Note our text: “Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Where do we often find this text read? Is it not at the Lord’s table, used as a reading prior to taking the Lord’s Supper? I think we have all heard it expounded on there. But is that what Jesus is talking about here? We suggest that it is not; it is not within the context of this section of John’s gospel. The background against which Jesus said these things will assist us in finding what he was speaking of.

Note in the text Jesus spoke of “eternal life.” But that is not the first time he mentions that in this general context. In verse 47 he said, “he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” And so a necessity for living is dealt with here. He then reminds his disciples of the time in the wilderness when God provided manna in a miraculous way that preserved their lives at that time (v. 49). But there is another “bread” which will produce “everlasting life,” and not merely physical life such as the Israelites enjoyed. Jesus plainly said, “I am that bread of life” (v. 48), and “I am the living bread which came down from heaven” (v. 51). Note also in v. 51 that if a man eats this “bread from heaven” he will “live for ever.” Therefore, there is something that man must assimilate into his being that will produce eternal life. Is it the emblems that we use for the Lord’s Supper? No, that was not their purpose. They are memorials to the of Christ. Certainly there is a connection between observing the Lord’s Supper and eternal life, in that a failure to observe it renders our service to God in that vein remiss indeed!

 

One asks, “how then may we eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood ” (text)? Let us follow the teaching of Jesus a little farther. In v. 63 he says, “,,, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” A little farther down in the text we learn that many of the disciples turned no more and walked with Jesus, whereupon he asked the apostles, “will ye also go away” (v. 67). The response to his query comes from Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (v. 68).

 

Now let us answer the question with which opened the previous paragraph – “how may one eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood?” It comes by a reception of the words of Christ into the life; a life that is obedient to and in conformity to that word. And so the thrust of our text is not the Lord’s Supper; it is the reception of the words of Christ. Christ uses a metaphor of “eating and drinking” to show that men must receive his words. It to absorb his teachings into the life.

 

Now this writer is not one that has a coronary when he hears John 6:53-54 used as a text at the Lord’s table. After all, it is a record of some of the teachings of Jesus. It is just that the Lord’s Supper is not what Jesus speaks of here. It “sounds so good,” and so well meaning brethren use it there. But the question is, “why must we,” when there are so many passages that do deal directly with the Lord’s Supper? - Bill Moseley