John 6:51-58
The Message
47-51 “I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life.
I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died.
But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven.
Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever.
I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever!
The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”
52 At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves: “How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?”
53-58 But Jesus didn’t give an inch.
“Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you.
The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day.
My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you.
In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me.
This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.”
Jesus is the Bread/Manna of Life
Torah Portions
(Understanding the scripture from the hebraic perspective)
Eat my Flesh; Drink my Blood
Years before the Last Seder occurred, Yeshua told the people of Capernaum to eat His flesh and drink His blood.
How were the people present that day supposed to eat Him?
The text in John 6:53 is ordinarily understood as a sacramental reference to the cup and bread of Passover, but chronologically speaking, the Last Seder had not yet occurred.
Instead, Yeshua invited the people to come to Him, look to Him, and believe in Him.
DESCENT FROM HEAVEN THE REAL DIFFICULTY
The manna of the wilderness did not impart eternal life.
Those who ate the manna in the wilderness died because,
“Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
The Master contrasted the living manna (Himself) against the manna in the wilderness.
He implored the people to set aside their objections.
He said, “I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life” (John 6:47-48).
Yeshua is the heavenly bread that came forth from the mouth of the LORD, “the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die … if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:50-51).
Some of the people in the Capernaum synagogue that day (many of whom had come looking for another miraculous feeding) misunderstood.
They objected and began to argue with others,
“How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52).
Undaunted, the Master turned their misunderstanding into a further teaching:
“Amen, amen,” He said, “I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves” (John 6:53).
The image is disturbing even outside of a Jewish context where the Torah severely censures ingesting blood.
Yeshua took the imagery even further:
“He who eats 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” (John 6:54-55).
How were the people present that day supposed to eat Him?
Yeshua was not actually made of manna or bread. Nor did He expect the congregation in the Capernaum synagogue to gather around and begin to cannibalize Him.
He explained to the people,
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56).
In other words, consuming the Master’s flesh and blood consists of abiding in Him and allowing Him to abide within oneself.
Like food that nourishes the body and becomes one with the human body, Yeshua nourishes the human spirit and becomes one with the spirit.
In the Torah and the teachings of the rabbis, the manna from heaven mystically represents the study and incorporation of Torah—the Word of God—into one’s consciousness and life.
A similar meaning lies behind the Master’s words.
Yeshua compared Himself to manna.
Eating the manna (which is Messiah) symbolically means coming to Him, looking to Him, and believing in Him.
He had already made that much clear earlier in the discourse:
This is the work [required by] God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. (John 6:29)
Come to the Son, behold the Son, and believe in Him. (John 6:35, 40)
Listen to the Father and learn from Him and come to the Son (6:45).
Believe in the Son and receive everlasting life. (John 6:47)
Selah (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Friday, June 10
cFaith – Freedom in the Word
Verse A Day
HIS FLESH AND BLOOD
by Tim Davidson
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”
— John 6:56
Jesus said that if you eat His flesh and drink His blood, you are one with Him, and He is one with you.
This statement may be very difficult to understand if we try to explain it naturally.
Eating flesh and drinking blood is not culturally acceptable. But when we endeavor to understand this spiritually it makes tremendous sense to us.
The Message Bible says:
“By eating My flesh and drinking My blood you enter into Me and I into you.”
Partaking of Jesus is partaking of the Word of God.
We are to taste and see that the Lord is good.
We are to eat His Word and we will be eating His substance.
We are to drink of the water of the well of salvation and drink in the Spirit of God to sustain us in this dry and thirsty land.
Put spiritual things first and you will be eating and drinking the heavenly components that will uphold you.
Today’s Thought to Take With You:
I eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus through the Word.
These are the spiritual substances that God provides for me in Christ Jesus.
Source: A Verse A Day
by Tim Davidson
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