Have you ever wished you could have been one of the crowd listening to Jesus as he preached the gospel about 2000 years ago? You would have hung on to every word, right?

You’d have followed him faithfully to the end, and been one of the members of the early church in Jerusalem.

Well, perhaps, but then again perhaps not.

Imagine yourself as one of the crowd in the synagogue at Capernaum. You had either heard of, or actually witnessed the feeding of the 5000 on the other side of the lake. There is an exchange of words between Jesus and some people present, many of whom seem to be in disagreement with him. It’s all about bread, and Jesus is making a rather extraordinary statement that he himself is “the bread from heaven.”

Suddenly he drops a verbal bombshell. He says “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever, and this bread which I will offer so that the world may live, is my flesh” (John 6:51 NLT).

There is murmuring among the congregation. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they ask. Then it gets even more difficult. “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you” (verse 53). You can hardly believe what you just heard. These are highly offensive words. Has Jesus forgotten that blood consumption is forbidden by the law? (Leviticus 17:4).

As you try to make sense of what Jesus just said, he gets really personal. “Does this offend you,?” he asks. You watch sadly as many of your fellow disciples turn away and desert him. But somehow you feel this is not the end of the matter, so you wait to hear what Jesus will say next. He looks at the Twelve and asks, “Are you also going to leave?”

And then Peter, always first up with questions and answers replies: “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life” (verse 69). In spite of his impulsive nature, Peter had moments of great insight, such as when he affirmed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16).

The question is, by this time, would you still be listening to Jesus, or would you have left the synagogue in disgust and disbelief like most of the other disciples?

Our daily bread

As modern day disciples of our Lord and Saviour, we have to penetrate the spiritual meaning of our Master’s words so as not to be offended. Jesus gives us a clue in verse 63 of this chapter. “The Spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life.” But wait a moment, is Jesus contradicting himself? He just told his followers to eat his flesh, and now he says it counts for nothing?

Traditionally, Christians have understood this to relate to the sacrament of The Lord’s Supper where they partake of bread and wine, symbolizing Christ’s flesh and blood. But Jesus’ words are not confined to that occasion. He intended the ceremony to include not only remembrance of his past death, but realization of his present life. It has everything to do with our day-to-day relationship with Jesus, our daily spiritual “bread.”

After the Flood, God gave Noah and his sons permission to eat meat, but they were admonished, “…you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it” (Genesis 9:4). To emphasise this and explain further, God said later to the Israelites, “For the life of a creature is in the blood…”(Leviticus 17:11). Clearly, God didn’t mean for us to have the life of animals running in our veins. But “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:56). These words make perfect sense if we think in terms of blood remaining in our veins, and keeping us alive.

Jesus came not just to give us an example of a way of life, but spiritual life itself. If we accept his invitation to partake of the spiritual food and drink he is offering, the life of Jesus is in us, flowing through our minds and hearts just as blood flows through the veins of every living being.