Today's Gospel is the continuation of the manna/"bread of heaven" writings, starting with the very difficult:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;..."
This is very upsetting and must have caused a crisis among those listening. It, in retrospect, is pointed to as support for communion and the organization of the Church. But the audience did not know that at the time. What could have they thought? "The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'”
And Christ gets more specific, more graphic:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."
This is grisly stuff. Isolated, it sounds very much like a reference to the ancient human sacrifice period among the early Jews.
It is.
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;..."
This is very upsetting and must have caused a crisis among those listening. It, in retrospect, is pointed to as support for communion and the organization of the Church. But the audience did not know that at the time. What could have they thought? "The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'”
And Christ gets more specific, more graphic:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."
This is grisly stuff. Isolated, it sounds very much like a reference to the ancient human sacrifice period among the early Jews.
It is.
No comments:
Post a Comment