Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood

While teaching at a synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus tells the crowd (John 6:54), “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him upon the last day.” What did Jesus mean when He said this? Are we to literally eat His flesh and drink His blood? And if so, how do we do that considering He is at the right hand of the Father? Does this happen in the Eucharist as the Catholic faith would teach when the priest turns the elements into Jesus’ body and blood through a process called transubstantiation (see online version of Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1375, p.347)?

An interpretive key is in order. The words of Scripture ought to be taken literally, or at face value, unless context and/or theology demands otherwise. For example, the Psalms speak multiple times of hiding in the shadow of God’s wings (Ps. 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 63:7). Does God literally have wings? Of course not; theology demands a metaphorical understanding. Wings are a metaphor that illustrate the protection of God’s care.

As for eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood, the immediate context and entire book context of John demands that we read eating and drinking as a metaphor rather than literally.

Immediate Context

Fourteen verses earlier, in the same conversation, Jesus said (John 6:40), “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Here Jesus declared that belief in Him equals eternal life; no other qualifiers are given. Now when Jesus speaks of eating and drinking fourteen verses later, this must be understood in light of what Jesus has already said. Bible scholar D.A. Carson says, “The only reasonable alternative is to understand these verses as a repetition of the earlier truth, but now in metaphorical form.”

Book Context

Eating and drinking is reinforced as a metaphor for belief when we look at the rest of the Gospel of John. John opens his Gospel in 1:12 and states, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” And the Gospel of John ends the same. John 20:31 states, “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” From beginning to end, John highlights faith in Jesus as the way to receiving eternal life.

Conclusion

To eat Jesus’ flesh and to drink His blood is a striking metaphor for belief in Jesus. The immediate context (John 6:40), the entire book context (John 1:12; 6:29; 20:31), and the rest of the Bible affirms this (see Acts 16:30–31; Romans 3:28; Ephesians 2:8–9; Titus 3:5–6).