Today’s Gospel Reading (John 6:60-69) describes how the audience of Jesus’ discourse on the Living Bread of Life (John 6:22-59) reacted. And it was not good, indicating their inability to accept the Christological and soteriological truth in the discourse.
We
have been reading the Living of Bread Discourse since this Monday on to attain
resurrection and eternal life, to have Jesus living in us.
In his Living Bread of Life discourse (John
6:22-59), Jesus takes his audience progressively deeper in his Christological
truth pertinent to the salvific benefits of resurrection and eternal life,
describing himself as the Living Bread of Life from heaven, sent by the Father
in heaven. And, Jesus implicates that eating this Living Bread of Life means
eating the living flesh (σάρξ /sarx) of him. An emphasis should be on
“living”.
Ἐγώ
εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς
(John 6:35, 48).
Ἐγώ
εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν (John 6:51).
An action adjective, ζῶν (zon), living (v. 51), is more powerful than this form of
possessive noun, τῆς ζωῆς (tes zoes)
of life (v. 35, 48). First, Jesus introduced himself as ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς (atros tes zoes), bread of life, in John
6:35, 48. Then, he emphasized that this bread of life is living by describing ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς (atros
tes zoes) further as ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν(atros
ho zon), living bread (of life) in John 6:51. So, Jesus is not just baked
bread from heaven but the only living bread that gives us eternal life as it
leads to our resurrection, if you are drawn to Jesus through listening to and
learning from God. That is why God has said, as cited by Jesus, that we cannot
live with bread alone as we do need what comes out of His mouth, including His Living
Word of Life in teaching (Deuteronomy 8:13; Matthew 4:4//Luke 4:4).
Therefore, to take what he said and taught from John
6:31-51 further deeper, as he made it clear that the Living Bread of Life is,
in essence, his own flesh to be eaten to have eternal life (John 6:51), Jesus
said:
Amen,
amen, I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is
true flood, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have
life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life
because of me (John 6:53-57).
And, Jesus distinguished how his Living Bread of
Life, which he is, is from the manna, though both of them are from heaven (John
6:58), reiterating what he said in John 6:31-33.
Today’s Gospel Reading (John 6:60-69) describes and reflect how the audience of Jesus’ discourse on the Living Bread of Life (John 6:29-59) reacted, after showing some doubts (John 6:41-42, 52).
So, John writes that even many of Jesus’ disciples
found their master’s teaching on the Living Bread of Life is too hard to accept
(skleros) (John 6:60). Knowing this,
Jesus confronted them with these words:
Does
this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he
was before? (John 6:61-62)
Jesus is so blunt to challenge his audience’s
inability to appreciate and accept his teaching on the Christological truth,
leading to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, as the above statement is like
telling, “If this teaching on resurrection and eternal life through the Living
Bread of Life, my flesh to be eaten, bothers you, then, how can you see me in
glory of ascension? Get over it!”. Jesus is sending a powerful message – it’s
either you accept it and get it over with discomfort or never enjoy eternal
life! Jesus was not naïve to say, “Oh, I’m sorry to have made you so
uncomfortable. Yes, it was disgusting that I said ‘eat my flesh’”.
Jesus does not “sugarcoat” the truth in his teaching.
It is up to the audience whether to accept it or reject it. This way, Jesus
only keeps those whose hearts are genuinely for him and the truth in him. This
is how Jesus challenges and tests those who follow him. Jesus only keeps the
best. Remember, how this discourse on the Living Bread of Life started. It was
to confront the motive of the crowd that kept chasing him after being fed by
his fourth sign by multiplying five loaves and two fish (John 6:1-15, 26). He
gave this discourse on how the Living Bread of Life leads to resurrection and
eternal life to test if the crowd can accept the true food that endures for
eternal life or only want to fill their stomach with perishable food (John
6:27). So, Jesus was testing also his own disciples if their motive is more
carnal or spiritual to follow him.
Thus, Jesus said:
It is the
Spirit that gives lie, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken
to you are Spirit and life (John 6:63).
This is the bottom line of Jesus’ Living Bread of
Life discourse for resurrection and eternal life (John 6:29-59). Jesus wants us
to focus on the Holy Spirit, the essence of life for eternal life in him, in
his living flesh (σάρξ /sarx) (John
6:51, 52, 53, 54, 63), which is in the species of the Living Bread of Life (ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν/ atros ho zon)(John 6:51).
In John 6:63, σάρξ /sarx, is used not
of Jesus to be eaten but of ours.
Jesus’ statement in John 6:63 echoes Deuteronomy
8:3. Therefore, it is like saying that we cannot live a life according to what
our flesh dictates as we cannot live with bread (ἄρτος /artos - mere
complex carbohydrates) alone, because we need what comes out of the mouth of
God, including the kerygma, words spoken by Jesus, as these are, in essence,
the Holy Spirit, the life-giving breath of life (Genesis 2:7; John 20:22). And,
we can receive the Holy Spirit for eternal life by eating ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν(atros ho zon), the Living Bread of Life (John 6:51),
which is, in essence, eating the σάρξ /sarx,
the living flesh of Jesus (John 6:51, 52, 53, 54), not κρέας/kreas, slaughtered dead meat/flesh. This is the
Christological and salvific truth in him that Jesus wanted his audience,
including his own disciples, to accept through this discourse (John 6:29-59).
And, for them to accept, it is by their own typical human motive of flesh but
only by God’s guidance upon listening to and learning from Him, that they come
to and follow Jesus (John 6:64-65), reflecting what he said in John 6:36-40,
44-45.
Did Jesus’ audience accept the truth in his
discourse, upon more explanation and testing of their motive?
No, except for Peter and the rest of the twelve
original disciples, as Peter responded with these words:
Master,
to whom shall we do? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God
(John 6:69).
The above statement of Peter seems on target, as it
indicates his acceptance of the hard-to-accept truth in his discourse.
However, the rest of the audience, including other
disciples of Jesus and the crowd benefitted by Jesus’ fourth sign no longer
followed him as they abandoned him because the truth in his teaching of “eat my
flesh”(John 6:51,53, 54, 55, 56) was too hard to accept and disgusting. They
failed to accept, and therefore, departed themselves salvation, because they
could not think beyond what flesh dictates – because they could not think of
Jesus outside the cognitive box that their human minds crafted.
*****
The problem with his audience, including his
disciples and the crowd that chased Jesus out of their expectation to be fed
again with bread after being fed through his fourth sign of multiplying five
loaves and two fish (John 6:1-15, 26), was that they misinterpreted and
misunderstood what Jesus meant by “eat my flesh”(John 6:51,53, 54, 55, 56).
They thought that Jesus was promoting cannibalism, resulting in violation of
the prohibition of eating meat containing blood (Deuteronomy 12:23). But, does
Jesus’ teaching to eat his living flesh, which is with his blood, as blood
signifies life (Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy 12:23), violate the Torah in
Deuteronomy 12:23? Jesus also taught to drink his blood (John 6:53-56). Does
this violate Deuteronomy 12:24, which prohibits to consume blood?
Perhaps, those who abandoned Jesus after his Bread
of Life discourse had thought so.
What about you?
If you approach what Jesus teaches, his words,
according to what your own flesh dictates and according to how your human minds
recognizes, then, you would agree with those who left Jesus. But, if you always
listen to God and learn from Him, in your practice of faith, you are naturally
drawn to Jesus, not because of what your flesh craves or and what your human
mind thinks as good (John 6:45). Then, you can accept the truth in Jesus’
teaching of “eat my flesh” and “drink my blood”, not as violation of Deuteronomy
12:23-24.
If you want to defend Jesus’ teaching of “eat my
flesh” against the accusation of cannibalism, I invite you to focus on Jesus’
desire to be in us, and us in him, explicitly expressed in John 6:56 (cf. John 14:20; 15:4, 7; 17:21).
Jesus invites us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, which is a physical form
of his eternal life, a species of the Holy Spirit (John 6:63), all in the
Living Bread of Life that he is (John 6:51), so that he can enter innermost
part of us and live deep within us, as we are in him. Given John 14:20; 15:4,
7; 17:21 in his Last Supper farewell discourse, this is Jesus’ desire to be one
with us. Remember, we are eating the flesh of Jesus as the source of real life,
which is eternal life. Therefore, Jesus’s flesh must remain living (sarx),
never dead meat (kreas). In
cannibalism, even you eat a piece of sarx,
living flesh, it cannot remain alive as it is bitten into pieces by your teeth
and goes through your digestive system. This is physiology, a thinking of
flesh, a paradigm of human mind. But, Jesus teaches us that he continues to
live within us even after his living flesh is eaten by us. If we have “dead
Jesus” in us, it would not sustain us to resurrection and eternal life. Jesus
will never will never die again because he has conquered death as he already
died and was raised from the dead and ascended, so that the Holy Spirit is
readily available for his living flesh and blood for us to have eternal life,
in the species of the Living Bread of Life, which is further leading to Corporis et Sanguinis Christi (the Body
and the Blood of Christ), namely the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Therefore, we can reject the accusation that Jesus
taught cannibalism, in violation of Deuteronomy 12:23-24.
Hang on to this Christological truth from Jesus’
Living Bread of Life Discourse that we have been reading since Monday of the
Third Week of Paschaltide for the rest of your life. And, you will revisit this
truth and reflect on it again on Corpus Christi Sunday, which comes after Trinity
Sunday, which follows Pentecost Sunday.
Now, as to today’s First Reading (Acts 9:31-42).
When Saul (Paul) went through conversion and was
baptized, the Church had already grown out of Jerusalem and founded in all over
Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. With Paul brought into the Church as God’s
instrument, specifically to reach out to the Gentiles, the Church was expected
grow further throughout the Greco-Roman world.
The growing Church walked in fear of the Lord but
not in fear of her persecutors. The Church enjoyed inner peace, though the
world around her was hostile to her, as it was so to Jesus. She was able to
maintain inner peace and continue to grow because the Holy Spirit provided her
with consolation.
Peter’s amazing healing act for Aeneas in Lydda and
astonishing act of raising Tabitha from the dead in Joppa brought more people
to the Church.
Works of Jesus by the apostles and deacons continue
to draw more and more people to Jesus and to his Church.
This is all because Jesus remains living within Peter
and the rest of the apostles and deacons, like Philip. Yes, he also remains
living in Stephen, who was killed, as he is ready to be resurrected. Jesus
continued to live within them as they are filled with the Holy Spirit, enabled
to continue to build the Church by doing works of Jesus, teaching on him and
his truth in the Word and healing the sick and even raising the dead. This is a
proof that the apostles and the deacons have Jesus living within because they
eat his flesh and drink his blood constantly so that the Holy Spirit continues
to be poured in, beyond Pentecost, given Jesus’ Living Bread of Life discourse
(John 6:29-59) and his supplementary explanation (John 6:61-65).
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