Nourishment
Lesson 6 in the Lord's Supper series
The Lord’s Supper as Bread from Heaven
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst….“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; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats 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 he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” .” - John 6:35, 53-58, RSV
Introduction
In our study of communion thus far we have talked about the terms and attitudes of communion, the Lord’s supper as a time of remembrance, a time of fellowship and unity, and a time of forgiveness and mercy, a time of covenant renewal. In this lesson we will consider the Lord’s Supper as a time of spiritual nourishment.
What does it mean to speak of the Lord’s Supper as spiritual food? This relates to every area we have already talked about.
Anchored in the past. The meal is spiritual because it is anchored in a past event that we remember and that past event is made present to us by virtue of the resurrection.
Christ is Host. The meal is spiritual in that Christ himself hosts a meal in which we are in fellowship with him and one another.
Forgiveness Through Sacrifice. The meal is spiritual in that it is a declaration of the compassion and mercy of God that is known in Christ, who welcomes our confession and grants us forgiveness as his sacrifice is made immediately present.
Empowered to Walk. The meal is spiritual because by forgiveness granted by his sacrifice, we are freed and empowered to walk in the truth. We do not live in condemnation.
Physical Elements with Spiritual Meaning. We consume physical elements, but they have a spiritual meaning. Since this is a “supper” or “meal” they are spiritual “food”.
Spiritual food nourishes our spiritual life - the Lord’s Supper is a means by which we know the grace and strength of God that enables us to live under the reign of Christ.
Our text for this lesson is John 6 - and it is a vigorously contested text. You may conclude that it is not about the Lord’s Supper at all - and you would have theologians, scholars, and commentators on your side. You may conclude that it is all about the Lord’s Supper - and you would have theologians, scholars, and commentators on your side!
1. Affirmations from John 6 About Bread, Flesh, Blood
Manna was bread from heaven, but Jesus is the “true bread from heaven.” (32)
Jesus is the bread from heaven that gives life to the world (33)
Jesus is the bread of life who fulfills all hunger and thirst (35)
Jesus is the bread of life, and whoever eats of it will not die (48-50)
The bread that came down from heaven is “my flesh” (51)
Jesus: he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (54)
By eating his flesh and drinking his blood we abide in him (56)
“This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” - John 6:58
2. Reference to the Lord’s Supper?
Some say “NO” because there is no mention of the Lord’s Supper; the context is not like the other institution passages; ‘eating flesh’ and ‘drinking blood’ are references to belief, not communion (35-36).
Some say “YES” because the themes of eating flesh and drinking blood directly refer to the other institution passages. Whitacre: There are several hints in the text that Jesus is referring to the sacrament here.
This section seems to change subjects. The image of drinking Christ’s blood (6:53) does not correspond to the starting point, namely, to the feeding of the five thousand and the manna in the wilderness. Jesus started with the simple image of bread, and now he brings in the idea of blood and drink. It is a very scandalous image for a Jew since drinking any blood, let alone human blood, was forbidden by the law (Lev 3:17; 17:14; Deut. 12:23).
The references to eating and drinking. Whitacre:If there is a reference here to actual food and drink, then it must refer somehow to the Eucharist since there is nothing else to which it would correspond. Christians then, as now, naturally find reference here to the Eucharist unless controversies lead them to find some other explanation.
The wording of verse 53 follows the pattern given in the Synoptic account of the institution of the Eucharist; for example, Matthew 26:26-28 reads, “Take and eat; this is my body…Drink…This is my blood.”
The most obvious point of the text would be that there is some connection between partaking of Christ’s flesh and blood in the Eucharist and having eternal life.
If we approach this as a Lord’s Supper passage, what can we learn here?
3. An External Symbol of a Spiritual Reality
At the Lord’s Supper we “feed,” we participate as those whose hearts and minds have been informed and reformed by Scripture. We come to this table with hearts lifted up and receptive once more to the Spirit of Christ. The risen Christ meets us and dwells among us and does so by His spirit.
“The signs are bread and wine, which represent the invisible food which we receive from the body and blood of Christ…by which he may sustain and preserve us in the life to which he has begotten us by his word…Christ wished to testify by an external symbol that his flesh was food.” - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
4. A Reminder of a Constant Need.
Jesuis is the bread of life. Because he is life, we recognize that our lives are not self-sustaining. We know Jesus Christ as the living bread by believing in him, having faith in him.
John Wesley wrote a sermon called “The Duty of Constant Communion.” He wrote, “This is food for our souls: this gives strength to perform our duty, and leads us on to perfection. If therefore we have any regard for the plain command of Christ, if we desire pardon of our sins, and if we wish for strength to believe, to love and obey God, then we should neglect no opportunity of receiving the Lord’s Supper. Then we must never turn our backs on the feast which the Lord has prepared for us. We must neglect no occasion which the good providence of God affords us for this purpose.”
What sustains the human soul is Christ Jesus, his body, his blood, his very life. Christ himself is the focus of our attention as we celebrate this event.
5. A Matter of Thinking
We accept Jesus is who he says he is. It is all kept relatively cerebral and intellectual. Something we do in our minds.
Barclay “John…was thinking also of the Lord’s Supper. He was saying: “If you want life, you must come and sit at that table where you eat that broken bread and drink that poured-out wine which somehow, in the grace of God, brings you into contact with the love and life of Jesus Christ.”
In the Lord’s Supper, we are brought back to this central dynamic of our lives as Christian believers. In Christ, we find the bread of heaven. By faith, we meet Christ in the Word and in the table, and through his Spirit we are fed, nourished, and sustained.
6. A Disturbing Thought
He gives his flesh for the life of the world (v 51)
“We could have said love of Christ or hope of Christ or peace of Christ. He came to bring us those, too, and more besides, and we need all of it like air in our desperate lungs. But no, we say body and blood. Because he said it, and we have been arguing over such strange words ever since, knowing in our bones their strength and power even if we muddle over their meaning, these mysteries of faith. Because bodies and blood are the basic building blocks of life, so of course Christ would care about them—enough to offer up his own for ours.” - Laura Kelly Fanucci, To Be a Body
He gives himself, his very life, for the world, to sustain us and enable us to know life in him. In saying this, Jesus raised questions not only from the religious leaders but also from his own followers, who wondered, “Who can accept this?” Who can accept the idea of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood? For us moderns, it is no less disconcerting.
7. Our Deepest Longing Is to be Filled With Christ
The bread and cup represent for us the spiritual food we know and have through the Word and the Spirit. These elements portray the deep longing we have for the bread from heaven, Christ himself, who by his Spirit satisfies the deepest longing of our souls.
The Welsh hymn “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” poignantly captures the human dilemma, need, and longing: Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but Thou art mighty, Hold me with Thy powerful hand; Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more. Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more.”
Only God can satisfy the deepest longings of our lives. We take physical bread and an actual cup, and we partake even as we pray the prayer, “Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.”
Conclusion
“Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven; and he rained down upon them manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance.” - Psalm 78:23-25
Like the manna in the desert, the communion elements are transient gifts to be received now as a gift for this day. They cannot be hoarded or guarded or saved up. What we receive is the grace of God for this day. God’s life is available in the Eucharist because he promises to be present. We do not attract him there or make him present by our faith. He is present where people gather for Eucharist at his command.
Hughes: What a statement! ‘I am the bread of life.’ It is no coincidence that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, “the house of bread,” as prophesied hundreds of years earlier by Micah (5:2). The word became flesh and we broke it. There is no coincidence about that either. It was all planned by the Lord, for our redemption.
Note: I leaned heavily upon Gordon T. Smith’s wonderful book for this lesson, and essentially this series. - JED
Additional References
Barclay, William. Daily Study Bible Series, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1 (Revised). Westminster, 1975.
Fanucci, Laura Kelly. To Be a Body. https://laurakellyfanucci.substack.com/p/to-be-a-body
Smith, Gordon T. A Holy Meal: The Lord’s Supper in the Life of the Church. Baker, 2005.
Whitacre, Rodney A. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: John. IVPress, 1999.
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I am so glad you are doing this series. Here are a couple question/thoughts/observations : I have thought it odd for some time now that in the COC I was always taught that our baptism is where we come in contact with the blood that cleanses us from our sins, not a symbol. And yet when we come to the Lord’s Supper we emphasize and use the word symbol and elements that represent. Words that were not used by Christ. If we believe in God’s presence everywhere and if we believe God can hear our unspoken prayers then why can’t we believe in His real presence in the bread and cup during the Lord’s Supper? Just something I have been thinking for a long time now. Thanks for providing this place to share.