When it came to something as important as salvation there is not too many riddles. From what Christ said, starting out with “truly, truly” there was no imaginary, no symbolic, no hyperbolic and salvation hinged on them doing it.
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.
And what they understood standing face to face with Christ, being there in the real…..they took it exactly as He said. And the reason that we know that it was so important for them to do this is because Christ knew how controversial this would be for them and yet He insisted on it. No if’s and’s or butt’s If they did not do this there would be no life in them and he would not raise them. Yet so shocking that a lot of His disciples left Him.
The meaning and power of Christ’s blood is shown in this ritual. We in Him and He in us. For me, this ritual is a miracle every time it is performed with bread and wine. What Yeshua described is a miracle. But as a theologian I leave the unanswered questions unanswered. What happens to the bread and wine during this ritual? We do not know and maybe it is as un-comprehendible as Heaven itself.
The details of this have been debated for centuries but no significant Christian leader or Apostle said it was not important or an option. Make no mistake, no life in you means no eternal life. You might as well call Baptism symbolic or just for show. The early church took it seriously because in those “house churches” and catacombs the ritual was part of the service.
Paul understood it to be a real thing because he warned that if you were not right with God, and participated in this ritual, bad things could happen. But over the last two thousand years the real gets lost with the lukewarm beliefs of some Christians that do not want to commit….the arm chair Christians that sit in their lazyboys on Sunday and do not go to church. In the early days Christians risked their lives to gather and worship the Lord, but know a days you have to use a cattle prod to get them to go to church.
Good thing that Christ did not think that going through the passion and cross was an option or only symbolic. So sad and so wrong that Christian beliefs have deteriorated to the point that Acts 2:38 and the Blood and Wine Rituals are believed to be an option for salvation, that there is a new way….where arm chair Christians call the shots over and above the scriptures.
The statement rightly points out that Jesus began His teaching in John 6:53 with the double phrase “Truly, truly” (or “Most assuredly”), which in Jewish speech signaled that what followed was of the highest importance. Salvation is indeed central here, but we must remember that Jesus often used deeply symbolic, spiritual language to describe literal spiritual truths.
The audience hearing Him that day in Capernaum (John 6:59) struggled because they took His words in a purely physical sense, asking,
“How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). Jesus did not correct them by saying “No, no, you misunderstood, it’s only physical,” but He continued speaking in the same spiritual tone, because His aim was to point beyond the physical act to the deeper reality — total acceptance of Him and His sacrifice. This is confirmed when, after many disciples left, He explained,
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). That verse shows us that eating His flesh and drinking His blood were not about physically consuming His body, but about spiritually receiving Him — His life, His death, His words — into the core of our being.
The “ritual” later practiced by the church — breaking bread and drinking wine — was indeed a powerful and commanded memorial (Luke 22:19–20). Jesus gave these elements as visible, tangible signs pointing to His body given and His blood shed for the remission of sins. Early believers did treat it with deep reverence, not because the bread and wine themselves were transformed into something magical in a way Scripture fully explains, but because they represented the living reality of union with Christ. The seriousness with which Paul warned the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:27–30) was not about the bread or wine becoming poison if approached wrongly, but about dishonoring the body and blood of the Lord through hypocrisy, selfishness, or unrepented sin while taking the symbols that point to His sacrifice.
The point about “armchair Christians” who treat worship as optional is sadly accurate — the early church risked everything to meet and remember Christ through teaching, prayer, breaking of bread, and fellowship (Acts 2:42). Yet, we must guard against thinking that the ritual itself, apart from true faith and repentance, has saving power. Salvation comes from Christ Himself, not from the bread and wine, but the bread and wine keep us anchored in the truth of what He has done.
So the “unanswered question” —
What happens to the bread and wine during this ritual? — Scripture does not spell out a change in their substance. Jesus said,
“Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19), which means their primary function is memorial and proclamation until He comes again (1 Corinthians 11:26). They remain bread and wine, but in the act of faith, they become holy in meaning, setting our minds and hearts on the reality they represent — our living union with the crucified and risen Christ.
It must also be said plainly: the idea that God would ever command people to literally eat human flesh or drink human blood is unthinkable and utterly opposed to His holiness. Under God’s Law, the consuming of blood — even from animals — was strictly forbidden as detestable (Leviticus 17:10–14). How much more would it be an abomination to consume human blood or flesh. Jesus, who came to fulfill the Law and reveal the Father’s will, would never call His followers to commit an act that God calls unclean. His words were always pointing to a higher, spiritual reality — not to something physically abhorrent and forbidden. To interpret His command in a crude, literal way is to miss His meaning entirely and to imagine something that God Himself would totally reject.
