This coming Sunday is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Morris [335] offers this: “There is, moreover, a reference to the death of Christ, as we saw on verse 51. Flesh and blood in separation point to death. The words, then, are a cryptic allusion to the atoning death that Jesus would die, together with a challenge to enter the closest and most intimate relation with him.134 They are to be interpreted in the light of verse 47.”  While most would accept the intuition of Jesus’ atoning death are implied, there are none that argue that is a major theme. Yet Morris strains against established biblical meaning. In Hebrew, the double formula “flesh and blood” emphasizes the reality and corporeality of human existence.

Not apart from the atoning death of Jesus, but v.53 builds upon the fulfillment of the promise made in 6:27 (Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life). The flesh and blood of the Son of Man are the food that endures for eternal life. The Son of Man is the one who has descended from heaven to give his life for the salvation of the world (3:13, 16). The gift of his flesh and blood belongs to that saving work; it is the food that gives eternal life.

To this point in the Johannine narrative, death has not been a focal point. Outside and especially within John 6, the focus is on the gift of life. O’Day [608] makes this clear:

“The syntax of v. 53 (‘unless …’) makes clear that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man is a condition for receiving the gift of life. That Jesus’ words focus on life should not surprise the reader; Jesus as the source of life has been a central theme of the first six chapters of the Gospel. What is new is the explicit linkage of participation in the eucharist to this gift of life. The strong emphasis on the eucharist reflects a shift in the primary audience to whom the Fourth Evangelist understands these words of Jesus to be addressed. The primary audience is no longer the audience in the story (the Jewish crowd), but the readers in John’s own time. Such a shift is a regular part of the literary strategy of Fourth Evangelist (3:31–36; 6:60–71; 9:18–23). The Fourth Gospel narrative frequently plays itself out on a ‘two-level stage,’ so that the events in Jesus’ life and the events in the life of the Evangelist’s community are presented simultaneously.”

“The insistence in v. 53 on both the fullness of the incarnation and the participation in the eucharist may be the Evangelist’s attempt to counter developing docetic or gnostic tendencies within his community that wanted to deny the bodily aspects of Christ and of Christian experience. In that regard, it is noteworthy that nowhere in vv. 53–59 are the eucharistic elements of bread and wine mentioned. The Fourth Evangelist’s focus remains on the flesh and blood of Jesus, not their sacramental representations, in order to underscore Jesus’ gift of his whole self, which is enacted in the eucharist (cf. 6:51).”

Image credit: The Feeding of the Five Thousand by William Hole (1846-1917) | Edinburgh University Library | PD-US