Will You Eat?

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as He taught at Capernaum.

When many of His disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray Him.) And He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.

John 6:52-71

The eternal Son of God, the Prince of Peace, offers Himself as the Bread of Life—true food and true drink.

Will you eat?

This is an innocuous question in most contexts, and the answer proves quite obvious in our daily lives. We must eat in order to live. It is often not a matter of will we eat but of what will we eat. However, Christ’s implicit question— “Will you eat?”—bears eternal implications of life and death. Life is found in no other, for “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Here, Christ subverts and restates the question Adam and Eve faced in the Garden. Adam and Eve ate according to their own wisdom and desires and experienced death. And we are all sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in this respect. Yet the Lord of Glory tasted death for our sake, that we might eat of Him and taste life (1 Corinthians 2:8; Hebrews 2:9). Will you trust in your own wisdom and understanding, or eat of Christ?

This question proved difficult for Jesus’s audience to digest. And even though we live two thousand years later, if we are honest, this question still challenges us. From the Garden through the wilderness, we now see how the entirety of the Old Testament sings of Christ, and the beauty of the Lord’s table. However, despite the perspective we now enjoy, and immune as we might be to the shocking nature of Christ’s teaching experienced by His original audience, we still struggle to trust the words of Christ, to trust in His sufficiency for us daily, moment by moment. Unlike the manna sent to sustain the Israelites in the wilderness, Christ is the true bread and utterly sufficient, bringing everlasting satisfaction and life. Yet we must still, like the manna God sent to the Israelites, partake of Him continually. Will you eat of Christ?

Eating of Christ continually might strike us as a daunting task. But friends, let us remember and take courage from the truth of the Gospel found in Christ’s words: “No one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father” (v. 65). We have not, and indeed could not, come to Christ by our own power. The beautiful reality of the Gospel is that the Father has graciously drawn us to Christ that we might taste and see that He is good (Psalm 34:8)! As Christ chose the twelve, we are chosen in Him. The Lord has drawn us, the Lord has chosen us in Christ, and He will bring His work to completion (Philippians 1:6). Just as He drew us at first, He is faithful to draw us continually back to Christ and lead us to eat.

May we all remember, as Peter knew, that there is nowhere else to go—Christ alone has the words of eternal life. Indeed, He is the very Word of God and the only source of Life. By grace, through faith, He has granted Himself to us that we might have life. He has given us true food and true drink, and “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29)! He is our portion forever. And by His grace, we will eat.

Let us feast!

May the Lord bless you and keep you.