Eating Jesus: John 6:22-59
Focus Passage: John 6:22-59 (NCV)
Of all the things Jesus told the crowds while He was alive, probably the craziest of them all would be statements that can really only be thought of as cannibalistic. According to John’s gospel, during a conversation Jesus has with a group of people who traveled a significant distance to find Him, Jesus says the following crazy and challenging statement, “I tell you the truth, you must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Otherwise, you won’t have real life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. The living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever eats me will live because of me. I am not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread and still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (v. 53-58)
While most people, myself included, believe Jesus to be symbolically pointing forward to the bread and wine within the Last Supper, without this context that comes at the close of Jesus’ ministry, there are not many other ways to understand Jesus words outside of the surface-level cannibalistic approach.
However, to set this statement up, John gives us a key detail that we might miss if we are not paying close attention. Immediately before Jesus shared these words, John tells us “Then the evil people began to argue among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” (v. 52)
John describes those who were only looking at the surface level of Jesus’ statement as evil. In reality, the cannibalistic angle on these words was all they could see. Nowhere else in this passage are those who were present described as evil, and this distinction is important for us to pay attention to.
Throughout this entire conversation, Jesus wants to lead those present into putting their faith, trust, and belief onto Him – and for their belief in Him to be stronger than simply because He multiplied their meal the day before. Throughout this conversation, those present were being divided into two groups. One group was being drawn towards Jesus and they would ultimately put their faith in Him. The other group is the group that John describes as evil.
However, in setting up this challenging statement, John also shares something else that is interesting: the evil people argue among themselves. None of these people actually ask Jesus to clarify what He means. By arguing among themselves, this group moves further away from Jesus instead of humbly asking for clarification.
While I don’t fully understand what Jesus meant with these strong words, I do know that they were spoken to a group of people who had closed their hearts and minds off towards Jesus and God. Perhaps Jesus was trying to wake them up to the food metaphor, and He may have been trying to teach them the spiritual significance of the miracle of the food from the day before. However, their minds were closed and their hearts were evil, and they ultimately walk away instead of keeping the conversation going with more questions.
I don’t believe Jesus would have turned away an honest question from someone who wanted to understand better what He was saying. I just wish there was someone like this present in the crowd that day.
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