John 6:52-58

John 6:52-58

52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

At first glance, it seems like Jesus is promoting His own cannibalism.  Since it is obvious that this is not what Jesus could be promoting, we must clearly interpret this in a different way.  As always, it is vital to remember the context of what has been taught in the preceding verses.  The people have come searching for Jesus in hopes of getting more bread to eat to satisfy their physical hunger.  Jesus has been striving to get them to recognize their spiritual condition so that they can find eternal life through faith in Him.  He has been referring to Himself as the Bread of life that has come down from heaven and He has compared Himself to the mana that the children of Israel ate in the wilderness.  God had given Israel mana every day to sustain life in the desert.  Now God was giving them Jesus to sustain life for all eternity.  Manna was God’s provision for the people’s physical need.  Jesus is God’s provision for their spiritual need.  Just as the people had to believe that the manna was good, gather it and then eat it in order for it to sustain their lives; now the people must believe that Jesus was sent by God, come to Him, receive Him and “eat” Him or commit to Him in faith.  This is the only path to eternal life.

THE CONFUSION OF THE PEOPLE: The people became very confused when Jesus started referring to Himself and the Bread of life and the telling them that they must eat this bread.  They question how He can be telling them to eat Him.  Jesus is obviously using figurative language in this passage.  They are confused because they don’t want to understand about their spiritual condition.  They insist on concentrating on their physical desires so Jesus persists in using physical illustrations of spiritual truth.  Anytime that we make the physical realm the focus of our lives we will be confused.  Life on this earth is precious but it is only a blip on a radar when compared to eternity.  It is an easy thing to be distracted by the physical world in which we live.  God wants us to understand that our lives are much more than this.  We cannot live for the passing reality that is this world and expect to be right with God.  We must live with the realization that we are spiritual bankrupt and therefore separated from God and that our only hope is through God’s provision of eternal life.  Being reconciled with God through faith in Christ is the only priority that makes any sense in our lives.

THE CONFIRMATION TO THE PEOPLE: Jesus confirms His teaching to the people by clearly stating that they must eat His flesh and then He adds that they must drink His blood in order to have hope of resurrection.  He wants them to understand that His body is the only true “food” and His blood is the only true “drink”.  The bread we eat and the water we drink will satisfy our hunger and thirst for a few hours.  They are very temporary solutions for a very permanent reality.  Our sin is also a permanent reality for which mankind is constantly looking for temporary solutions.  Some of these solutions are good deeds, religious rituals and human rationalization.  Jesus is confirming that He is the only means by which man can be saved from sin.  The wages of sin is death and Jesus had been sent by the Father to pay the price of sin.  This meant the sacrifice of His body and shedding of His blood on the cross.  Jesus wants to make sure to make it very clear that there is no salvation apart from faith in Him.

THE CLARIFICATION FOR THE PEOPLE: Jesus makes it clear that by eating He is truly speaking of abiding in Him by faith.  The life of Jesus is wrapped up in the Father and our lives must be wrapped up in Him.  We cannot be saved from sin apart from being identified with Jesus in His death and resurrection.  He is the source of our eternal life and there is no way to gain eternal life apart from faith in Him.  These truths will become even more clear as Jesus institutes the Lord’s supper and uses bread to symbolize His body and wine to symbolize His blood.  We must believe Him, commit to Him and trust Him exclusively as the only means by which we can be forgiven and granted eternal life.  These truths must be clear in our minds in order for us to be saved.  We cannot be saved apart from Jesus.  He is the only hope we have and we desperately need Him.  Our physical lives are never to be our priority.  The spiritual reality in which God dwells must be the focus of our lives as He is our only hope for eternal life.

APPLICATION: Don’t allow the physical realm of our existence become the focus of our lives.  Eternity and our spiritual well-being must be the driving forces in our hearts and lives.  Abide in Christ and be filled with gratitude over the sacrifice of His life on our behalf.