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In the Beginning: The Book of John
(John 6:52-60[HCSB])
52 At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat? ”
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53 So Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54 Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, 55 because My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. 56 The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me, and I in him.
57 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. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your fathers ate and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
59 He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 Therefore, when many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard! Who can accept it? ”
This teaching is hard
This passage precedes many of Jesus’ disciples deserting Him. At the end of this lesson in verse 6:60 we read:
Therefore, when many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard! Who can accept it?
Jesus is using what will be the Passover sacrament to make clear that it is the literal sacrifice of Himself which will be the path to salvation; and that the language is not a metaphor or allegory. There are 3 issues at play that all hearers must accept to believe and to understand:
One must believe that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was imminent, literal, and was required to redeem all believers.
This passage was not an allusion to pagan rites of human sacrifice, nor was it an invitation to cannibalism.
The belief that such a personal sacrifice inexorably connects Jesus to Moses, the exodus of the Jews, the fulfillment of messianic prophecy, and that such a sacrifice is life-giving as was the manna in the desert at a time of great hunger.
I don’t believe that such language is hard to accept, but that the concept is very hard to understand, or in contemporary terms, “hard to wrap our minds around.” It is much the same as accepting, rather than completely understanding, the paradox of the Holy Trinity.
Intellect can easily become the enemy of acceptance. Jesus asks us to first believe; to take Him at His word.
