Q. It seems to me the whole debate boils down to whether those words of Christ in John 6 were spoken literally and thus meant to be understood literally or spoken metaphorically and thus to be understood metaphorically.
A. Correct.
Q. In my church we disagree with the literal interpretation and on several levels for that matter.
First, in John 6, Jesus was not talking about physical food and drink, but about spiritual food and drink. He himself said "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." Coming to him is bread, having faith in him is drink. Thus, eating his flesh and blood merely means believing in Christ.
Then -
A. Ummm... Can we deal with that objection first?
Q. Sure!
A. The Catholic Church's objection to that metaphorical or figurative interpretation is that "The phrase 'to eat the flesh and drink the blood,' when used figuratively among the Jews, as among the Arabs of today, meant to inflict upon a person some serious injury, especially by calumny or by false accusation (as in Micah 3:3). To interpret the phrase figuratively then would be to make our Lord promise life everlasting to the culprit for slandering and hating him, which would reduce the whole passage to utter nonsense." If you are going to interpret some phrase figuratively, use the figures the author and his contemporaries used, not your own or from your day and age.
Q. But Christ himself clearly stated that the words He was speaking were spiritual words: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life," (John 6:63). He did not say they were literal words, that is, He did not say that they were His actual body and blood.
A. OK. Fair enough. Shall we use that interpretation and reread the same text... the interpretation that eating real flesh is a waste?
Q. Yes. Let's! Should be interesting!
A. It would sound something like: "Jn 6:53...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 even though the flesh profits nothing; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last daybecause the flesh profits nothing. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed but the flesh profits nothing. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him even though the flesh profits nothing. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of mebut not because he ate my body - my flesh, that profits nothing."
Q. You're making it sound ridiculous.
A. Excuse me if I come off cheeky here, but... you don't need me for that.😜
The fact is that Christ's flesh avails much! If it were of no avail, then the Son of God incarnated for no reason, he died for no reason, and he rose from the dead for no reason. Christ's flesh profits us more than anyone else's in the world. If it profits us nothing, so that the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ are of no avail, then "your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Cor. 15:17b-18).
In John 6:63 "flesh profits nothing" refers to mankind's inclination to think on a natural level, using only what their natural human reason would tell them rather than what God would tell them. Thus in John 8:15-16 Jesus tells his opponents: "You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I and he who sent me." So natural human judgment, unaided by God's grace, is unreliable; but God's judgment is always true.
Happy Sunday!
6th November 2016