John 6: Eating is Believing
I am gradually, at an almost glacial pace, completing my translation, paraphrase, and notes on the Gospel of John (John is a very different place to Paul and the Synoptics!).
Here is my paraphrase of John 6:41-58
41 Now the Jews began to gripe and grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” 42 and they were mocking him, “Is this not Jesus, Joseph’s son? We know who his parents are, so how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus replied to their derision, “Do not disparage me so quickly! 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them towards me, and I will raise them up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And everyone will all be taught by God.’ What this means is that everyone who listens to the Father learns from my teaching. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one from heaven who has seen the Father. 47-48 I tell you, truly and honestly, whoever believes I am the bread of life has eternal life 49 Your ancestors ate Moses’ manna in the wilderness and yet they died in the wilderness. 50 Now this bread that comes down from heaven is different, anyone who eats it never dies. 51 I am the living bread from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, then they will live forever. The bread is my body, my life, that I will give for so that everyone in the world may live.”
52 Then the Jews began to debate among themselves, some were saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat? What are we, cannibals?” 53 Then Jesus said to them, “I tell you, truly and honestly, unless you eat the Man’s flesh and drink the Man’s blood, you will never find true life! 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, that person has found the fountain of eternal life, and I will bring them into the resurrection of the dead. 55 For my flesh is authentic food, and my blood is authentic drink, food and drink that nourishes, heals, and saves. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has a special connection with me, just as I have a special connection with them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, so I live because of the Father, and whoever eats me and drinks me will also live, live with me and because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the ancestors who ate and died. For the one who eats this heavenly bread will live in eternal life.”
What does it mean to eat his body and to drink his blood and live?
What is astounding to me, even ironic, is that John’s Gospel has no sacraments. Jesus is never baptized. There is no institution of the Lord’s Supper. And yet, the entire Gospel has a sacramental feel. As if Jesus is himself the living sacrament, the incarnate means of grace, who teaches truth, who brings us into spiritual worship, and who imparts heavenly life into us!