So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves.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.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.
6 sermons cite this verse
… How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. You have no life in yourselves. And now verse 66. As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, You do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life, and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Between 20 and 25 times every week, we are all doing the same thing at just about the same time. You've already done it once this morning, and before a couple of hours have passed, you will do it again. And believe it or not, before bedtime, you will do it again. For some of the ladies here, it represents the most time-consuming activity of your day. …
… In today's gospel, Jesus was telling the truth when he said he would give us his flesh to eat and blood to drink. And then he actually gave us himself the last supper, right? When he is with his apostles and he takes bread and wine and says, take this all of you and eat of it. This is my body. Take this all of you and drink of it. This is my blood. We know this, right? This Corpus Christi, that every mass, Jesus is truly and substantially present with us. It's incredible, incredible. maybe the most incredible gift. In fact, St. John Vianney once said this. He's a saint, parish priest. He said, there is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something better to give us, he would have given it to us. It is his greatest gift. And I think there's something powerful that happens when we discover this. Like for Catholics, when they discover that the mass really is Jesus, like this is what happened to me. …
… Instead, he says, unless you gnaw on the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, there's no life in you. Purposely using the word to describe the way animals eat. Unless you gnaw on the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. What's he emphasizing? The reality of his presence. Yes, under sacramental signs, indeed, but the real, true, and substantial presence of Jesus in this bread that has indeed come from heaven. Now, I mean, link it to the first theme. This is why it sustains us. If it's just ordinary bread, of course, it won't sustain you spiritually. It's just bread with a symbolic charge. Okay, It'll give you a certain illumination, maybe. But you want to be strengthened for heaven. You want to be supernaturalized. You need super substantial bread. Manna came from heaven in an even more radical way. The Eucharist comes from heaven. Here's a third connection that I find really intriguing. I'm speaking now very much as a Catholic. …
… what Jesus tells the crowd. He's got tons of crowds following him. Look at verse 53. This is what Jesus said. He says, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day. Is that a little weird? If you're following Jesus, isn't it good to know that Jesus said that and people followed him? So we can be confident as we share. God's working behind this thing. Keep going. John chapter 10. Look at John chapter 10. Look at verse 10. Jesus gives us a summary statement. He says, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. John 10.10 says, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Look over in verse 27. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. Here it is. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. Isn't that good news? Isn't it good to know that there's absolutely nothing you can do to earn your salvation? As a result, there's nothing you can do to lose your salvation. God's got you in his hand. By his grace, by the finished work of Christ on a cross, we can be assured of eternal life. That's good news. …
… How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" And Jesus said to them, "'Truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I'll raise him on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, He will also live of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever. You've got to be committed to me, and this has to be understood. I'm going to give my flesh and shed my blood. Can you accept sacrificial atonement? Can you accept me as the sin offering? …
… to eat? And Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. And as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so He who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? And when Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, Does this offend you? …