Jesus said:
"I am the way and the truth and the life.
No-one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6.
JESUS - THE WAY: we must believe Him!
JESUS - THE TRUTH: we must obey Him!
JESUS - THE LIFE: we must trust in Him!

Bringing to you God's wonderful message as found in the Holy Bible.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Some people may find these words of Jesus offensive :-

"I tell you the truth,
unless you can eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you."? ^1*.

The day Jesus said these words many were so offended they left Him,

but those who sought His explanation were not offended!

Those who thought Jesus was expecting them to behave as cannibals and eat His flesh decided immediately to turn away from following after Him.

I wonder what YOU think of Jesus' statement?

Jesus is "the truth"
so we have to look and see what Jesus actually said,
and not just believe what we think is right,
or what we would like to believe!

When the crowd turned away from following Jesus because He said this, Jesus said to the Twelve apostles;

"You do not want to leave too, do you?"

Simon Peter answered Him,

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."^2*.

Did you notice - The twelve apostles who stayed with Jesus did not suggest they were staying for something to eat!
That is certainly not what they had in mind! Peter did NOT say they were interested because they believed Jesus had "the FOOD of eternal life"!....but because Jesus had "the WORDS of eternal life."

The crowd that left Jesus had only been following Him to get something to eat. They only wanted more of the miraculous free food they had received the previous day when Jesus had fed over 5,000 people. They were not wanting to believe the message He had repeated over and over again that day about coming to put their trust in Him to save them, and give them eternal life.^3*.
Their interest in following after Jesus was only to get food for their stomachs, not to learn God's way of salvation; and they were keeping others who might want to believe in Jesus from being able to get near Him!
So Jesus said something that He knew would really discourage those people from coming after Him just for something to eat. This was sure to stop them from making a nuisance of themselves!
What did Jesus say to them?

"I tell you the truth,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you have no life in you."? ^1*.

It is easy to see why the people who only wanted Jesus to feed them with free food were put off from continuing to run after Him! It seemed to them that Jesus was suggesting that they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood to keep alive!
They had heard enough!
They were hungry, but not that hungry!

When Jesus used parables they had the same effect. People who were not really interested in what Jesus was really saying would often go away not understanding the parable and not wanting to find out what Jesus meant! Jesus once gave this explanation to His true followers for His use of parables:

"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'" ^4*.

When people are not really interested in what Jesus says, then they will not even want to listen to His explanations!
Those who were interested in Jesus' message soon got help in understanding what He meant.
Jesus quickly made it clear to them that He did not intend them to really eat His body! He questioned their understanding of what He had said:

"What if you see the Son of man ascend to where He was before? The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing." ^5*.

You see, Jesus was going to be taking His body back to where He was before - He was going to ascend into Heaven again. His flesh would not be available for anyone to eat! anyway "the flesh counts for nothing" He told them!
So whatever Jesus meant about the eating of His flesh He did NOT mean that people were going to literally eat His body! Even if they could do such a horrible thing it certainly would not make them pleasing to God!

Paul tells us the same thing when he said that NOTHING we can EAT could bring us to God. ^6*.
And the Christian Church in the New Testament, taught by the Holy Spirit, clearly forbids the drinking of blood. ^7*.
And God has always forbidden the drinking of blood! ^8*.

So true Christians, knowing what the Bible teaches, realise that Jesus never intended His followers to literally drink His blood!

So, why did Jesus say the things He did in John 6, 51-58?

Even the child reading John's Gospel is familiar with the various "pictures" that Jesus uses to describe Himself. Here are a few of them:
"I am the DOOR." (10:9.); "I am the LIGHT." (8:12.); "I am the. SHEPHERD." (10:11.); "I am the TRUE VINE." (15:1.) "I am the WAY." (14:6.) "I am the BREAD." (6:48.)
Jesus never changed Himself into ANY of these things!
Jesus used each of these descriptions (metaphors) of Himself to help people to understand how important He is in different ways; and they help us to see how much we need to trust and depend on Him.
He is THE DOOR

- we need to trust Him to get us to God and Heaven;
BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN HE BECOMES AN ACTUAL DOOR AND WE HAVE TO LITERALLY PASS THROUGH HIM!

He is THE LIGHT

- we need to trust Him to put away the darkness of sin from our lives;
BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN HE BEGAN TO SHINE LIKE A LIGHT IN THE DARK!

He is THE SHEPHERD

- we need to trust Him to protect us and keep us from sinful dangers while we are surrounded by temptations in this evil world;
BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO BECOME REAL SHEEP AND HE COMES ALONG WITH HIS CROOK TO LEAD US!

He is THE TRUE VINE

- we need to trust in Him to make our lives produce things that are pleasing and acceptable to God (see Galatians 5:22-23.);
BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO CHANGE INTO BRANCHES THAT GROW OUT OF A VINE NAMED JESUS AND PRODUCE REAL GRAPES!

He is THE WAY

- we need to be willing to go along with the things He says we should do, and follow His teachings;
BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN HE BECAME A PATH AND WE HAVE TO WALK ON TOP OF HIM!

He is THE BREAD

- we need to believe that it was necessary for Jesus to give His body and blood "FOR US" (Not "TO us"!) on the cross. [John 6:51. See 1st John 2:1-2.] Because He did He is able to give life - Eternal Life - to those who look to Him and believe in Him [John 6:40];
BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN HE CHANGED INTO THE FORM OF BREAD AND WE HAVE TO LITERALLY EAT HIM TO RECEIVE LIFE FROM HIM!

So Jesus is NOT contradicting Himself in the two verses given above! When He said "I am the BREAD" and went on to say "My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink", Jesus was just using one of the many illustrations of Himself that John records for us.
The picture Jesus uses here was intended to illustrate what the all important and essential ingredient for our spiritual life was:

"I am the living BREAD that came down from Heaven. This BREAD is My flesh, which I will give FOR the life of the world."(John 6:51.)

Jesus was going to give His body and blood FOR US once and for all as a sacrifice on the cross. Because of that we would be able to receive Eternal Life from Him by faith in Him as our Saviour. ^9*.

So, Jesus never becomes real bread! nor does He become a real door! or a real vine! or a real light! Jesus uses all of these "pictures" to teach us important lessons about how necessary He is for our Salvation.
When we realilse that Jesus often spoke in parables and metaphors to illustrate His teaching we see that John 6:40 is not disagreeing with John 6:54 but is helping to explain it - (to those who want an explanation!).
But for those who were following Jesus for the wrong reasons their misunderstanding of what He said, and their unbelief in Jesus' teaching about having faith in Him, made them go away with ridiculous thoughts about His teachings.
For those who believed in Jesus and wanted to understand what He had meant, Jesus then had peace and quiet to explain His teaching to them.
What about you?
Will you look to Jesus by faith, believing in Him who gave His body and blood for you on the cross, and ask Him just now to forgive your sins and to give you Eternal Life.
That is the person whom Jesus will raise up at the last day! ^10*.

Bye for now,

Comments or chat to John at

jnixonj@gmail.com

For more about Jesus' teachings in John chapter 6 go to:

"Life giving food!"

In the light of what Jesus said about being "the Bread of Life" I'm sure you will find it interesting to look carefully now at what He said at the Last Supper. Go to:-

"A picture for you!"

OR

"A special celebration!"

OR

"Hypocrite received communion!"

CHILDREN BIBLE GOD JESUS GOSPEL GOOD NEWS EVERYONE LIFE ETERNAL HEAVEN HELL SALVATION ASSURANCE PEACE LOVE GRACE HOPE BOYS GIRLS HOLY BIBLE SIN SHORT STORIES BIBLE STUDY TRUTH CHILDREN CATHOLIC JUDGMENT HOLY SPIRIT

BORN AGAIN SCRIPTURE FAITH TRUST GOD'S WORD SON OF GOD RELIGION ETERNITY SAVED LOST CHILDREN GOD JESUS GOOD NEWS BOYS GIRLS CHILDREN JESUS GOSPEL GOOD NEWS

If you have found Good News interesting, helpful or challenging
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Bible quotations from N.I.V.

1 John 6:53.
2 John 6:67-68.
3 John 6:26-29, 35-36.
4 Luke 8:10.
5 John 6:62-63.
6 1st Corinthians 8:8.
7 Acts 15:23-29.
8 Leviticus 17:10-11.
9 Hebrews 10:11-14. 1st Peter 2:24.
10 John 3:36, 5:24. Romans 3:20-26.

Read the short

Colours Parable Poem

offering you a wonderful free invitation.