"Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53)
On Sunday evenings we are doing a verse by verse study of the Gospel of John. Last night we discussed John 6:52-59. This passage is often misunderstood as a reference to the Lord’s Supper.
It cannot be about communion for the following reasons:
1. Because Lord’s Supper was not instituted till the night before He was betrayed.
" For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;" (1 Corinthians 11:23)
2. Because Jesus was addressing unbelievers in John 6 [the superficial crowd from the feeding of the 5,000 and the skeptical crowd from the religious elite called “the Jews”]. while the Lord’s Supper is for Christians only.
" Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 11:27)
3. Because the eating and drinking spoken of in John relates to salvation, while the eating and drinking that is part of the Lord’s Supper relates to remembering Christ’s work of salvation.
"Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:54)
4. Because the Lord’s Supper does not produce the same kind of results alluded to in John 6. The eating and drinking in this text yields a special union with Christ.
"He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him." (John 6:56)
So if eating and drinking Christ is not about the Lord’s Supper then what is it about?
I suggest that it is about a deep commitment to Christ. The context of this passage discusses what it means to have faith in Christ. Jesus concludes by calling for a radical commitment to Him. We even have an expression in this culture of describing our fanatical devotion to something as “we eat, drink, and breathe…” Or in this part of the country I have often heard the expression “my blood runs orange” to describe ones appreciation of the Tennessee Volunteers.
Likewise eating and drinking in John 6 is an expression of our devotion to Jesus.
James Montgomery Boice shared a fitting illustration that provides clarification to this passage. It was so meaningful for me I thought it was worthy to repeat in its entirety.
If Jesus has not become as real to you as eating and drinking, let me suggest that you do something similar to that which a bride does in promising herself to her husband. Before the ceremony the bride can do anything she likes. In fact, if she wants to, she can even cancel the whole wedding, for she can decide even at 1:58 that she has made a mistake and cannot go through with a 2:00 ceremony. However, when the ceremony begins she comes to the place where she speaks her vows and, on the basis of those vows and those of her husband, is pronounced a wife, his wife. She is now no longer her own. At the same time, her groom pronounces his vows to her, and he becomes hers no less than she becomes his.
Apply this now to him who is the faithful lover and bridegroom of the church, and to you and me who are his bride. It is he who has courted us and wooed us. We did not choose him. It is he who has pronounced the vows first of all. His vows were pronounced in eternity long before the foundation of the world. He said, “I, Jesus, take you, John Smith (Mary Jones, or whatever your name may be), to be my wedded wife. And I do promise and covenant, before God and these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful husband, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, for time and for eternity.” We looked up into his loving face and eyes, believed his promise, and repeated his vow.
In the case of the church something great happened between the speaking of this promise by Christ and our repetition of it. Between his vow and our vow, Jesus went to the cross where he paid an infinite price for our sin, purchasing us so that we could be free of sin, guilt, and shame as we come to him. We see his sacrifice. With that in mind we repeat, “I, sinner, take you, Jesus, to be my wedded husband. And I do promise and covenant, before God and these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful wife, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, for this life and for eternity.”
That is what faith is. That is what it means to eat Christ’s flesh and drink his blood. It is to commit yourself to him. It is to accept his promise and pledge on your behalf and to repeat his promise, vowing to be his for eternity. If you have done that, you have done the most important thing there is to be done in this life, regardless of what you may already have accomplished or may yet accomplish. If you have not, you should know that today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of your union with Christ, if you will have it so.
James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John : An Expositional Commentary, Pbk. ed., 525 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2005
"Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53)
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