of eternal life six times (verses 40, 47, 50, 51, 54 and 58). I only point this out to say that it won’t matter how many times He repeats these things, they won’t understand. They’re still focused on their recognition of Jesus as the son of Joseph, not the Son of God.
There’s a problem with the translation of verses 60-62 that says, “When His disciples heard this, many of them said, ‘This is a difficult message, who can accept it? But Jesus knew they were grumbling about it, so He said “Is this offensive to you? What would you think if you saw the Son of Man ascending to the place from which He came?” The problem I mention is the word “disciples”. It’s translated from mathetes, a broad term commonly used to describe students, learners or followers. Here, it is not used to reference Jesus’ 12 disciples, instead, it’s a general reference to the crowds that were following Him (the same mistake is found in verse 66 where “disciples” should be “followers”).
In verse 63 Jesus again emphasizes the spiritual truths in His message, knowing they still will not understand. “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh has no benefit. The words I have been speaking are Spirit and they are life.” This is Jesus’ conclusion to all He has said about the Bread of Life. To save time and space let me give you a contextual, contemporary expansion. “The sacrifice of My body (the Bread) is a spiritual sacrifice that requires a spiritual death. If you could literally eat My flesh and drink My blood, it would not give you eternal life; because the life I speak of is spiritual and eternal, not fleshly and temporal.”
“Yet there are some of you who still will not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning which of them would not believe and who would betray Him.’ Then He said, ‘This is why I told you before that no man can come to Me unless the Father gives him the desire to come to Me.” (Verses 64-65) Again, as discussed before in the previous lesson, this desire is the result of the influence of the Holy Spirit on the individual conscience drawing them to Jesus.
“After this, many of His followers turned away and no longer followed Him. ‘Do you also want to leave?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Then Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord you have the words of eternal life. And we know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Verses 66-69) These verses make it clear there is a distinction between “followers” and the Twelve.
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And the response of Simon Peter should be taken in light of the Twelve’s relationship with Jesus that was by this time several years old, their amazing experiences with Jesus, the miracles they had witnessed, the empowering for service they had received when He sent them out to minister without Him and the revelation of eternal secrets never shared with anyone before. Simon’s answer to Jesus was literally, “Where else could we possibly go?”
“Then Jesus said, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a false accuser.’ He was speaking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who would later betray Him.” Again, as I’ve mentioned several times, Jesus was always in total control of His life and circumstances and what awaited Him in the future was never a distraction or deterrent. This is just another of the many examples of the determination of our Lord to follow the will of the Father, sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world and give us the opportunity to trust in Him and enjoy the eternity that awaits.