John 6
John 6:51-52 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?"
This is a passage that confuses a lot of people. The mistake they make is reading the Lord's Supper into it. If this were about the Lord's Supper, then Jesus would not have said, "Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you,"(John 6:52) because that would mean eternal life comes to us through the Lord's Supper. This cannot be true because all over John's gospel and the rest of the New Testament, it is made very clear that we gain eternal life, not by participating in the Lord's Supper, but by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for us on the cross.
One commentator put it this way, "John 6 is not about the Lord's Supper; rather, the Lord's Supper is about what is described in John 6." The Lord's Supper is a great place to do what John is describing here. The CROSS is the center of this message. Jesus is going to give his life for the life of the world. What Jesus is saying is that either I die and you live, or, I live and you die. The Bread of Heaven would be given so we can live.
The reality is something must die for us to live. Anyone growing up on a farm knows that. City folk don't think that way. What are you doing when you eat a quarter-pounder? You are eating dead cow and dead lettuce, pickle and tomato, dead pepper; everything you are eating is dead. In fact, it died for you. Either it dies and you live… or it lives and you die.
So how do we feed on Jesus? By believing. Jesus is telling us that faith feeds on a relationship with him. Faith is more than believing that certain things that happened a long time ago are true. Faith brings us into communion with Jesus, who died and rose, through which we feed on Him, share fellowship with Him, and draw strength from Him. Christ is our strength. Christ is our joy. Christ is our peace. Christ is our comfort. Christ is our hope. Christ is our life.
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