R
rcwitness
Guest
Nihil Obstat!I think there is another aspect to the Bread of Life Discourse that has not been mentioned yet. John 6 really is symbolic. Jesus is not literally bread, and Jesus’s point is that he is the source of eternal salvation. However, there is a shift that I see in John 6:52.
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
The question turns to how we will receive Jesus. He continues to insist that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, but in stronger words. “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:55). There is another point often thrown around in Catholic apologetics which is worthy of consideration. There is a new verb for eating being used in this section. I’ll quote the “Word Study” from the Ignatius Study Bible.
Eats (Jn 6:54)
Trogo (Gk.): A verb meaning “chew” or “gnaw.” It is used five times in the Fourth Gospel and only once elsewhere in the NT. Greek literature used it to describe the feeding of animals such as mules, pigs, and cattle, and in some cases for human eating. In John the veb is used four times in the second half of the Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6:54, 56, 57, 58). This marks a noticeable shift in Jesus’ teaching, which up until Jn 6:54 made use of a more common verb for eating (Gk. esthio, Jn 6:49, 50, 51, 53). The change in vocabulary marks a change of focus and emphasis, from the necessity of faith to the consumption of the Eucharist. The graphic and almost crude connotation of this verb thus adds greater force to the repetition of his words: he demands we express our faith by eating, in a real and physical way, his life-giving flesh in the sacrament.
While this passage maybe could be interpreted symbolically in isolation, it is hard for me to do so with the Last Supper in mind where Jesus literally gave bread to his disciples saying, “this is my body,” which John 6 seems undeniably to have in mind. Is Jesus saying, “unless you eat bread and drink wine (or grape juice) in memory of me, you have no life in you?”
This is one of my big problems with Baptists’ (and most Evangelicals’) notion of sacraments. They reject the idea of sacraments as superstition and claim that they are merely “ordinances” which are empty symbols and do not confer grace. I thought Christ came to save us from the law, not to institute new arbitrary laws? What is the point of the Lord’s Supper if there is no grace given?
This again my friend is well stated!