Read John 6:41-59. Circle the words that stand out to you. What is the Lord saying to you?
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They 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 them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just 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. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Digging Deeper
When I was in Hunan, China, we were invited to a banquet. All of us at that table stared at that dish when it was placed on our table. We wondered what was that dish and then someone said, “It’s fried grasshoppers!” There weren’t too many takers. Thankfully the host wasn’t on our table! (I am sure the servers enjoyed it. It’s a delicacy.)
The Jews couldn’t believe their eyes. They knew Jesus’ mother and father and even his brothers. Perhaps, they saw Him from time to time with His father as an apprentice carpenter. They couldn’t accept His own testimony that “I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven.” While Jesus was able to give a sign of multiplying bread, but for Him to say that He is the Living Bread, that was too much for them to believe.
Jesus was foreshadowing what was to going to happen to Him. Jesus said, “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” The Jews didn’t understand that Jesus was not speaking of literally eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He was referring to His coming death when He would bear the sins of the world on His own body and His shed blood for the atonement of those sins.
The person who comes to Jesus must believe that He took his/her sins on His body and shed His blood for his/her sins. That future depiction is given in the last Passover or the first Holy Communion. Jesus tells His disciples to eat the bread and drink the cup which represent Him.
As believers who hold that bread and cup in their hands, they believed and reaffirm their belief that Jesus died for them. That constant affirmation at Holy Communion reminds them that they are a forgiven people who have been given eternal life.
The next time you partake in Holy Communion, what does eating that bread and drinking that cup mean to you? Is it just a tradition with no significance at all? Or is it a symbolism that represents your belief in the atoning work of Jesus on the cross for you? Consider this when you eat and drink at the table of Jesus.
-Kingston