Verse 51 marks the beginning of a distinct Second Discourse on the bread of life. It begins simply enough by repeating the message delivered in verses 35-50. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Jesus makes explicit the difference between that manna and the “bread” he now offers. The presence of God, as found in the presence of the life of Jesus, makes this bread accessible daily. Jesus is not only the eternal bread; he is to be our daily bread. Whoever eats (φάγῃ) of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”The bread of life Jesus offers promises deliverance from death. The theology of John makes it clear that he is speaking of a spiritual deliverance here. John 11:25-26 obviously denies any conclusion that believers will somehow avoid genuine physical death if they are participants in the bread of life. John invites us to devour Jesus. Of course, it is a grotesque image if we cannot get by the merely literal level, we need to think poetically rather than literally, scientifically, and mathematically which some imperial authorities in the early life of the church could not. In fact, one of the strangest topics I came across was the charge by Roman Empire authorities that early Christians were cannibals. When I first read about it, my reaction was, “Where did they get that.” In fact, one of the finest defenders of the faith in the early church, Justin Martyr, wrote eloquently to assure the imperial court that this was far from the case.
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat (φαγεῖν)?” 53 Therefore, Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat (φάγητε) the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, an imperative that have sounded appalling to Jewish audiences familiar with the prohibition against the consumption of blood found in Leviticus 17:10-14, you have no life in you. The new eschatological life, eternal life, is life in the full sense, as here, in comparison with which earthly life is such only with reservations.[1] 54 Those who eat (τρώγων, to gnaw, munch, crunch of herbivorous animals [2]) my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. John closely relates both realized and future eschatology. 55 For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat (τρώγων) my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. "Christ delivers us from ourselves in order that we may find Christ within us. Our journey to Christ is a journey into the depths of our own reality and into the reality that is all around us. Finding God and finding our true self have an intimate connection.[3] Receiving the Eucharist has this effect because it brings about an intimate connection with Jesus. John now extends the sacramental doctrine. It is not the eating and drinking itself that is important, but the personal union with Jesus that it brings about. The sacramental link becomes a personal union. In this verse, we find for the first time in John what scholars call the immanence formula, expressing in a characteristic way the close union between Christians and Christ. By mentioning the immanence of the communicant in Christ and immediately afterwards the converse immanence of Christ in the communicant, this formula of reciprocal union indicates simply but impressively the uniqueness of the union. In the earthly and human sphere, there is no counterpart to such mutual permeation without surrender of personality. The remarkable simplicity and conciseness of the wording must have been the fruit of an extended period of meditation and reflection on this mystery of faith. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats (τρώγων, feeds on) me will live because of me. The realistic understanding of the sacramental meal is not a magical one. Through the meal, Jesus unites himself directly with the participants, they live through him, and he will one day raise them. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate (ἔφαγον), and they died. But the one who eats (τρώγων, munches, feeds on, emphasizing and reveling in the physicality of the act) this bread will live forever.” Jesus discounts the value of physical bread in attaining salvation, emphasizing instead faith in his person. A more literal, if less elegant translation would be: “the ancestors ate” (using a past tense of the Greek verb esthio) “and died; the one munching this bread will live forever…” John invites us to “eat” of Jesus, to consume him, to devour him, to ingest him, and to feed on him. Truth is, “consuming” Jesus is good for us.
[1] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 347.
[2][Liddell and Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon 7th edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001), 823])
[3] Thomas Merton, The Living Bread, 93
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