This is a passage used by the Catholic church to prove that the Catholic mass of partaking in the bread and wine is talking about eating and drinking, literally, the body and blood of Jesus Christ. But we believe differently, we believe that it is spiritual, not literal.
John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
This verse is the prerequisite. Jesus is the bread of life.
John 6:53-56 “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”
Does this mean we have to eat the blood and body of Jesus? This is the favorite verse used by Catholic apologists to prove that we literally do. We can easily debunk this by looking at John 6:35, which explains the context in which Jesus was describing what His body and blood was. The Bible reveals here what it is.
John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
“Never hunger” explains what one is eating. “Never thirst” explains what one is drinking. The eating of His body and drinking of His blood is coming to Jesus Christ and believing in Him for your salvation. It’s that simple!
John 5:47 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
This verse tells us what Jesus was talking about in this whole chapter. The main topic is to believe on Him for eternal life.
The Catholics will stress on John 5:55 as literal interpretation. The problem is this, you will notice right here that in verse 55, Jesus says that His “flesh is meat indeed“, and “blood is drink indeed“. The word “indeed” means “truly”, it is certain. Other passages will show that use of the word “indeed” does not always mean literal, but as a figurative expression.
Matthew 20:22-23 “But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”
Jesus said that the cup He was drinking, and the baptism that He would be baptised with, referred to suffering. The cup did not literally mean that Jesus was asking the disciples to drink from the same cup. That cup is a figurative expression of His suffering that they will be drinking. This is just like the figurative expression that Jesus says to drink the blood of Jesus Christ for salvation. The wordings are very similar in these two passages.
Other passages also support this.
Matthew 13:31-32 “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”
The kingdom of heaven is “like…”, meaning figurative expression. Notice that the word “indeed” is used in a parable, in a figurative illustration about the kingdom of heaven. All this word means is “certainly” or “truly”. Every time the word “indeed” is used, a lot of the subject will refer to figurative as well, not only literal.
The figurative subject of “eating my flesh” and “drinking my blood”, it truly and most perfectly figuratively pictures the object at hand. Truly, one is eating the body of Jesus and drinking the blood of Jesus when one believes on Him for one’s salvation. This is because one becomes part of the body of Jesus Christ. Since one is one and the same with the body of Jesus Christ, one is partaking in that blood and that body. It does not mean that this is a literal, physical partaking.
John 6:60-62 “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”
Verse 60 tells us that the Jews had a hard time believing in eating the subject of eating the body and drinking the blood of Jesus. They found this a “hard saying”. If it were figurative, the Jews wouldn’t be in shock. But they were in shock because they understood this to be literal. The Catholic church will insist that the Jews took it literally.
However, Jesus explains it in the next verse.
John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
Jesus said that everything He had just spoken about was spiritual, and that the flesh profiteth nothing!
Catholic apologists who are familiar with this argument will say that the Jews found it hard to understand, so Jesus was just saying they couldn’t understand it by their own flesh, and need God’s spirit to help them understand. But this is the easy answer: the context here is not about the spirit helping one to understand, it is about the spirit making one alive. Quickeneth means to make alive. Jesus himself says “they are life”.
John 6:54 tells how one can have eternal life, which is referring to the spiritual body and blood of Jesus. Verse 48 also tells us that Jesus is the bread of LIFE. The whole context and subject matter right here is not about how a man needs the spirit to understand, but the context here refers to the spiritual body and blood of Jesus Christ giving eternal life. Eating the body and drinking the blood is all about believing on Jesus, it is spiritual.