BREAD AND WINE

John 6 is a loaded passage, toward which many roads lead.  In John 1 the Word has become flesh, Jesus of Nazareth.  In John 2 Jesus transforms water into wine.  In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again.  In John 4 Jesus tells a woman the water He gives is eternal, the water of the well she seeks is not.  In John 5 Jesus says the dead will hear His voice and be transformed from death to life.  So we come to John 6 with this buildup of transformation due to Jesus authority and power.
  Now John 6 is a long chapter, intensifying the idea of transformation and power.  First in John 6. 1-15 Jesus transforms bread to feed 5000 families.  Then in John 6.16-21 His authority is on display when He walks on water.  You'll notice that when Jesus does step into the boat, the disciples are amazed.  Jesus has to say--Do not be afraid.  The disciples get Him into the boat; John uses labein,which originally meant, to seize.  They jerk Jesus into the boat as if this walking on water stuff freaks them out--'Hey Jesus, get in here!  You can't go around walking on water--it just isn't done--this is unreal.'
  And it was.  Then in 6.21 they get to land, 'immediately.'  They're not going to have their leader doing this, they're getting right to the land they can feel.  John says it was the same land from which they left--home.  No more of this walking on water rigamaroll.
  Now that Jesus has done something only God would do, the rest of the chapter turns toward Jesus as God.  But not God hidden in the tabernacle, who could only be approached by Levites.  Now Jesus will show the disciples how they can receive God in their heart and soul.
  In John 6.26 Jesus tells the crowd they only follow Him so they might eat and be filled.  He tells them not to work for the food which perishes, meaning the bread they can hold in their hand; work for the bread which sustains them into eternal life.  Jesus speaks from a literal use to a spiritual one.  In 6.26 John uses the word for chewing--ephagete--and the word for bread--artwn.  This is the bread which passes away, it is used by the body and then eliminated; it lasts a day and then gone.  But in 6.27 He uses the world for food which sustains--brwsin.  This word has been used metaphorically as that which sustains, or even to raise a child in the sense of providing for that child.  While artwn is the bread from grain we buy at the store, brwsin is that which enables us to live and go on.
   The disciples say in 6.34--Lord, give us all this bread--meaning the bread which sustains to eternal life.  He says--I am the bread of life; the one coming to Me will never hunger and the one believing in Me will never thirst again.  John uses artwn for bread in this verse but ends the sentence with--eternal life.  John is associating the literal meaning with the spiritual meaning of eternal life.  Now Jesus will expand on that, by taking us from the literal to the spiritual.
  In John 6.41 Jesus says He is the bread--which came down from heaven--reminding the Jews of what they could believe, the manna in the wilderness of Exodus, Deuteronomy 8.3.  He is putting together at once the literal with Himself as the spiritual meaning.  The crowd doesn't like this.  So Jesus tells them in 6.47--the one who believes has eternal life.  His point is to bring the crowd from their own natural seeking of only a loaf to seeking eternal life through Him.
  Jesus had said in 6.35--I am the bread of life.  Now He will reveal what He means.  Up till now Jesus had used phagwn for eating--meaning chewing--and artwn for bread.  The Jews could understand this easily, as they had been given bread in their hand when Jesus transformed a few loaves into many, 6.1-15.  Now Jesus says He is the bread out of heaven, so that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life, John 6.51.  The expression--out of heaven--is the link between the manna of Exodus and Jesus as the bread who gives eternal life.
  How is this so?  In 6.53 Jesus begins with the literal meaning, stretching it forthe first time. He says--if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.  The word for eating is phagnte,which we know is the chewing, the word we expect.  But now He has substituted for bread His flesh, sarka.  And He has substituted for 'himself,' the 'Son of Man.'  What this means is that Jesus intends for His disciples to take the eating His flesh and drinking His blood as meaning more than just the act of chewing and swallowing.  He means to associate His flesh and blood with believing unto eternal life.  This is the new covenant which He has given us.
  Now in 6.54 Jesus moves the meaning again.  John will not use phagwn for chewing,but trwgwn.  This word comes from trwphw, which means to be filled, to fatten or to keep animals or people alive, Luke 4.16, Matt. 6.26, James 5.5.  It has been used metaphorically, to represent ideas greater than mere eating food.  Jesus then associates His flesh and blood with life, 6.53--if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you do not have life within yourselves.  Then in 6.54 Jesus stretches it from life to eternal life--The one eating My flesh and drinking My blood has eternal life.  Then in 6.55 Jesus stretches the meaning again.  He says His flesh is true flesh (brwsis) and His blood is true drink: this means that He will abide with the one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood.  The word for 'true,' is aletheia, which means to reveal; it also means what is revealed is true, without lie.  It is the word in Rev. 19.9--these are true words of God.  In other words,the culmination of the flesh and blood is abiding.
  In the 17th century Richard Hooker said the bread and wine of communion were a means to the end of union with Christ.  Now that Jesus calls His words true in the sense that He will reveal Himself through them,He says it plainly in 6.57--As the living Father sent Me,and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he will also live because of Me.  We will be in the Son as the Son is in the Father.  Jesus links this being in the Father to the bread of 6.58--This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread shall live forever.
  All of this is spiritually rare.  So John adds in 6.59 a touch of reality to remind his readers this really happened.  He says Jesus said all this in Capernaum, in the synogogue.  We should preach like this in the church.
  This is also spiritually intense.  The moment passes, the disciples confess they cant' stand the sense of eating a living man's flesh and drinking his blood.  They call His words a scandal, taking His word ona realistic level.  Jesus then says the Spirit is life, the flesh profits nothing.  The words He has spokenare life and spirit.  He is taking them them through their literal understanding to His spiritual presence.  Finally Jesus challenges them by asking if they will go away as the other disciples have.
  Peter says Jesus has the words of life--You are the Holy One of God.  The entire exchange was meang to bring the disciples to see Jesus is the Holy One of God.