Jn.6:53-55 – TPT – Jesus replied to them, “Listen to this eternal truth: Unless you eat the body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have eternal life. Eternal life comes to the one who eats my body and drinks my blood, and I will raise him up in the last day. For my body is real food for your spirit and my blood is real drink.
Of all the controversial things Jesus said and did this has to be at the top of the list. He had healed gentiles, ministered to a Samaritan woman, healed people on the sabbath, and actually drove animals and money changers from the temple with a whip. If we had the time and space we could make quite a list of offenses but this one took the cake. Jesus actually told the people that in order to have life they had to eat His body and drink His blood. How do I know this was the most offensive thing Jesus said or did? It was because the crowds stop following Him as a result of that statement. Asking the people to eat His body and drink His blood was just beyond what they could handle. They had seen and heard a lot of disturbing things but the signs and wonders kept them engaged. This was too far for most everyone to go. That had no idea what Jesus even meant, how could they? Their eyes were still blind until after the death, resurrection, and glorification of Jesus. Only then would the Holy Spirit come and give them light. Here is how Brian Simmons describes this.
“To eat his flesh is to take into our life by faith all that Jesus did for us by giving his body for us. To drink his blood is to take by faith all that the blood of Jesus has purchased for us. This “eating” and “drinking” is receiving the life, power, and virtue of all that Jesus is to replace all that we were in Adam. Jesus’ blood and body is the Tree of Life, which is offered to everyone who follows him.”
Christians of all persuasions have been eating His body and drinking His blood for 2000 years. This is the source of our life. It is not the bread and drink that gives us life but it is receiving the body and blood of Jesus by faith. It is in receiving Him and walking with Him that we partake of His very life. Just think about that, the most offensive thing Jesus said or did is the very essence of redemption and restoration to life.
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Just as the miracles of Jesus kept those who saw and experienced engaged, tuned in, alert not wanting to miss a single thing, so too is the Word for all of us and those to come. “His mercies are new every morning” That means to me every morning as I read His Word, I receive my daily bread, but unlike those that were fed for 40 years in the wilderness, “my breakfast” is ever changing, being refined, even allowing a different flavor to broaden my pallet. The only buffet with the very finest most exquisite food.