John 6:51-55 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks by blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

Jesus’ true gift is not just his ideas, his teaching. It is himself, his life, and what he did with all of that. You may think you want a teacher. He wants to be your Savior, your Lord, and your God. That’s what he is giving. Jesus illustrates this with the picture of eating his flesh.

Some of the people in the crowd seemed to miss the picture, as though he was advocating cannibalism, and he himself was going to be the main course. The wider context of his teaching here helps us see that this is not what he means. For the moment I think it is clear enough to us that cannibalism has never been an acceptable practice in the Bible faith.

Some people today have seen a reference to communion or the Lord’s Supper in Jesus’ words here. And there are some parallel expressions between John 6 and Jesus’ words with the disciples at the Last Supper that make such an idea understandable. But the Lord’s Supper didn’t exist yet. It was still over a year away. How could anyone be expected to get what he was saying if that is what he meant?

In spite of the potential for misunderstanding his picture, Jesus does not abandon it. He doubles down on it. He drives it home. But as he does, he helps us connect the dots to what he has said earlier, and understand what his picture means.

Refuse to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood, and you have no life in you, not the kind that matters with God. You are a spiritual corpse. Eat Jesus flesh and drink his blood and you will live forever, and Jesus will raise your physical corpse from the grave. At least four times in the earlier part of the conversation, Jesus had told these people that he gives eternal life either to those who “come” to him, or those who “believe” in him. It is clear that the eating he describes here is a picture of that coming, and that believing.            

Again, that is more than believing some random statement of Jesus is true. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” This is more than sitting in class for a few minutes, or in church, and learning a few tidbits to think about this week. This is an unbroken, unending connection, a mystical union, the combining of two lives, your two beings. It is a relationship you take with you at all times, wherever you go. Jesus doesn’t want to be your acquaintance. He intends to become your life.