John 6:51-58
This text is used for the Lectionary Year B on August 16, 2015.
(This is the second of three reflections on Jesus’ “I am the bread of life” statements in John 6, and all three really need to be read together.)
Our text begins with Jesus’ shocking affirmation that He is “the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh . . . .” (6:51).
It is really not possible for Gentile Westerners to fully appreciate the shock and consternation precipitated by this statement. Jesus was speaking to Jews, for whom the consumption of animal blood had been forbidden for over a thousand years (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 3:17, 17:10-14; Deuteronomy 12:23-24). As offensive as the idea of drinking human blood and eating human flesh are to us today, the horror with which Jesus’ Jewish audience received these words is beyond all imagining.