I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; 50 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” 52 The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” 53 Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 59 These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Jesus had previously told the Jews that the Manna their forefathers ate in the desert was not the true bread from heaven (Jn. 6:32) and that he was the true bread sent by the Father to give spiritual life to the world (Jn. 6:33). Their hunger and thirst will be satisfied by the Bread of life (Jn. 6:35). Jesus again repeated that he is the “Bread of Life” and those who ate the Manna died in the desert because it was only physical food (vv. 48-49). His flesh is the true bread that gives spiritual life and one can eat this true bread and live forever (vv. 50-51). In order to have eternal life, they must eat his flesh and drink his blood so that he can raise them to new life on the last day. The gift is not immediate, but it will be given at a future time, “The bread that I will give is my flesh” (v. 6:51). Jesus’ statement about giving them his flesh to eat caused shock and dissension among the Jews (v. 53). It became more intolerable when he said that eating his flesh and drinking his blood was the true food and true drink required to be consumed in order to be raised on the last day to eternal life. Drinking blood was prohibited by the Law (Lev. 7:26; 17:14). Just as Jesus shares in the Divine nature of God, so too all who eat his flesh and drink his blood will share in God’s Divine nature. There is no salvation or sharing eternally in God’s Divine nature without consuming the body and blood of Christ.
Almighty God, help us to accept the command of your Son to eat his body and drink his blood so that we may be raised by him on the last day to share eternally in Your Divine nature. This we pray through the same Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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