May 2025 – Elder’s Message

Understanding the Words of Jesus: ‘Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood‘

What does Jesus mean when He says in John 6:53, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”

This seems pretty repulsive—actually eating a person’s flesh and drinking their blood—yet when Jerusalem was under siege by Assyria, in desperation, God’s people committed cannibalism. The ill-fated Donner Party also succumbed to it. So when Jesus said to his disciples “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them,“ we might see why his zealous followers turned in disgust at His bold statement that they were to eat of Him. We too might question such words. The Jews did. So, how is it that we can as a Lutheran Christian profess that when we participate in the Lord’s Supper we are eating Christ’s body and drinking His blood?

The whole concept of believing this is possible is, in fact, impossible if we were to depend upon our sin-laden human senses and reason, as many see our teachings as cannibalistic. But if we trust by faith that what Jesus says is possible, then, it is not we who have come to believe that we can eat of Jesus, but it is the work of God in us who made it possible. As Jesus spoke so plainly, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” The question then is what life is He talking about? The Apostles’ Creed makes a statement regarding what Jesus means when it says He will judge between “the quick and the dead,” the quick meaning those who have new spiritual life through faith in Him, those who remain dead in their sin. 

The point is, when Jesus spoke of eating of His body and blood, He was referring to the divine nature of the food that He is. He was pointing out that our new spirits born of water and the Word in baptism are in need of otherworldly food. A food we need to partake of regardless of the fact that our understanding by reason of our sinful minds cannot fully taste, touch, or smell. Indeed, we are grossly limited by our flesh that cannot conceive of what is truly heavenly and thus spiritually good, and yet, by faith we have been enabled to trust that what Jesus says is true regarding our communion with His body and blood.

So yes, we Lutheran Christians boldly assert that through the Word, and in with and under the Sacrament, (bread and wine) we are eating Christ’s body and drinking His blood without being offended regarding our natural senses and reason. We believe that through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, He promises to provide the spiritual nourishment of His body and blood that is necessary to give life to our once dead spirits in sin that we might have the forgiveness of our sins as He promised that God’s grace would continually flow to us from His body upon the cross.

There is a reason for this, our faith is tested by the doctrine of His cross. We are tested as to whether we believe what Jesus says is true about His death or whether we deny it. For instance, those who deny that Christ’s body and blood are received at His table openly deny what Christ says we receive from His crucifixion, the forgiveness of our sins. They deny that His promises in His Word are effective in working faith through grace in us since they allow their tainted reason to judge what they believe Jesus says is true or not. This we heard from His once ardent followers, “Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?‘ “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with Him“

Of course, it is only natural that the flesh rejects such things, for as Scripture says it cannot receive that which is spiritual. The flesh is flesh and the Spirit is Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus this when He referred to baptism regeneration and how the Holy Spirit gives out dead spirits new life when we who are dead cannot raise ourselves. We are not like Christ; we cannot rise from the grave any more than we can come up with the spiritual food necessary to feed our new spirits. If we are to have eternal life, then, Jesus says, He must feed us with Himself.

We might look at it this way, as the food we eat is digested and distributed to every part of our bodies to keep them strong and alive, so too do the Word and Christ’s own body and blood flow throughout our spirits to feed, strengthen and sustain them. This is a simple analogy that surely falls short of what in full Jesus is saying about eating of Him, and so we cling to the gracious gift of faith and believe what Jesus says as being true. 

Many disciples left Jesus because of this teaching so, He asked His remaining disciples “You do not want to leave too, do you?“ Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.“ All in all, a wonderful confession of the truth! It is a confession that we too ought to have ready on our lips in the knowledge that there is no other food than Christ who offers Himself to us through His Word and Sacraments that feed us with forgiveness, life, and salvation. 

In life then, when trouble and distress come your way and you are unable to help yourself, to whom shall you go? If it is a matter of life and death, you would want the best surgeon for your illness. It all depends on making the right choice does it not, since the wrong choice will be fatal? 

Here, then is the hard truth, we all are by nature in a bad way. We are sick unto death. Sin, like a malignant cancer has penetrated into every fiber of our being. And we are utterly unable to help or heal ourselves. Unless we find the right physician, who can successfully remove the cancer of sin from our soul, we are doomed, not only to temporal death, but eternal death. And if this is not enough, we are constantly surrounded by perils which threaten to destroy us against all our human precautions. We meet with bitter experiences that inflict wounds upon our hearts for which no drug can heal us. And finally, at the end of our trials, the grim specter of death is lying in wait. To whom shall we go in all our difficulties, misery, and distress? The wrong decision of the soul is even more disastrous than in the case of the physical. Go to a spiritual imposter, a quack, and all is lost forever. But answer as Peter did, and you will find if Christ, Jesus, the true healer of your soul.

Reflecting back again on Jesus’ life, He had been very popular. In fact, a mighty wave of enthusiasm had swept the masses when Jesus went about healing and casting out demons, and no less when He had fed the masses. They wanted to make Him king He was so popular. But when Jesus explained to them the next day that He was the Bread of Life, food for their souls, and that only those who ate of His flesh and drank His blood, which is to say, believed in Him as their Savior, (the Messiah), would have eternal life, they murmured and sullenly turned their backs on Him and would no longer follow. Thus, Jesus was left with a handful of disciples. 

Many, but not all deserted Jesus as we have learned, and we might imagine the deep sadness Jesus felt when witnessing so many departing from Him. The same could also be asked of us. Will we remain faithful to the end? Jesus knows without question that we are like the disciples, weak, and that at times will forsake Him, even deny and betray Him. 

If asked, then, are you still a Christian and you answer in all sincerity, yes, thank your Savior for that. But will you always remain faithful to Jesus? Will you continue to hunger for His Word and His body and blood? Every time we meet of think of someone who has fallen away from the faith, we are reminded we too are of the flesh and able to stumble and fall. When Peter replied, “Lord to whom shall we go?” He was not asking for directions, but was stating emphatically that there is no other one to go to than Jesus. Not the Pharisees who taught that to win God’s favor and gain eternal life meant keeping the Law and observing as doctrines the commandments of men. Indeed, only to Jesus are we to go since we are poor lost sinners, whom the Law condemns, for to follow human traditions and reasoning is a worthless endeavor. This means, the, in our day, we cannot go to the Roman Church with its doctrine of salvation by works or any others that teach the same, nor can we turn to the modern churches who tell us the Bible is not the God’s inspired Word not to any lodge that teaches salvation based on a person’s character. We cannot afford to trust in any political and culture religions, or put our hope in any man, but are to feast upon the true food for life, the Word and Christ’s body and blood that alone are able to make us healthy, wealthy, and wise toward salvation. For we are not ashamed to eat and drink of Christs’ body and blood; we are not ashamed because we know He is the divine spiritual food we need to be able to rise from the dead on the Last Day to live in paradise forever with Him. 

 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

– Pastor Les Uhrinak Sermon 11/2024, Trinity Lutheran Bemidji, MN