John 6:52-71 Unless you eat My flesh....

          John 6:52-58 The Jews begin an internal argument among themselves about how it would be possible for a person to voluntarily offer their own body in some kind of cannibalistic meal. Jesus tries at this point to explain the sacramental aspect of the Lord's Supper. His flesh is true food, His blood is true drink. Physical food and drink are mere copies, weak shadows of the real things. Spiritual life comes from receiving Him, consuming Him, drawing life from Him, and thereby receiving eternal life.

          It was probably not even in the back of their minds that the blood sacrifices that were offered as part of the temple worship, and are also offered by pagans as part of pagan worship, are all intrinsically drawing on the innate human understanding that life is in the blood. (Leviticus 17:10-14) It was later explained in the epistle to the Hebrews. (Hebrews 10:1-18) The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but they all prefigured or were a picture of the offering of Christ, whose blood would take away sin, opening the door to God putting His law and His righteousness in the hearts and minds of His people.

John 6:59-71 The foregoing passage was actually not on the occasion of His multiplication of the loaves and fishes, but in the synagogue in Capernaum. His disciples rightly said this is a difficult statement. Jesus told them that only the Holy Spirit could enable them to receive the teaching He had just given them, and that would only come through faith in Him. There is almost an aside here, that Jesus already knew that Judas Iscariot would betray Him, and that Judas had no spiritual depth whatever. One almost has to wonder why Jesus called Judas as a disciple. We could speculate - perhaps it is the universalism of Jesus' call - that Judas had a chance, heard everything the other disciples heard, and could have responded in faith at any time, but chose not to. Or perhaps Jesus called Judas because He knew that the prophecies had to be fulfilled. Many others who had followed Him decided not to after this teaching. Simon Peter gave a statement of faith. It doesn't necessarily mean Peter understood everything Jesus had said, but the Holy Spirit was stirring - Peter knew that Jesus was speaking on behalf of God and offering eternal life.

          Sometimes unbelievers say that the reason they will not become Christians is that people who claim they are behave in ways that contradict what Jesus taught. This may often be the case. But here people in large numbers turn away from Christ because of what He taught. He did not attempt to soften this teaching with words about love. He said that all who came to Him would have eternal life, but He did not in any way back off from His teaching about His body being food that must be consumed to have eternal life, even though it caused people to stumble. We can only speculate that the reason for this insistence is that, in the Lord's Supper, we proclaim the Lord's death until His coming again, by eating the bread and drinking the wine, and that it is His death that saves us and gives us eternal life. (I Corinthians 11:26)  There is no other way. Receiving the communion elements in faith is the only way that it can be effectual in our life. Rejecting them, or receiving them without faith, is rejection of faith in the efficacy of the death of Christ to save us. If people stumble over this, no matter how much they want the Jesus of love and acceptance, they do not have Him.