Commentary on John 6:51-58

In this section of the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus introduces a profound concept: “flesh” (sarx). This term will dominate the conversation, representing Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. Jesus identifies himself as the bread of life “that came down from heaven”(6: 51), offering life to those who partake of his “flesh.” Once more, Jesus’ audience is shocked, given that the Torah forbids the eating of blood or of flesh with any blood left in it (Deuteronomy 12:23; Leviticus 17:14; 19:26). Besides, eating human flesh is practically impossible, so they ask, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (6:52).

Jesus does not respond to “how” he gives his flesh to eat, but reasserts that the bread he shall give is his flesh, adding that he is even offering more: “his blood” (6:53). Flesh and blood constitute human life, so Jesus claims that he is giving his flesh and blood through death so that people might have life. This act of sacrifice, this offering of his very self, is a testament to his love and devotion to us, and it should fill our hearts with gratitude and reverence.

This heavenly bread, akin to the manna their ancestors consumed in the desert, differs in one crucial aspect: it grants eternal life. The manna was temporary, as their ancestors gathered, ate, and died. In contrast, Jesus’ bread is his flesh, his very self that he has given up in death. “Flesh refers to humankind in its mortality (1:13; 3:6; 8:15; 17:2), and so it is appropriately used to express Jesus’ flesh given in death. The verb [para]didonai] means to hand over, to give, or to give up ‘on behalf of’ or ‘for the sake of’ (hyper) another person.”¹

Flesh alone or death alone does not give life. Jesus’ flesh gives life because he is “the Word [that] became flesh” (1:14). It is through his “coming down from heaven” and becoming flesh, through his words and deeds, and through his death that Jesus makes God known and gives life. “Through his word, Jesus imparts wisdom; in his dying, he imparts life.”²

The switch of discourse from eating and drinking, understood as believing in and coming to Jesus, to the more graphic and specific imagery of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking Jesus’ blood not only causes grumbling, as in the previous section, but causes a dispute. The language meets immediate resistance as it sounds like cannibalism. “How can he give us his flesh to eat?”As is typical of John’s Gospel, the absurdity of a statement should lead us to think beyond the ordinary, to interpret symbolically or metaphorically. Jesus is the “sacred food”³ that gives life and sustains it.

Jesus, as the sustainer of life, echoes John’s prologue, which presents Jesus as the Word (Logos) through which God created. Therefore, we can rightly infer that the same Word is the bread that sustains the life God created. Thus, Jesus’ teachings and actions become the metaphorical bread that gives us life and sustains us. The one who partakes of Jesus’ flesh and drinks Jesus’ blood remains in Jesus and Jesus in them.

Eating and drinking are outstanding metaphors for how we receive what Jesus offers his followers. To experience Jesus’ saving power, believers must feed on him: “must absorb his teaching, his character, his mind, and ways; must appropriate the virtue in him till his mind becomes our mind and his ways our ways; till we think somewhat as he would do if he were in our place, and can be and do what without him we could not be or do; and this because his power has passed into us and become our power.”⁴ What an excellent metaphor for a relationship so intimate and vital that Jesus compares it to that between Jesus and God!

This relationship between Jesus and the believer is not fleeting but enduring, as the Gospel draws a parallel to the relationship of Jesus and God (verse 57). What Jesus brings to this relationship is not something temporary but something that lasts and deepens into eternity. John is clear that the mission of Jesus is from Jesus’ Father and of the reciprocal indwelling of Christ and the believer. Jesus does not merely create and distribute food that humans need; he is clearly food and gives himself, flesh and blood, for the world’s life. The idea that Jesus gives life in his death is a central theme here.

Whoever eats Jesus’ flesh and drinks Jesus’ blood remains in Jesus and Jesus in him. In the Fourth Gospel, the verb “to remain” (menõ) designates the mutual indwelling between Jesus and God, an eternal relationship that Jesus invites his listeners to share (see 1:39; 14:10, 15:4–10). By giving his body and blood in his death, he invites his followers to a relationship that reflects Jesus’ relationship with God. This enduring relationship with Jesus should fill us with security and comfort, knowing we are always in his presence and care.

How do you respond to this great invitation to enter a deeper relationship with Jesus? How do you remain in Jesus to enjoy the fruits of this relationship with Jesus and, through Jesus, with a loving God?

Notes

1. Marianne Meye Thompson, John: A Commentary, The New Testament Library (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2015), 154–155.
2. Thompson, John: A Commentary, 155.
3. George Arthur Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary, vol. 8 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1991), 573.
4. Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Bible, 573–574.