Blood

March 3 Blood John 6:52-59

“(W)hen He states that His flesh is meat indeed, He means that souls are starved if they lack that food. You will only find life in Christ when you seek the substance of life in His flesh. Thus we should glory with Paul… that we regard nothing as excellent but Christ crucified; for as soon as we depart from the sacrifice of His death, we encounter nothing but death.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:170

So we come to the metaphor of blood, as repulsive to many today as it was to those who first heard Jesus’ words in the synagogue in Capernaum. In truth there is something grotesque about the Gospel. Sophisticated moderns seem to want a religion that has been cleansed of all that is ugly. It should appeal to the intellect, be aesthetically pleasing, morally liberating, satisfy the desire to be vaguely spiritual, not religious, and give a simple framework for understanding the nature of reality. It should not have anything to do with blood. It’s not that modern people are particularly squeamish; it’s that many of them have a visceral reaction to the idea of atonement. Their enlightened ways will not tolerate the thought of a Savior on a Cross.

The Jews in Capernaum were equally appalled at the thought of the flesh of Jesus. It should have been obvious to them, by this stage, that Jesus was using the symbolism of eating His flesh metaphorically to represent receiving Him by faith. That it upset their sensibilities was probably an excuse. They did not want to grant the possibility that He was telling them the truth, and that to accept Jesus as the Messiah meant much more than they had imagined. They may have tolerated Him as a political leader, particularly if He had enjoyed military success against the Romans. But when Jesus began to compare His flesh to manna in the wilderness, and to claim a far higher place in God’s purposes, they couldn’t stomach it. They complained. Opposition grew. If reports reached the Temple authorities in Jerusalem, as doubtless they did, then the charge of blasphemy could not have been far behind. By revealing His nature and His mission in this way, Jesus sealed His fate.

Even to speak of blood was to expect violence. When Jesus spoke of Himself as the Son of Man He used a familiar figure of speech, much loved by the Essenes, the keepers of the Dead Sea scrolls, to describe a person who would reveal God in a unique way. When He used the imagery of blood Jesus implied that He would meet a violent end. But it was not the mere fact of death that was important. Death, in and of itself, is tragic, but it is not remarkable – we all die. But when we understand why Jesus died then we begin to grasp His significance in the plan and purposes of God. Jesus was to die for a reason – to overcome sin and death, to pay the penalty for humanity’s rebellion, to reconcile us to the Father, and to bring the gift of eternal life. Whoever ate of His flesh and drank of His blood, that is, whoever trusted in Jesus as God’s Messiah, would receive eternal life and be raised up on the last day. Whoever feeds on this Bread will live forever.

There are clearly echoes of the Lord’s Supper in these words; but we must not understand them to mean that we are saved by our participation in the sacrament. Jesus’ words explain the symbolism of the bread and wine. We take the elements to remember the sacrifice that saves, not the symbol. Believe in Him and you shall live forever.

For further reading: Psalm 69