This coming Sunday is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Earlier in v.53 it was stated that not eating/drinking means one does not have life within them. Verse 54 states positively that whoever eats/drinks will be raised on the last day. Verse 55 states succinctly Jesus’ flesh and blood are the true source of life. Jesus’ flesh and blood thus fulfill the promise in 6:35 of food and drink that will end hunger and thirst.

Stated positively, negatively, or flat out – all these verses and all that has come before them in John 6 are building to an important aspect in Johannine Eucharistic theology: being in deep spiritual, full-bodied relationship with Jesus. At the heart of v. 56 is the verb “to abide” (menō). This verb is used in John 15:4 – “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.” There it expresses the interrelationship of Jesus and the believer; the interrelationship that is the source of the believer’s life now and in life ever after. Yet the interrelationship of Jesus and the believer is actually an extension of the interrelationship of God and Jesus (6:57). Verse 57 builds on the claims of 5:21, 26–27: God shares God’s life with Jesus. The one who eats Jesus (also the one who feeds on me  – note the substitution of “me” for flesh and blood) receives life because that person shares in the life-giving relationship of God and Jesus (cf. 1:4). Johannine eucharistic theology is one of relationship and presence (O’Day 608).

This verse serves as the conclusion to the whole bread of life discourse, tying together themes that have run throughout the discourse (e.g., 6:31, 37, 49–51b) with its final restatement of the life one receives from eating the bread from heaven.

It does not seem right to have written this much and not offer something from the great Johannine scholar, Fr. Raymond Brown. Brown [292-93] writes: “And so it is that, while the Synoptic Gospels record the institution of the Eucharist, it is John who explains what the Eucharist does for the Christian.” What does it do? The text itself speaks to the benefits:

• You have life in yourself (v. 53 — present tense)
• You have eternal life (v. 54 — present tense)
• You will be raised by Jesus on the last day (v. 54 — future tense)
• You remain in Jesus and he in you (v. 56 — present tense)
• You will live through Jesus (v. 57 — future tense)
• You will live forever (v. 58 — future tense)

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