This reading comes directly after Jesus telling us that He is the new bread from heaven, and that we must eat His body and drink His blood if we want to have eternal life. This is NOT a metaphor, it is a true saying from the true Lord of the universe. He did not hedge, or equivocate in any way. He repeated this message more than 4 times in the full text of John 6, and In todays reading, when His disciples respond that this is a hard teaching and they cannot follow it, He lets them leave. This cannot be a metaphor, otherwise Jesus would have clarified and urged them to come back. It is a clear teaching and it is plain as day.
But everything in their culture at that time, Jewish, roman, or greek, made them think that this was cannibalism and for these men and women at that time, it was more than their sensibilities could handle. But it is not cannibalism! We know this because Jesus was a devout Jew and loved God’s Law, and would not have ever taught anything that was contrary to it, and cannibalism was absolutely forbidden in Gods Law. But we also know it because Jesus was God, and He said so!
Jesus was born of a virgin, the incarnate Son of God. He lived a perfect life, taught the Law of God, performed miracles, and He even claimed to be God on multiple occasions. That is in fact the reason why they crucified Him. But the difference between Jesus and all of the lunatics and liars that came before and after Him, is that Jesus proved that He was God. He Prophesied His Death and ressurection on multiple occations, was captured, and lead like a lamb to the slaughter. But then after 3 days He rose from the dead. This is not just the testimony of His disciples, His ressurection is one of the most well documented miracles in History…, by many people, including Jews, Greeks, and Romans, that had nothing to gain by documenting it.
So when Jesus says that He is the new bread of the covenant, the new covenant that Jesus brought into the world, we have to believe it. You cannot call yourself a christian and at the same time ignore the most clear and consistent teaching that He ever made. You must believe it, you must participate in it (the eucharist), and you must accept that it is only Jesus’s appostles and those that the appostles ordained as priests and bishops that have the power and authority to confect this eucharist in this world. And those priest and bishops only exist in the catholic church and the churches that are in full communion with it. This is not an arogant, or hateful statement, it is the truth as taught by Jesus Himself in the four gospels.
Jesus named Peter as His Pope, and His apostles as His first bishops, and in them alone did He give the power and authority to “bind and loose,” and in them alone did he give the power and authority to ordain more priests and bishops. Luther was a catholic priest, but when he committed his protestant heresy, he broke that apostolic line of succession, and all of the protestants that came after him were outside of the apostolic succession as well. This is not the selfish opinion of a self-righteous catholic, it is the plain teaching of our Lord Jesus, and His successors.
Lastly we need to address this line from todays passage. Jesus says: “It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” This line is used by some protestants to claim that Jesus was actually trying to bring back those that were leaving by saying it was just a metaphor. But when you actually understand the real meaning of the translated word here, you will understand that this is actually a fourth time that Jesus reaffirms his message of the eucharist and that you must eat it to have life. The word used here for “flesh” here is “sarx”, which translated means “fallen mortal flesh”, the word for “spirit” is “pneuma” which means the “holy spirit” or “the breath of life”, and the word for “life” is “zoe” which translated means “supernatural life” the life that we hope to have in heaven with God. When you also notice that Jesus says here “the flesh” not “my flesh” it is clear that He is saying, that nothing in this world will give you eternal life, It is only His words, and the clear teaching He has given, that you must eat His real body, and drink His real blood, that will give you eternal life.
So summarizing, Jesus says 3 times that he is the bread and you must eat it if you want eternal life. The jews grumble and challenge this teaching and finally leave, and as they are leaving he tells them that it is only these words that will give eternal life. I do not know how it is possible that any christian could ever read this and think it is actually a metaphor.
So what is the answer, how do we respond to this hard saying. Well Peter shows us the way. He says in response, “you have the words of eternal life, to whom would we go.” And this is in fact, the only way to respond to any of Jesus’ hard sayings, by making a spiritual act of trust and faith. It is the only answer that we can give, when we confront a mystery or hard saying. Jesus is the Lord of the Universe, God creator of all things, and we are asured of this fact by His ressurection, and so when He says that He is the new bread from Heaven, I believe it! When He says that you must eat His real body, and drink His real bloood, I believe it! And when He says that His words are true and that they are the only words that give eternal life, I believe it. Because He is God, and I am not, and because there is nowhere else to go.
God keeps the whole universe in existence in His mind. His plan is so vast, so huge, so completely beyond our ability to comprehend, that we simply must just respond, in awe that we cannot possibly comprehend. So we must simply just have faith. And trust that the one true powerful and loving God has our best interest at heart. As Augustine said, “I do believe Lord, Please help my unbelief.” He does want the best for all of us, and He wants us to be happy with Him for eternity. And when we can’t understand why or how this is possible, we must ask ourselves where would we go? Every other world religion is simply just the creation of man trying to understand the metaphysical, but you Lord are true God and true man. And there is truly no where else to go.
