Flesh and Blood

Introduction

This morning, we are continuing our Fall series on the core doctrines and commitments of the Christian faith by examining the believers union with Christ. This teaching is fundamental to both a right understanding of our relationship with Jesus and a deeper experience of his love for us.

John 6:51-

John 6:51–58 ESV

51 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.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 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. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 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. 58 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.”

Body

From a purely human standpoint, there are things that Jesus says that are absolutely crazy, outlandish, offensive, and arrogant. If He is not the Son of God, he could easily be mistaken for an egotistical maniac who perhaps had what was coming to Him. I remember reading this passage with Mira during one of our devotionals and she turned to me and said, “If any of our non-believing friends read this, they would think that Christians are crazy.” Unless you eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood, you have no life. This sounds totally like a cult religion and it is no wonder that many of Jesus’ disciples stopped following Him after this point.

John

John 6:66 ESV

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

What is clear from this passage is that this is the teaching that ultimately divides the true followers of Christ from those who might be more nominal or unsure of their faith. During my undergraduate studies at UCSD, I felt like a quarter of the school wanted to become doctors. I was one of the masses of people in the premed track but then I found out that there were classes specifically designed to filter out the more serious students from those who simply liked the idea of being doctors but weren’t fully committed. Organic chemistry was that class for me.

Up to that point, I had never seen test scores in the 40s and 50s being counted as B’s. After those 3 classes, you knew who the committed premed students were because everyone else changed their major or their career direction.