Charles Spurgeon Commentary John 6:52-56

"The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore 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 not life in yourselves. He that 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 abideth in me, and I in him." — John 6:52-56 (ASV)

The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 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.

These Jews would not understand Christ when he spoke very plainly. He did not therefore retract a single word that he had said, but as the first light had dazzled them—and willingly were they dazzled by it—he turned the lantern full upon their faces and made them blind, for the excessive light of the explanation was too much for them. It was not Christ's intent to save them; he was making the light itself to be blindness to them because they had already refused him, and now the time had come when the heart of these people must be made yet more dull, that they should not see with their eyes or hear with their ears.

May the Lord never give us up to such a fate as that! It is a dreadful thing when the light of the gospel becomes the instrument of blinding people, and it still does so. After a certain degree of willful rejection of it, that which would have been a savor of life unto life can be turned into a savor of death unto death by people's closing their hearts against it.

Yet I wonder and am astonished at our Lord and Master's course of action, that here, when these people do not and will not see, he only speaks the truth the more boldly. Let no one think that Jesus was here alluding to the eating of the bread and drinking of the wine in the Lord's supper; that ordinance was not instituted at that time, and there could be no allusion to what did not then exist. It is quite in another sense, in a high spiritual sense, that our mind feeds upon the flesh and blood of Christ. That is to say, the fact that God was made flesh, and the fact that Christ died for sin—these are the food of our souls, and on that our faith grows, and our spirit is strengthened.