John 6:47–60 Unbelieving Disciples: Unless You Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood

Podcast: Download (29.7MB)

Unbelieving Disciples

John 6:47–60

Introduction: John introduced this chapter with the words, “The Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.” John’s intention is to remind us of the original Exodus, first in Egypt and then in the wilderness. When Israel left Egypt, they left the agony of bondage, but they also left an abundance of food. In Numbers 11, they complained saying, “We remember the fish that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” 

In the same way, Jesus led a multitude into the wilderness so that they would have nothing to eat and feel the need of being fed. But the multitudes made the same mistake as the wilderness generation. They believed Jesus was the messiah they had always desired who would fulfill the physical wants and rule over their enemies. 

However, consider the words of verses 48-49: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” Jesus is not stating the obvious. Of course they died. Everybody dies. No, that is not the point. Jesus is talking about spiritual death. The wilderness generation died apart from God! God had fed them “bread from heaven” so that they would understand that only God is the true giver of life. But what did that wilderness generation do? Every time they were physically hungry they complained about God. –– not just to God, about God. For the next 1500 years they never recognized God as the true bread that would give them true life. 

Therefore, Jesus began his whole lesson with the words, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.” 

That is the question we must answer from this text. Where is our hunger? Is it for the bread that perishes, the bread that when pursued leaves us dead just as the wilderness generation? 

The following text is considered by all as one of the “hard sayings of Jesus.” Are we ready for it?

1. Consider Jesus’ Offer
   1. First notice a repeated emphasis that Jesus gives throughout his teaching. This is easily missed:
      1. 6:27 “work…for the food that endures to eternal life”
      2. 6:33 “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” 
      3. 6:37 “…whoever comes to me I will never cast out” 
      4. 6:39 “this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day” 
      5. 6:40 “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” 
      6. 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” 
      7. 6:47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life” 
      8. 6:49 “Your fathers at the manna in the wilderness, and they died” 
      9. 6:50 “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die” 
      10. 6:53 “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 you” 
      11. 6:54 “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” 
   2. What are the conclusions we should draw from the verses above?
      1. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must have been for Jesus to continually repeat these words to a people he desperately wanted to save. Why won’t they listen! I think the answer is fairly simple: they do not know they are dead and therefore are not looking for bread that will give them life. And since their desire is only for physical bread/physical comfort, Jesus is not the messiah they desire.
      2. Look at what Jesus is offering from big picture of scripture. This is curse reversal. “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” That’s it. We will surely die. Verse 49, “Your fathers at the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” They died spiritually because they saw the manna but not the life-giving God who gave the manna. They called it manna because “manna” means “what is it?” Jesus came as the true bread, and they are still saying, “What is it!” Why can’t you see that no one can reverse the curse but God himself?
      3. The repeated statements of giving life and raising him up, is a reminder of the first prophecy: the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the Serpent. You are not just being offered life, you are offered freedom from the Serpent. 
      4. It is instructive to realize that when Jesus fed them in the wilderness, they clearly understood that he was showing himself as the new Moses. Consider how insulting that is to Moses and how insulting that is to God. In their minds, he is the new Moses because he fed them physical food. As Paul said in Phil. 3:19, “they are enemies of the cross of Christ; their end is destruction, their god is their belly, they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” 
   3. The choice Jesus presented is confrontational and bold. The pursuit of this world’s food is so culturally dominate that it easily becomes natural to us. Thus, the pursuit of God has become so secondary that we give it attention only if it fits conveniently somewhere in our pursuit for the food that perishes.
2. The Means to Life: Eating His Flesh & Drinking His Blood
   1. Notice how many times Jesus says these words:
      1. Verse 51: “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 
      2. Verse 53: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood…” 
      3. Verse 54-55: “whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood…for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” 
      4. Verse 56: “whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me…” 
      5. Verse 57: “…I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.” 
   2. First, note that verse 53 is the second time Jesus has used the word “unless.” Verse 44, “No one comes to me unless…” But the followup has to do with what we desire when we are drawn to Jesus by the Father. In other words, when something or someone draws us, what are we wanting that has caused us to be drawn? 
   3. We can answer the question by asking why these people were drawn to Jesus after they ate the loaves and fish? They were hungry, and they enjoyed being filled with the food Jesus provided. All of us are that way. Jesus used the bread analogy because food is such a strong desire in our lives and because we love to taste good food. It is the same for the food that endures to eternal life: Jesus is the true bread that we must desire to taste and consume. 
   4. There are two sad results that have come out of this text, and both have to do with how people have read it. 
      1. Some read and think of the Lord’s Supper. Now certainly, when we eat the Lord’s Supper we should think of this text; we should think of the true meaning. But Jesus is not talking about the Lord’s Supper. The Supper is just the symbol.
      2. Many read it and do not understand it, so they just go on with their reading as if Jesus was talking in angel language that no one can understand. That is especially sad since doing what Jesus said is the only way to have life! 
   5. The terms “eat” and “feed” dominate the passage. Ezek. 2:8 – 3:3 and Rev. 10:9ff give us pictures of Ezekiel and John eating a scroll prior to going out and preaching its contents. We have seen God cause Hosea to go through the loss of an adulterous wife so that he suffers everything God is suffering and can relate that to the people. God is doing the same with us. He is having us consume Jesus so that we have life in ourselves, but also so that with that life in us we can be like Jesus and share his life with others. As with Ezekiel and John, until we consume the true bread, we cannot share it.
   6. Consider another parallel text: Deut. 8:3. “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” God caused Israel to hunger in order to get them to turn to the true food. Maybe our problem is that we are just eating too well. Maybe if we weren’t always “full” we would give more thought to our inner needs and realize that our souls are starving. But “outer fullness” tends to mask inner hunger. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied…Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.” (Luke 6:21, 25).
   7. Consider verse 58: “Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Notice the present tense. Feeding on the bread that came down from heaven must be an ongoing experience. This is a completely different command than “Repent and be baptized…” But we must make this very clear in our minds. If one does not repent of their sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, that person is obviously still in their sins and not saved. But it is just as true, and more so, that “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 you.” Are we tracking with that?

Berry Kercheville