Expert: Marilyn - 4/2/2007

Question
Can you explain John, chapter 6, where he says 6 times, my flesh is real food, etc.  When people leave, he doesn't say that it is symbolic.  He says it is a hard teaching.  It is hard to find another point he makes so vividly.

Answer
Hello Kenneth;

John 1:1 - 3; 14 (NIV):  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made...The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Jesus is literally God's Word.  Until He took on human form, Jesus was a Person who was consisted of every Word that came out of God's mouth.  In Genesis 1 "And God said" is repeated seven times.  That's not because God wants to bore us, it is repeated to make a point--God's Word, Jesus, went out from His mouth and did the work of creation, that's why John says the Word created everything.

To think of Word as a Person is mind boggling, but that is what John tells us in this passage and the Bible testifies to this truth.

Isaiah 55:10 & 11, "As the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent It."

Jesus is the Word of God made flesh.  If you are to eat His flesh, you are to "eat" the Word.  Consume the Word of God, for it is the "Bread of Life."  

Deuteronomy 8:3, "He (God) humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live by bread alone but on every Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."  

The manna is a symbolic for Jesus, the Word. Jesus aludes to manna in saying, "...it is not Moses who has given you the Bread from Heaven" in John 6:32.  

The Israelites ate manna in order to live, it was a picture of Jesus for us and them.  In Communion we once again, figuratively, consume the manna that came from Heaven.  We eat earthly bread as a picture of what it means to eat the Heavenly Bread--the Word of God.  

Food is a powerful image.  We need food to sustain us and bread has been the staple for many people groups throughout time.  So the Word of God must be considered a staple in our daily diets so that we may live.

It is a hard teaching and Jesus challenges us and those who were listening to look deeper for His meaning.  It's a hard teaching that on the surface sounds cannibalistic.  However, what He's saying is literally true, we do need God's Word in our daily diet, for it isn't by bread alone we live, but by every Word that comes from God's mouth.

May God bless you with revelation knowledge of Him,

Marilyn