Communion and the Lords Supper from the Perspective of Christ

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Notes:

1.) Five barley loaves and two fish. “This is not bread and wine, both are required for communion context”

2.) Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, (He thanked God for the provision or asked for a blessing, nothing to do with the last supper, or communion) he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples,

3.)“Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

God always provides more than enough, in fact he gives us leftovers that we may share His spiritual provision with others. Our faith is NOT self-centered, it is a faith based on the love of God. As such we should share the remainder of spiritual food that he provides to us with others. God wants us to use the grace he provides to the fullest extent and to not waste that which He provides. This implies responsibility regarding our Master’s provisions.

On an earthly level there was not enough food to provide even a small snack to the number of people. Jesus was making a point about His ability through His father to provide spiritual food at any level, and that His resources were not limited in number. Notice he splits common small barley loaves, and two fish into enough to feed 5000. All were well fed and full to the extent that there were leftovers. God is not limited in provision.

“Jesus was providing for the people out of his grace and mercy and supplying them richly. And in this miracle we see that God provides for our daily needs just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread.” Luther says in the small catechism, “What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” ~faithlife.com/sermons/84527

The point of this Miracle is the spiritual abundance God provides to us and His plan for providing Christ and our response, that is belief in Christ as our eternal source of life. Of course it also shows us His power both over the physical world and His daily blessings, and that of the spiritual world! “So far this has nothing to do with communion”

John 6:22–34 ESV

On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

1.) Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. (These people wanted more food, they were hungry.)

2.) “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

3.) “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

4.) For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

God is spirit, so His bread and provision is therefore spirit, especially regarding giving life to the world, belief in the one He had sent, and that our source of eternal life is that spiritual source.

A few excerpts by Dr. Michael Heiser:

Jesus links the idea of food that endures to eternal life to himself and to belief in Him.

Our tasks as Christians is to believe on “Jesus-the food that endures eternal life. “ You could say that our job is not to eat, it is to believe. Believing was the eating-not the other way around.

The bread that is the point of analogy to Jesus isn’t what gives life to the world but rather it is Jesus, the one who comes down from heaven. What gets people to heaven is belief in Jesus, not the bread that represents Jesus, or belief in the bread that represents Jesus, or belief that the bread represents Jesus. In other words, the object of faith is a WHO, not a WHAT.

John 6:41–59 ESV

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

Now for the challenging bits :)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.

“Referring to Himself” This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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.”

“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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. (Spirit)

A short section from Dr. Michael Heiser (I prefer his views here I think they make sense in light of the synoptic’s and context of John.)

“Here’s where the confusion usually starts, but it’s not hard to parse what Jesus is saying here if we do two things:

Allow what is written/said earlier to inform this section-as opposed to starting with this section and then reading IT back into what was said earlier; and

Filter what is said here by what Jesus says afterward. What he says afterward is completely consistent with what he said before this section. So the key interpretive issue is, are you going to start with the “eating flesh” language and use it as a guide to comment on Jesus’ preceding and following explanations, or are you going to let Jesus’ explanations be the guide to the “eating flesh” language?

If you let Jesus’ preceding and following explanations actually explain this middle part, it’s easy. If you don’t, you end up thinking bread becomes flesh, and then having to explain why you never poop that out, since Jesus says that he (his flesh and blood”) abides in whoever takes it. Supernatural constipation? I don’t think so.

Here we go . . . In light of Jesus’ preceding explanation that sets up the “eating flesh” language, it’s obvious Jesus doesn’t want people to think the following:

That he is literal bread

That he’ll become literal bread

That literal bread will become him

That what’s flowing through his veins is wine, or that it will become wine, or that wine will become his blood.

Does Jesus assert any of these ideas in the passage? No-there is no declaration that any of these things is going to happen. There’s a running analogy going on, but Jesus has made clear that what gets you to heaven is the one (the person) that came down from heaven. This is made clear again from verse 57 – As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

“whoever feeds on me will live” – we have three options for understanding this:

1.) Whoever literally eats Jesus’ literal flesh will live. At least some of the Jews thought Jesus was saying something this nutty, which is why Jesus corrects this perception in what follows (see below). Besides, the OT law forbade the consumption of human flesh () and blood (; ).

2.) Whoever eats some literal bread that I will give him will live. Now for a lesson on the obvious, but something hidden in plain sight apparently: Notice that Jesus never hands out any bread-in fact, is NOT the Last Supper scene.1 In all three synoptic gospels the Last Supper, upon which the Lord’s Supper is based (at least according to Paul!), Jesus does two things after he has made the connection between his broken body and the bread, and his blood, the wine, and the new covenant: (A) he washes the feet of the disciples, and (B) he tells them one among them will betray him. John doesn’t record the Last Supper like the synoptic gospels do, and the synoptic gospels don’t have the footwashing-but ALL four gospels have the announcement of the betrayal, and in John it comes in -20, completely disconnected from . Frankly, there is good reason to exclude the passage from the communion / Lord’s Supper issue entirely. This is actually my preference, since none of the actual Last Supper passages have any language like this (eating flesh, drinking blood) and this passage is not John’s version of the Last Supper scene. It’s totally unrelated, at least if we care about context and the flow of the life of Jesus in the gospels. I included it here because I’d be expected. But in reality, it’s just part of the mythology that has defined the Lord’s Supper. We KNOW absolutely what is behind the Lord’s Supper since Paul tells us (“the same night in which he was betrayed he took bread ….”). That ain’t happening in , so this #2 option doesn’t work either.

(3) Whoever feeds on me = whoever believes in me. This is precisely what Jesus has been saying up to this point. He isn’t talking about literally eating ANYTHING at any time; he’s talking about believing in him.

John 6:60–65 ESV

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”

It is the Spirit that gives life, and has not said ANYWHERE in that one gets the spirit by eating literal bread or flesh.

Jesus says, “What I’ve just told you (my words) are spirit and life.” This is easy to reconcile with what he said before-that all of this is an analogy. It’s a little harder to reconcile if one thinks Jesus has been speaking on literal terms.

When Jesus says that there are some that don’t believe (v. 64). His concern is that people will believe on him (see v. 40), not that they won’t believe the bread turns into him, or believe anything about bread and wine. This belief is connected to the Father drawing people to believe on Jesus (see vv. 44-45)-not the Father drawing people to take communion.

In conclusion:

begins, “on the next day…” which chronologically disconnects the “I am the bread of life” event from the feeding of the 5000 at the beginning of the chapter, where Jesus did distribute bread. The point that is not the Last Supper and thus isn’t connected to the Lord’s Supper still stands, even with respect to the feeding of the 5000, since the chronology presented by the gospels has the Last Supper happening AFTER the feeding of the 5000. As a result, the feeding of the 5000 can’t be echoing the Last Supper (and hence the Lord’s Supper / communion, since the latter had not yet taken place. One could suppose that the writer (writing after all these events) or later editors of the gospels wanted to suggest a connection, but that would be an argument based on psychologizing an author/editor. In other words, it would be an argument based on one’s imagination of the writing process, hardly a secure argument.

John 6:22 ESV

Begins, “on the next day…” which chronologically disconnects the “I am the bread of life” event from the feeding of the 5000 at the beginning of the chapter, where Jesus did distribute bread. The point that is not the Last Supper and thus isn’t connected to the Lord’s Supper still stands, even with respect to the feeding of the 5000, since the chronology presented by the gospels has the Last Supper happening AFTER the feeding of the 5000. As a result, the feeding of the 5000 can’t be echoing the Last Supper (and hence the Lord’s Supper / communion, since the latter had not yet taken place. One could suppose that the writer (writing after all these events) or later editors of the gospels wanted to suggest a connection, but that would be an argument based on psychologizing an author/editor. In other words, it would be an argument based on one’s imagination of the writing process, hardly a secure argument.

We can touch on 1 Corinthains 10-11 another time :) I need to get to bed.

1 Corinthians 10 ESV

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.