Why Does Jesus Use Such Graphic Language?

John 6:52-66 NLT

Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.  But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me.  I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”

He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”

Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you?  Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.  But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and he knew who would betray him.) Then he said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.

                That last sentence is one that many miss, or at least don’t pause to think too much about.  What Jesus has said here caused people to leave.  These quitters are among those who have seen Jesus’s miraculous signs, proving Jesus earlier assertion that real faith doesn’t rely on miracles or signs. 

                If I’m honest, while I’ve never contemplated leaving Jesus over these words, coming back to them has never failed to make me uncomfortable.  “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.”  We have a word for eating human flesh and drinking human blood – cannibalism.  If that doesn’t make you uncomfortable, then I’m more than a little worried about you.  So why does Jesus use such graphic language?

It’s clear that Jesus isn’t talking about literally eating flesh and blood.  Over and over throughout the gospel, Jesus keeps pointing people beyond the physical to the eternal – living water, worship in spirit, and bread of heaven to name a few.  Even when he supernaturally feeds thousands with physical food, he makes sure to remind them that they have misunderstood the sign as being about the actual food.   It seems Jesus’s audience here is repeating the same misunderstanding again.

However, even understanding that Jesus is not advocating cannibalism here doesn’t explain why He doesn’t just explain it without using the offensive mental images.  Jesus could have easily done that, but He intentionally chose not to.  While I am tempted to do what Jesus did not and just offer a spiritual and softened explanation of what “Jesus really meant,” I believe that would be an attempt to let ourselves off the hook too easily.  I think Jesus said what He did the way He did because He intends for us to wrestle with the implications. 

“Eating” or “drinking” something requires taking that “something” into your body.  In fact, it means making what is ingested a permanent part of the body.  The “flesh” of what is ingested becomes part of our flesh.  Recalling the opening prologue of the gospel where John claims “the Word became flesh.”  The tradition of the church has maintained for over two centuries now that the meaning of this statement is that the divinity of God has joined with human flesh.  It seems that, in the passage above, Jesus is asking humanity to return the favor; we, who are human, are asked to join with the “divine” flesh of Jesus. 

It is at this point that the limits of language fail us and we are left still grappling with the mystery of the bread that is Jesus Himself.  To me, I think this is exactly as Jesus intends; faith is a leap into mystery more than it is a nice neat explanation of spiritual truth.  I admit that it is a very difficult leap – one that the majority often chooses not to take.  This explains why after hearing Jesus’s words, “many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.”

Question:  What does it mean to you to completely trust and have faith in Jesus while struggling mightily to understand what He is asking?

Prayer:  Master, though You have taught us so much, You ask us to trust You beyond our teachability.  Give us Your Spirit that we may do just that.  Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people that you know who have turned away from faith in God.

Song:  Into the Mystery – Needtobreathe