An Unavoidable Offense

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Opening Prayer

Holy Spirit, You were there at creation, bringing order out of chaos. Bring order into my broken world.

Read John 6:41-59

^[41] At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ^[42] They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” ^[43] “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ^[44] “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ^[45] It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. ^[46] No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ^[47] Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ^[48] I am the bread of life. ^[49] Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ^[50] But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ^[51] I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” ^[52] Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ^[53] Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ^[54] Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ^[55] For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ^[56] Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ^[57] Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ^[58] This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ^[59] He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Meditate

“This ‘eating’ (51), in the Greek, refers to a singular event, a decision to believe and appropriate the gift of eternal life” (Gary M. Burge). Think back to when this happened to you.

Think Further

Jesus developed his claim to be the bread of life and spoke of his origin in heaven, but the crowd found this hard to accept. This was a local man, teaching in his local synagogue (59), yet making extraordinary claims about his origin: How can a man whose name and address they know be God? The scene has many parallels to Luke’s account in the synagogue in Nazareth: Luke describes the events in the synagogue where Jesus had been brought up (Luke 4:16-30), while John described the events in the synagogue where Jesus was living. Both communities use local knowledge to reject Jesus’ claims. But the central truth of the Christian faith is that God the Son, through whom all things were made, not only became flesh and blood, but flesh and blood with a local address.

Jesus’ words seemed increasingly shocking. Because he, the Word made flesh, was the bread of life, becoming his disciple involved eating that bread: “eating his flesh.” Worse still, it involved “drinking his blood.” This, in particular, caused real offense to his hearers, because the Law required abstinence from animal blood (Lev. 17:10-16). His hearers made the wrong connection, however. Jesus was not speaking literally, to contradict Leviticus, but metaphorically, about the very purpose of the sacrificial system in Leviticus: “It is the blood that makes atonement” (Lev. 17:11). It would be on the cross that he would give his flesh “for the life of the world” (51). By his blood, he meant his blood that was shed for them as a sacrifice for their sins. Unless they would allow themselves to be nourished by this atoning self-giving, they would have no life with God at all, and no hope of sharing in the resurrection. Only through his death would they have eternal life.

Apply

There is something shocking about the cross. Paul called it a “stumbling block” (1 Cor. 1:23). Have you become so accustomed to it that it no longer challenges your pride?

Closing prayer

Lord Jesus, I praise You for Your body broken that I might be made whole, Your blood shed that I might be cleansed from my sins.

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