Charles Spurgeon Commentary John 6:51-52

"I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" — John 6:51-52 (ASV)

Which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

I wonder if they perceived that this declaration of Christ involved his death, for he did not speak of giving them his living body, but his "flesh." There are some who find their main comfort in the Incarnation of Christ; and, certainly, that is a very comforting truth; but, without the death of Christ, it affords no nourishment for the soul. Atonement, atonement, – there is the kernel of the whole matter. Christ must die, and then he can give us his flesh to eat.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

They misunderstood the Master. They lingered in the letter and did not reach the spirit—the meaning—and that letter killed them, for the letter killeth: the spirit giveth life.

The inward meaning is that on which the Soul feeds.

And so the unhappy Humanist believes that he can literally eat the flesh of Christ, which, if it were true, would be monstrous and could be of no service to him. Of what value is one flesh more than another flesh, if it is to be considered carnally? He loses the inner meaning.

Blessed are they who are drawn by the Father and taught by the Lord—who discern what is, after all, so little concealed beneath the thin veil of the metaphor.