“So Jesus said again, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in Him. I live because of the living Father who sent Me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on Me will live because of Me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” (John 6:53-58 NLT)
Perhaps hearing these words as Jesus spoke them would have been even more baffling and disturbing than they are to us today, but when we see them in their proper context, not only what He was saying, but how He was living His life, they become enlightening in powerful ways.
We can’t lose sight of the context of His words. He’d just fed 5,000 men, plus their wives and children, then gone away by Himself to pray, sending His disciples on ahead to cross the lake in their boat. After praying for several hours, He decides to take a little stroll across the water in a gale force storm while His disciples are fearing for their lives in their boat. As soon as Jesus entered the boat, they were at their destination.
The Bible is clear that the same crowd He’d fed the day before has now followed Him, walking around to the other side of the lake, so He’s well aware that they’re not seeking Him for spiritual food, but literal food. They want Him to teach them how to perform miracles so they can make a name for themselves and they’re hungry for Him to perform more miracles to prove Himself, “if you want us to believe in you.” They have no understanding of who He is, let alone what He’s calling them to.
Major W. Ian Thomas writes in reference to these verses: “From the context of this passage, we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ here uses the expression ‘to eat and to drink’ as representing ‘to come and to believe,’ so that those that come to Him and believe on Him enter into a unique relationship with Him – they dwell in Him and He dwells in them.”
It’s the same relationship He has with His Father. In John 5:19 Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” In John 15:5ff Jesus explains: “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.”
To know and love Jesus is to invite Him into our lives, to ingest His “flesh,” that He may literally abide with us and us with Him. His Spirit indwells us, informs us, guides, and in innumerable other ways, enables us to be nourished by His holy presence in our lives. To believe in Him is to place our trust in Him as our new Resident Lord, indwelling us in the person of His Holy Spirit, who in every way represents and demonstrates Christ’s life in and through us.
The only way any of us can overcome sin and the power of the enemy who is constantly attacking is through the power of His Spirit, never in the energy of the flesh. The only thing that differentiates us from any other human being is the invisible, indwelling life of our Savior in whom we’ve placed our trust and in whom we believe with our whole heart, mind, soul, and body. We feast on His “body” as we come to Him by faith, and we drink fully of His “blood” as we daily walk with Him moment by moment.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 