Thoughts on Transubstantiation

Thoughts on Transubstantiation from John 6

What is transubstantiation?

Transubstantiation is the belief that in the Lord’s Supper the bread and the wine transform into the actual body and blood of Christ. For those who hold this position the Lord’s Supper becomes a sacramental means for obtaining the grace of Jesus Christ. One of the passages cited to support this is John 6:51-55

John 6:51–55 ESV

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

What is Jesus saying in this text? Is he referring to the Lord’s Supper? Or is he talking about something else?

In order to answer these questions we need to look at the context of the passage and the overall book of John. Does Jesus use analogies like this in other places in the book of John? Lets look at the broader context of John then we will look at the context of John 6 to discover what Jesus means by eat my flesh and drink my blood.

Broader Context of John

In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses many analogies to express his point and we also see many people missing the point Jesus is trying to make. Here are a few examples;

Jesus and the Temple

After Jesus cleared the Temple from the money changers, the Jewish people wanting to know by what authority or power Jesus cleared the the Temple. This is why they begin to ask for a sign, they are wanting to know by what authority. Look at Jesus’ answer,

John 2:18–22 ESV

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up, was Jesus talking about the physical Temple? This is what the Jewish people thought he was referring to, they didn’t understand the analogy, even his disciples didn’t understand he was referring to his physical resurrection, until after Jesus rose form the dead.

You Must Be Born Again

In the very next chapter we see another analogy Jesus used which was misunderstood. Nicodemus is a Pharisee who wants to know more about Jesus and he comes to him in secret at night because he had questions. Nicodemus knew Jesus was from God because of the signs he was doing and he wanted to understand more, and Jesus says,

John 3:3–4 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus said anyone who isn’t born again will not see the kingdom of God and what does Nicodemus say? How can I go back into my mothers womb? Nicodemus completely missed the point, he didn’t understand the analogy or what Jesus was talking about.

The Women at the Well

In Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the Jesus uses water as an analogy.

John 4:7–15 ESV

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Jesus says if anyone drinks the water that I give will never go thirsty again. What does the Samaritan woman say? Give me this water so I will never go thirsty and I will not have to come to this well anymore. She was missing the point, she didn’t understand the analogy.

Jesus and the Disciples

After Jesus talked to the Samaritan women at the well, his disciples returned with food for Jesus.

John 4:31–33 ESV

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

They wanted him to eat and Jesus said I have food to eat that you do not know about. Here we see Jesus using food as an analogy. The disciples began wondering who brought Jesus food? But Jesus says,

John 4:34–38 ESV

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Come and Drink

Let’s look at one more in John 7:37-39

John 7:37–39 ESV

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus stood up and said come to me and drink. Jesus again using drinking as an analogy. But the very next line explains the analogy, “whoever believes in me”, Jesus says coming to me and drinking means believing in me.

As you see in the book of John, Jesus uses many analogies and all the examples we have seen the people he was talking to have missed the point, they didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about. Now lets look at John 6