Thank you for your kind words, and if you don’t mind, I will quote the verse first from John 6:50-52, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” To which our Savior replied, v.53-54, “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” You ask me how I understand this verse, but then caution me not to use an outside source. I wonder what you mean by that but I will tell you how I see the passage. We must look at the entire passage and make sure to put it in context to understand. Jesus had just performed the miracle of feeding 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple fishes (v. 1-14). The Savior walks on the water v.15-24 as the disciples were in the boat and then immediately they were on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and of all things, the crowds found Him again! Notice Jesus’ rebuke of them! v. 26, “you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill”, the very next verse is critical to truly understanding what He meant in your question verse. v.27, “Do not work for food that spoils” Do you find it beyond our Savior to use metaphors? His life was depicted that way, He told parables, shared truth in the very manner as to require people to sincerely seek Him and God. The disciples even asked HIM of this, Matthew 13:10, "The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” Jesus did answer that query by his disciples, listen, v.12-14, "Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” There is nothing more valuable than an eternal soul. My soul, yours cost God the Father His very and only Son’s life. Is it surprising that to gain such a glorious gift that Jesus made it so that one would have to search for it as gold or a treasure? (Read Matthew 13:44-46 about the treasure and pearl of great price).
Back to your passage of question in John 6: After Jesus rebuking them for bad motives in seeking Him (because they got filled with food!). They brought up Moses and God’s miraculous provisions through the wilderness wandering wherein God provided manna on the ground every day and asked Jesus for a miraculous sign! v.30. AMAZING, just after he’d fed them miraculously they still were missing it! "So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give?” Jesus used the metaphor! It was a perfect metaphor, they had just ate bread given by Him in a miracle, then the people bring up the manna (the bread from heaven). So Jesus talks of REAL life, real spiritual life and it had nothing to do with physical eating or bread. It was about HIM! v.29 is the key, "Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” Believing in Him, trusting in Him (alone). That is how one appropriates eternal life into their very soul! v.55, “Your forefathers ate manna and died”, Jesus was teaching them, it is not about the gullet, it was not about bread, it was about their soul it was about the spirit. It was a hard saying, they did not understand and misunderstood in their offense of literally eating His flesh and literally drinking His blood! (BTW, that is exactly what Catholic doctrine declares occurs during transubstantiation!!). IT IS NOT what Jesus meant, and He even personally clarified it to His disciples in that very chapter! Note: v. 63, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” Do you not see? THE FLESH COUNTS NOTHING! They were spiritual words, and those words apply to you and I! He alone died for your sins, it is yours and my responsiblity (and priveledge) to believe in Him, to trust in Him and to rely on Him alone to be saved. The difference in Catholic doctrine is that Catholic doctrine says the words were literal but that is not the case, they were spiritual.
Love is Patient
. Give that man a cee-gar! :hey_bud: