"I am the living
bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will
live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world
is my flesh.”
John 6:51 ESV
There are certain true stories of survival that have been
widespread across our time; stories of people surviving the wilderness or
living through an airplane crash—going through the elements in order to
survive.
Some of these stories include people, having the will to
survive, eating the actual flesh of their friends in order to have the strength
to live on and be rescued amidst their dire situation. It’s a total tragedy
when we hear of such things because although the survivor lived, what he or she
had to do in order to survive are to say the least—taboo.
Jesus, after teaching and preaching for days, came to a
crucial point in his short three-year ministry on earth. At this time in his
mission, he had been amassing a widespread following and many people were
actually witnessing his power and hearing his mighty words. He was quite popular
in this time.
Add to that the miracle that he just performed: multiplying
five barley loaves and two fish from a kid to feed over a multitude of crowds
with five thousand men (scholars say up to as much as 15,000-20,000 people all in all, including women and children).
At the peak of this act and at the same time, having what
most would consider “ministry success” due to so many followers, Jesus taught
the unthinkable. He preached a message that would not only shock his audience
but would actually drive them away.
It was at this point that Jesus—knowing the heart of
man—preached one of the toughest sermons and people did not take it well. How’s
that for “seeker-sensitivity”?
Jesus said this in John 6:47-51,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever
believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the
bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not
die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats
of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for
the life of the world is my flesh.”
To cap it all off, Jesus’ closing action-point to his sermon
was this line: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true
food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my
blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent
me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will
live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like
the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread
will live forever.” (John 6:55-58)
In other words: Eat my flesh and drink my blood, then you
shall live eternally.
What did you just say, Jesus?
One can imagine the public outcry of such a message like
this. People would have been shocked into disbelief, others would have all the
more doubted, and most of Jesus’ antagonists would lay claim to it as more
proof that he was indeed a blasphemer and heretic. This Rabbi (teacher) who was
so radical in his teaching and his actions was now telling people to be
cannibals and to eat his very own flesh and drink his very own blood. Talk about "being radical"; as one
can imagine, it’s a gruesome picture to even think of or begin to imagine.
Even his own disciples had this to say: “This is a hard
saying; who can listen to it?”
And we read in the next verses that many turned away from
Jesus; verse 66 describes: "After this many of his disciples
turned back and no longer walked with him."
What made Jesus’ teaching so hard to swallow? Was it because
of the explicit nature of the cannibalistic act of consuming someone else’s flesh? Was it the
vampiric act of drinking the blood (considered the life source) of your friend?
What made this sermon hard to grasp is because of the
context: right at this time, the people had been clamouring for more of the free
stuff (e.g. the free bread that never runs out, or the unli-fish that they can
eat). They were following Jesus Christ for all the wrong reasons: they wanted
more for themselves, what they could have and what they could live on.
Instead of seeing the true essence of Jesus’ message--that
the only way to live, is to live in Christ--like their forefathers in the
desert, they forsook the manna from heaven that God so richly and abundantly
provided and instead craved quail and meat.
If they only saw the Messiah who has come from heaven and is
now in their midst, they would have understood what he came for and what he was
meant to do: die on the Cross to pay the penalty for their sins. Jesus was to
offer his broken body and shed blood for their sake, if they only believed and
received such a sacrificial act. But they didn’t and the rest is recorded in
scripture.
Jesus, at the highlight of his ministry, lost so many counterfeit
followers who were just in it for the freebies. They were merely fans from a
distance and not disciples at heart. Jesus, by his word, revealed who they
truly were.
“The true way for a Christian to live is to live entirely
upon Christ…Christians have experiences and they have feelings, but, if they
are wise, they never feed upon these things, but upon Christ, Himself.” - C.H.
Spurgeon
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