Originally posted by BobRyan:
In John 6 - nobody takes a bite out of Christ,
Hi Bob:
I’d like to discuss John 6, and I’ll have to admit that just as Jesus disciples stated about the disclosure of John 6, this is a hard saying. Here are a few points that I have had difficulty in coming to grips with.
1. We know from scripture that Jesus was often called a
Rabbi or
Teacher, so obviously Jesus taught as well as preached and He was regarded highly as a teacher.
2. When Jesus was speaking of His body being bread, He was obviously offending a lot of His disciples, even His inner circle were quite disturbed by this language. Jesus does nothing to clear up the matter, but continues to add that even His blood is drink. Now the Jews are really upset, obviously the Jews know that eating flesh and drinking blood goes against exactly what Moses taught their fathers.
3. Now Jesus defiantly makes matters worse by stating that in John 6:54 that whoever
eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life. I looked up the Greek word for eat and it’s the same Greek word that Jesus uses when he told His disciples that the one who will betray Him will eat the bread He gives him, meaning Judas in the Upper Room.
4. Now in John 6:55, Jesus states yet again, but this time more forcefully that His flesh is food
indeed and His blood is drink
indeed.
5. Next we see many of his disciples walk away and follow Him no more. Here is my problem with this whole disclosure of John 6. Jesus lets them go! Why would Jesus, who was often referred to as a Rabbi or Teacher, let those that have followed Him, seen Him perform many miracles, just walk away over a misunderstanding?
6. There’s instances were Jesus always cleared up any doubts in His disciples minds or at least attempted to anyway, when He saw they were having difficultly understanding, but not in the case of John 6.
7. Jesus was even willing to let His own inner circle simply walk away. Jesus even asks them if they were going to leave as well. Finally Peter speaks up and says that Jesus has the words of eternal life. My take on Peter’s response is that; Hey Lord, it’s a tough saying and I can’t understand it, but I’ll trust you and when the time comes, we’ll all understand.
8. I feel that all misunderstandings of John 6 in regard to His disciples, was cleared up at the Last Supper, when Christ again, referred the bread as His Body and the drink as His Blood and told them to eat (the same Greek word) and drink of it.
For as long as I can remember as a fundamentalist, we never studied John 6 or never heard a sermon on John 6. I would always hand wave John 6 off, but back in January of ’05 I was re-reading John and I wasn’t able to hand wave John 6 off any longer, and to this day I still haven’t been able to. I’ve talked to Pastors from Southern Baptist, to Fundies, and none have been able to satisfy my questions.
All the arguments I’ve heard has been Romaphobic (if that’s a word) arguments. And it always turns into Catholic bashing about hocus pocus.
So instead of focusing on the Catholic aspect, lets discuss how John 6 can not possibly be a forethought of communion of today.