CadyandZoe
Well-Known Member
Good question Mary,Thank you CadyandZoe. That is an interesting interpretation. One that I have never heard before. You have put a lot of study into this. Or did someone else teach you this?
How does your interpretation (or the interpretation you were taught by some other man) line up with Jesus other statements in the Bread of Life Discourse: "whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.b whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. How do you CadyandZoe eat His flesh and drink His blood like He commanded you to do?
In order to answer this question I need to make three observations. First, the passage you quote was spoken in a different context than the last supper. Unlike the occasion of the Passover, where Jesus spoke metaphorically about his body and blood, the Lord makes another reference to his body and blood after he had miraculously fed five thousand people (perhaps more depending on how crowds are typically counted.) And here, Jesus is using a different metaphor to make an entirely different point.
The next day, the crowds followed Jesus to the other side of the lake where they were hoping that Jesus would feed them again. To this he answers,
John 6:26-27 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”
Who wouldn't want someone to deliver bread to the door step every day? These folks were hoping that Jesus would continue to feed them bread, just as Moses did. Bread is sustenance and maintains life and getting bread is hard work. What a blessing it would be if Jesus could lighten the work load.
Even so, those who eat the bread that perishes will eventually get hungry again and they will die eventually anyway. In order to live forever, in order to receive eternal life one must find a source of another kind of food -- another kind of "bread", if you will. Jesus asserts that he has a source for this particular "bread", one that will sustain a person's life forever. Jesus hasn't yet told the crowds what this bread is, at this point all he has said is that he will give it to anyone who works for it.
Secondly, during his conversation with the crowds, they reminded Jesus that Moses fed the people with Mana. The crowds are pressing the issue. If Jesus is greater than Moses, and Moses was able to feed bread to the people, then why not Jesus? And since the crowds mentioned the mana, Jesus decides to employ the mana in his argument to make the point again. Moses gave the people the mana that perishes. If Jesus were to feed the people mana (or any other kind of bread), they would eventually perish. They need a different kind of "mana" that doesn't perish, such that when they eat that "mana" they will live forever.
John 6:32-34 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”
The Lord has already made several audacious claims about himself and chief among these is his claim that the Father, God, has given him the authority to grant eternal life to whomever he wishes. He claims that God has give him the ability to give to someone a form of life-sustaining bread by which if one were to eat it, one would live forever. In this context, he seems to suggest that eating his body and drinking his blood is the spiritual food that will sustain a person forever. For those who first heard this statement, this was an absurd statement seeming to recommend cannibalism. Zoe says it's a waste of time for me to explain that Jesus didn't mean this literally. I told her that some people actually believe it. Nonetheless, the crowds, living at the time knew it to be an absurd statement.
Why would Jesus employ an absurdity to make his point? His purpose is to argue that his people need to change their way of thinking with regard to what sustains their life. Does bread sustain life? Yes, temporarily. But the lesson of the mana is that man can not live by bread alone but by EVERY word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And by "word" he means "promise." People need more than food; they need hope, and meaning, and love also. Jesus isn't speaking literally when he talks about ingesting him; he means that one must ingest his teaching and follow him in order to obtain the "bread" that sustains life forever.
Finally, Jesus eventually says what the bread IS.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Eating the actual body and blood of Jesus profits nothing. The flesh profits nothing. It is the Spirit that gives life and it is the Spirit that Jesus will give his disciples at Pentecost.