Jimmy Akin delves into the complex interpretation of Jesus’ words in John 6 about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Did His followers truly understand His meaning as a literal cannibalistic act, or was there a deeper theological implication they were struggling to grasp?
Transcript:
John 6 when the followers, some of his followers, Christ’s followers walk away, not being able to accept it. I know it’s kind of played in Catholic circles, like against people that think it’s metaphorically to show the literal, that it’s literal, that look, he meant this, but is that what the followers who walked away understood? Because it almost seems like a reading that that could be, they understood it to be something like cannibalism. And that was like, oh, that’s weird and gross or something. And they can’t accept that. And then Christ doubled down on that. Or is it there? That’s not what their understanding is. They’re not misunderstanding it. They’re understanding something correctly, maybe not what so much what he’s saying, but what that would entail, what that would imply, meaning something to his divinity or something. And they’re catching that kind of like a John 10 thing with the Jews understood as divinity. Is that what they’re not accepting?
Okay.
If I understand your question correctly, the individuals here who are from the city of Capernaum, and so this is sometimes called the Caffernaitic interpretation, do initially entertain the idea that Jesus is talking about cannibalism. And they say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
That doesn’t mean that they had settled on that as an interpretation of what he said. They may not be sure what he means. It just sounds ridiculous to them. And so the ones who walk away, walk away because what he says sounds ridiculous. And to them, it sounds like cannibalism, but they very well may have not been sure what he meant and thought, well, maybe he means something else. But Jesus doubled down and said, no, no, no, you really got to chew my flesh and drink my blood if you want to have life. And so he, even in the face of the cannibalistic understand, and he said, no, you really got to do this.