What did Jesus mean when he said this?

Question

In the Gospel of John, Verses 6:53-54, Jesus says:

"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Can someone please tell me what this means?

Thank you

Answer 1

Despite what some christians desperately force it to mean, it can't be symbolic. The next passage relates the disciples questioning how they could eat his flesh.? When Jesus said He was the vine, no one asked how He could be a plant.When He said He was a door , no one thought He was made of wood(pinnochio?). But now they ask, because they knew what He just said. Some may not believe it's true, but that is what He meant.

Answer 2

He said what He meant and He meant what He said.

It never ceases to amaze me that the evangelicals and especially fundamentalists keep harping that we MUST take the Bible soooo literally.... EXCEPT THIS PASSAGE. How convenient.

Scripture also tells us that after He said those words a lot of His followers went elsewhere, unable to swallow (pun intended) this assertion on His part. Peter was asked if he too would leave and he replied, "Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life."

The mystery, the miracle of transubstantiation is that while to all our senses and measuring devices the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine, once Christ's words are spoken over them by a truly ordained priest (a successor of the Apostles, via the laying on of hands from one to another through the millennia)they become the Body and Blood of Christ. Ritual cannabalism perhaps, but NOT the real thing, for the Body and Blood they become is the GLORIFIED Body and Blood; the properties of which are very different from the biological body and blood of a purely human being.

Along with the Triune God, transubstantiation is one of the cornerstones of Catholicism. Hopefully you can now better see why. Through communion we become, as Paul said, one with Christ, part of His Mystical Body, a branch on the divine Vine.

Hope this helped.

Answer 3

His flesh is the bread from heaven. His blood is the fruit of the vine. Passover.

Drinking blood is a sin and eating flesh is a sin, so this was a hard verse for those listening to Jesus to receive.

But Jesus was talking about the crucifixion. His body is broken so we can be healed and His blood was shed for the remission of our sins. At the last supper, Jesus said to drink of this Cup of the fruit of the vine (His Blood) and eat of this piece of bread (His body. His blood is shed for the remission of sins and His body is broken for us. To continue doing this in rembrance of Him.

So, born again Christians, those redeemed by His blood, are to remember what Christ did and take communion. This is eternal life, what Christ did for us. And He is talking of the first resurrection, being raised up a new everlasting body, soul & spirit.

Answer 4

I believe that the standard interpretation is that this means that unless someone accepts the sacrifice that Jesus made for their sins that when they are judged He will not recognize them as a part of his church. And so won't sort of "vouch" for them and they will be forced to take their own punishment which is death.

The taking of communion is a ritual that symbolizes the participant's acceptance of the sacrifice.

I'm not sure how much of if I actually believe anymore, but this is what I was taught.

Answer 5

"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Being a Christian fundamentalist, I believe he is saying that those who are good caring people and believe in God will sit with him in heaven.


Maybe...who knows... =S

Answer 6

they were at the last supper before his death
he was instituting a new covenant
the Messianic Covenant..in that his death would buy mankind back from the Adamic sin...and we would all have a chance to live forever in paradise on earth which was the original purpose for mankind and it will come to pass soon...
The meek will inherit the earth
BUT FIRST....we have to accept Jesus as the one who died for us and offerered his BODY a ransom for our sins.
That he poured out his BLOOD on our behalf willingly and unselfishly.
Your scripture means we have to accept the sacrifice Jesus did for us.
Eating flesh and drinking blood is figurative not literal for there wasn't enough flesh or blood for the whole world....its represented by unleavened bread and unfermented wine.....and only those few with a heavenly hope to rule as kings and priests over mankind here on earth for 1000 years with Christ can actually eat and drink of jesus blood and body....we are their helpers and associates and brothers.....but our hope is earthly...

Answer 7

Adam and Eve ate, assimilated, or consumed knowledge from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that is Satan. Later God said.

Gen.3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

All must eat, assimilate, or consume knowledge of the tree of life, that is Jesus Christ, to live forever. Notice that the individual must put forth their hand. Born innocents into this flesh age all consume knowledge of good and evil. All are sinners.

Answer 8

This is talking about the last supper/communion. We aren't cannibals. The bread is a symbol of Christ's body. The cup is the symbol of Christ's blood. We are accepting his sacrifice on the cross for us.

Answer 9

Jesus is called the Word of God in the Bible.
The Bible calls itself the Word of God.
"Spiritually speaking" one who is born "of" the Spirit (a born again Christian) feeds his spirit of the Word of God. That is-one must read and digest scripture to sustain life (spiritually). To "drink" the blood is another reference to being born again. You must be born again (Jn 3:3) to even "see" the kingdom of God. This is a spiritual "picture" to help people see that "Jesus" is the core of Christianity. If you don't have Jesus, then your religion is worthless.

Answer 10

More often than not, when there is a Biblical passage that seems difficult to understand, you must examine the context of the scripture. For John 6:53-54, It is the year 32 C.E.

"The setting is no longer among the self-righteous Jews in Jerusalem but among the common people in Galilee. Jesus has just performed the miracle of feeding 5,000 men from five barley loaves and two small fishes. The next day, the crowd follows Jesus, expecting another free meal. So Jesus tells them: “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for life everlasting.” Jesus had been sent by his Father to provide such food for all who would exercise faith in him. This would be “the true bread from heaven,” with more lasting effects than the literal manna that the ancient Israelites ate.—John 6:26-32.

Jesus goes on to explain the benefits to be derived from that “food,” telling them: “I am the bread of life. He that comes to me will not get hungry at all, and he that exercises faith in me will never get thirsty at all. . . . For this is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholds the Son and exercises faith in him should have everlasting life, and I will resurrect him at the last day.”—John 6:35-40.

Those materialistic Jews take issue with these words. They see in Jesus nothing more than a son of Joseph and Mary. Jesus warns them: “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him; and I will resurrect him in the last day.” Then he repeats: “I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness and yet died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone 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, for a fact, the bread that I shall give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the world.”—John 6:42-51.

Consequently, it was for “the life of the world”—the entire world of redeemable mankind—that Jesus gave his flesh. And “anyone” of the world of mankind who eats symbolically of that “bread,” by showing faith in the redeeming power of Jesus’ sacrifice, may enter onto the way to everlasting life. Here, the “vast mixed company” that shared with the Israelites in eating the manna in the wilderness foreshadow the great crowd of Jesus’ “other sheep” who, along with the anointed remnant of “the Israel of God,” are now eating Jesus’ flesh in a figurative sense. This they do by exercising faith in his sacrifice.—Galatians 6:16; Romans 10:9, 10.

Back in Galilee, many of Jesus’ listeners are shocked by his talk. So while still on the topic of his flesh, he even goes a step further, telling them: “Most truly I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day; for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:53-55) Shocking indeed! Not only is the idea of cannibalism repulsive to those Jews but the Law at Leviticus 17:14 positively forbade eating “the blood of any sort of flesh.”

Of course, Jesus is here emphasizing that anyone who is to attain to everlasting life must do so on the basis of exercising faith in the sacrifice that Jesus later made in offering up his perfect human body and pouring out his lifeblood. (Hebrews 10:5, 10; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; 2:24) This provision is not restricted to Jesus’ joint heirs. It must also include the “great crowd,” who survive “the great tribulation,” for these “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Their having faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, as demonstrated also by their rendering God “sacred service,” results in their preservation through earth’s greatest time of distress. Similarly, Rahab was declared righteous and survived when Joshua devoted Jericho to destruction.—Revelation 7:9, 10, 14, 15; Joshua 6:16, 17; James 2:25."