‘Live Because Of Me’

The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, 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 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 feeds on Me will live because of Me.
[John 6:52-57 NKJV]

This section in John 6 seems like a rehearsal for one of the greatest chapters in all scripture — John 17 — the reference to ‘abides in me, and I in him’ in particular points to it. John, of all the gospel writers, is mostly concerned with the spiritual. He is unconcerned with presenting Jesus to the Jews, or persuading the Gentiles — John tells us of the Jesus he knew, just as he, John, was ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’.

What we see most readily in this segment — and I urge you to read John 6:41-59 (which is entitled ‘Jesus rejected by His own’ in my Bible) — is that so many of those who Jesus encountered did not understand Him. Of course they did not, for they did not have the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew this; but also knew that it would only be after His death and resurrection that any light of hope would shine.

Verse 45 seems to reinforce that Jesus is talking of The Holy Spirit as we would now understand — ‘It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.’ — and this was before The Holy Spirit was given in Acts 2. How is this?

It seems certain that The Holy Spirit has always been with us — He is eternal just as God is eternal — and Jesus would know this. What happens in Acts, chapter 2 was the gifting of The Holy Spirit to mortal man; to those who believe, as well as to prophets and the like.

What we can be sure of, is that ‘only believe’ brings the gift of an amazing and everlasting connection with Father God through His Son, and that we have life because of Him.

To be shallow is not a sign of being wicked, nor is shallowness a sign that there are no depths; the ocean has a shore. The shallow amenities of life, eating, drinking, walking, talking are all ordained by God. These are the things in which our Lord lived. He lived in them as the Son of God, and He said that “the disciple is not above his Master.”

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