Sacramental
Teachings in John’s Gospel: The Spiritual Meal
Unlike the Synoptic Gospels,
John’s Gospel refers not to a Passover meal but to a meal that took place
“before the feast of the passover,” where Jesus washed the feet of the
disciples (John 13:1-30). His Gospel emphasizes the sacramental teachings, in
part, in chapter 6’s Bread of Life discourse. John placed the discourse in the
context of the meal of feeding the five thousand (John 6:1-14). The day
following the meal, the people came looking for him (seeking more free food).
Jesus used sacramental language of eating the bread of life to teach them about
the spiritual aspect of eating. He declared, “I am the bread of life: he that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst” (John 6:35). Then he declared:
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? 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. (John 6:51-56)
Jesus’s teachings here are more
expansive than his recorded teachings at the Last Supper and may help us
consider one way of understanding his directions to “take eat: this is my body,
which was broken for you” and “this cup is the new testament in my blood” (1
Corinthians 11:24-25; see also Mark 14:22-23 and parallels). Just as food and
drink are essential for maintaining our physical lives, Jesus emphasizes the
importance of his atoning sacrifice bringing not just physical, mortal life
but, more importantly, eternal life. Just as bread was broken in antiquity so
that it could be consumed, Jesus’s body was broken so it could be consumed
spiritually. By partaking of the sacramental emblems, a person symbolically partakes
of a portion of Jesus’s divinity. Such a sacramental act is meant to change a
person, slowly to be sure, to symbolize their being transformed into divine
beings like Jesus. In John’s Gospel this is a central part of our “indwelling”
with God and his son that Jesus speaks of in his intercessory prayer (see John
17). He prays, “Holy Father, keep through thine town name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be the one, as we are” (John 17:11), and further,
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word. That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that
they be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou has sent me, and
hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:20-23; emphasis added). Given
our discussion on meals, it should not be surprising that this transformation
is also celebrated in a meal setting. (Gaye Strathearn, “Communal Settings for
Meals in the New Testament,” in The Household of God: Families and Belonging
in the Social World of the New Testament ed. Lincoln H. Blumell, Jason R.
Combs, Mark D. Ellison, Frank F. Judd Jr., and Cecilia M. Peek [Provo, Utah:
BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022], 62-63,
emphasis in original)
