Jesus' Teaching on Flesh and Blood: John 6 Explained
I recently received this question from a member in my church and decided to turn my answer into an article in the hopes that it might assist someone else asking a similar question.
“I have a question? I’m listening to a podcast, and they are making the argument that John 6:52-58 means that you must eat Jesus’ flesh and blood or you have no life. This is obviously a catholic perspective but I was just wondering about this passage or if you have like a podcast or something on this topic that I can understand this argument better.”
John 6:52–58 (LSB)
52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”
53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.
54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.
56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.
58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
The first item is to understand the surrounding context into what led to this question-and-answer time between Jesus and the Jews. This section in John’s gospel is dealing with the understanding of the soon to come New Covenant and the difference from that of the Old Covenant from the Old Testament era. Jesus is using metaphorical language in answering questions the Jew’s had from the Old Covenant and what Jesus is teaching during His earthly ministry as He talks about the “Bread of Life” and why He came and what He will accomplish.
Before we arrive at our passage in question look at John 6:49-50, Jesus compared the manna (bread) God sent to the Israelites in the wilderness with Himself as the "bread of life." The manna helped keep the Israelites physically alive, but it couldn't give them eternal life or meet their spiritual needs. Unlike manna, Jesus came from heaven to offer eternal life and spiritual fulfillment. The evidence of this difference is clear: everyone who ate the manna eventually died.
With that in mind look at our passage, John 6:51-59. We can break this section down into three parts to understand and interpret it easier.
Jesus’ Statement (v. 51): Jesus repeated what He had said earlier (in verses 33, 35, 47, 48). When He talked about the "bread" being His flesh, He was pointing ahead to His sacrifice on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus willingly died to save sinful people (John 10:18; 1 John 2:2).
The Crowd’s Confusion (v. 52): The people didn’t understand what Jesus meant. Throughout His ministry, they often missed the deeper, spiritual meaning of His words (see John 3:4 and 4:15). The Jewish law also forbade drinking blood or eating meat with blood in it (Leviticus 17:10-14; Deuteronomy 12:16; Acts 15:29), which made Jesus' words even more confusing and upsetting to them.
Jesus’ Promises (vv. 53-59): When Jesus talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He was using a metaphor. Just like eating and drinking are needed for physical life, believing in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is needed for eternal life. His words symbolized the importance of accepting His death for our sins. The Jews struggled with this idea because they couldn’t imagine a Messiah who would die on a cross (see Acts 17:1-3). Their misunderstanding showed their spiritual blindness. Similar to the woman at the well when Jesus told the woman He could provide water that would cause her to thirst no more, this was referring to the life-giving nourishment the Spirit provides of salvation for eternity, not a temporal form of sustenance.
Interpretive Issues:
The reason many have issues interpreting this is they do not recognize the teaching pattern of Jesus and His use of parables and analogical language. He teaches this way to help those with ears to hear, hear, and those without to be confused. When we read our Bibles, we need to look out for metaphorical language to help identify when the author is making a switch, and remember to use the literal, grammatical, historical method of biblical interpretation. I always take the text to be literal, unless the grammatical structure dictates otherwise. For example, in this, the literal hermeneutic is being applied until I come across metaphorical language, then I need to take the time to slow down to realize the author is emphasizing something of importance for us to understand. In this instance, it is directly quoting from Christ how He taught, and the importance of recognizing Jesus is the only source of true life giving sustenance in the spiritual sense.
Finally, this section is not talking about communion or Transubstantiation (where the bread and cup literally turn into Jesus’ body) because Jesus wasn’t talking about communion (the Lord’s Supper) in this section. Here are two easy to understand reasons.
Timing: Communion hadn’t been introduced yet.
Meaning: If this was about communion, it would imply that taking communion alone could give eternal life, which isn’t the case.
I pray this helps you, and anyone you may come in contact with regarding this issue.