Jesus the Bread of Life

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6:53-59 NIV).

 

The Jews begin to grumble. They don’t like what Jesus is saying. He isn’t talking about restoring the glory of the kingdom of Israel. He isn’t organizing a rebel force to overthrow the Romans. He isn’t even talking about filling their bellies with loaves. The only bread He is talking about is the bread of life. He says that this bread of life that came down from heaven is He Himself! How absurd! We’ve known Jesus for a long time. We know His parents. He must be insane to say that He is the bread that came down from heaven!

 

Jesus goes farther. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Now they begin to argue sharply. How can we eat His flesh! That sounds like cannibalism. Jesus is steadfast: 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. Jesus meant what He said. Real eating. Real drinking. He isn’t using the word flesh in a figurative way. He is not describing the sinful human nature, as St. Paul does in his letters. There is no getting around what Jesus is saying. His flesh is real food, and His blood is real drink. The one who feeds on Him will live. The Israelites eating the manna in the wilderness was a shadow of the true bread from heaven that was to come, Jesus.

 

The question asked is a valid one: How can this man give us His flesh to eat? We don’t know how it works, but we do know the means through which He gives it. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave it to His disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Take, drink ye all of it. This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.” Jesus provides for us a means to receive His unmerited favor, by eating His flesh and drinking His blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.

 

The Marburg Colloquy - Hoc Est Corpus Meum

Not a sacrifice re-presented to God, but the Bread of Life distributed to those who are His own. God’s word of promise, the forgiveness of sins, joined to physical elements of bread and wine for our benefit. Eating and drinking that bread and wine, we eat the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Believing Jesus’ words, we have what He promises: His body and blood, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The Sacrament of the Altar is given as a daily pasture and sustenance, that faith may refresh and strengthen itself.[1] But here our wise spirits twist themselves about with great art and wisdom. They cry out and bawl, “How can bread and wine forgive sins or strengthen faith?” They hear and know that we do not say this about bread and wine. Because, in itself, bread is bread. But we speak about the bread and wine that is Christ’s body and blood, and has the words attached to it. That, we say, is truly the treasure - and nothing else - through which such forgiveness is gained.[2]

 

 

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[1] McCain, Paul Timothy., ed. Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions: A Readers Edition of the Book of Concord. Translated by W. H. T. Dau and F. Bente. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House, 2009. LC V 24

 

[2] Ibid. LC V 28-29