I'm really struggling to take today's passage and to put it in layman's terms. Frankly, it's hard for me to swallow, and evidently it was hard for the disciples to swallow as well. The first verse after this passage tells us the disciples told Jesus, "This is a tough teaching, too tough to swallow." I'm going to lay out what the passage says, and then try to make sense of it. In many ways, I find myself as a bystander in the crowd, thinking and asking the same things that the Jews have been asking. Some of the things Jesus says just don't make sense without something tangible to wrap our minds around. And, again that's one of the defining characteristics of belief - it exists to fill in all the gaps that we just can't prove. So, here we go.
Jesus is claiming here that only as we eat and drink his flesh and blood, do we have life within us. Those of us who have a hearty appetite and come to the table have lasting, real life and are fit and ready for the Final Day. He claims his flesh is real food and his blood is real drink. By eating his flesh and drinking his blood, we enter into him and he into us. Those of us who make a meal of him live because of him. This is the bread from heaven.
Wow. How do we even begin to understand this. In my meager attempts to even take a swing, I'm reminded of a group of nomads that I learned about in the anthropology class I'm taking right now. These nomads are called the Bedouins. What I've learned about them is, they subsist solely on the live of camels. They ride camels. They drink the milk from camels, and they even mix the milk with the blood of the camel. They never eat the meat of the camel until they've hit old age, and aren't up to the task of carrying around the heavy loads anymore. When a camel dies, the meat is used to sustain the whole tribe, and not a bit of the camel goes unused. The flesh is used for clothing, cooking utensils, and warmth. For the Bedouin, the camel is the lifeblood. Every bit of the camel is used to sustain a life in the Sahara Desert, a place in which there is no water, no food, and no shelter.
The Bedouins would have been around the time of Jesus, and they were more closely related to the Islamic faith. However, the Jews and the Muslims were by nature allies, as both came from the same father - Abraham. But, the Bedouins were not geographically close to Capernaum, where Jesus is teaching in this passage.
Obviously, the audience has very understandable questions like, "How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?" That's a good question. I would ask, and I am asking the same thing.
I don't believe that Jesus is teaching the audience, or us, the way of life of cannibalism. There's just something in my bones that doesn't believe that's what he's pointing at here. If we take the two terms - flesh and blood - and simplify them to a meaning that would make sense to a Bedouin, we can simplify them to life.
What Jesus is claiming is that whoever figuratively sustains themselves on his flesh and blood, or life, finds more life than what they already have or have ever dreamed of. The problem is, this is figurative, therefore how do we attain something that is somewhat tangible from something that is unseen? Well, we may have to ask ourselves if we are performing this very same act in any aspect of our current life. Do we seek things that bring us life, or happiness, or the feeling of "I wish this would never end."?
For me, it's doing what I'm doing right now. I'm connecting with the passion inside of me that screams to write more and more. When I follow this desire, I find life. But, as fulfilling as it may seem, there are some negative results. For one, I have fear that people won't like my writing. Two, I just don't know much about alot of the stuff I write about, hence it's mostly my opinion and perspective on things that are interesting to me. There are limits to this "life blood." What Jesus is claiming, with the understanding that no one in the audience then or now can prove what he's saying, is that whoever seeks life from Him will find unlimited life. No boundaries, no death, no decay, no fear. Does it sound too good be true? There's no way of knowing until it is tried on for size.
One of the most exciting parts about believing in Jesus, and "following him," is not having a clue what the truth is. What I'm left with is a life long adventure of seeking a truth that I may never find. That's belief. Throughout this whole book so far, we have been invited to believe in things that we have no conception of. But again, I remind the reader that every day we choose to believe in things that we have no conception of - electrons, the Big Bang, the revolution of the planets, the heat of the Sun, the birth of a baby. Jesus invites us to test out his claims, to take a figurative bite out of his body, a drink of his blood. And maybe, just maybe, like the Bedouins sustaining off the life giving nutrients of the camel, we might find what we've been looking for since we were kids - freedom, peace, and contentment.
Today's Action: Examine one thing that brings us life today. Examine the limits of that thing. Reflect on the possibility that believing in Jesus provides unadulterated life to the fullest. Open a Bible, online or manually, and find one suggestion that Jesus gives. Then, test it. See if it brings us a new perspective on what life is supposed to be about.
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