NOTES for Ин 6:41-71
If we were not so accustomed to these words of the Lord Jesus, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood...,” we would probably echo the bewildered disciples: “What strange, frightening words!” He had just spoken about the heavenly bread that comes down from heaven and satisfies everyone who eats it, but now it turns out that this bread is Jesus Himself, and that believers must “chew His flesh”—these frightening, harsh words are softened in the Russian translation. The Lord then immediately tells His confused disciples that His words are spirit and life, that it is the Spirit who gives life, while “the flesh is of no avail” (63). We already know that the central message of John’s Gospel is that “the Word became flesh,” and that faith in the bodily coming of the Son of God gives people eternal life. On the other hand, the very description of the breaking of the loaves (“having given thanks, He broke and distributed,” and the gathering of what remained from the meal) connects the reader with the breaking of bread at the Last Supper. Thus the evangelist binds together faith in the flesh of the Son of God, the eternal life given by the Spirit, and the Eucharistic meal that nourishes the faithful.