Re: Passover: The 7 Feasts of Israel and Jesus

"Then why did Jesus specifically command us to eat His flesh and drink His blood if we were already washed in His blood from the beginning of our belief?"


Here's the whole section where this passage is found, and then I'll add my thoughts after this:

John 6:
I Am the Bread of Life

22On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

41So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53So Jesus 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 you. 54Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59Jesusd said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life

60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

66After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.


So first we have this verse:
26Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

So Jesus points out here that they were only following him to get more physical blessings. And he tells them to seek eternal life, not things that will perish.

28Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

They asked Jesus what work they must be doing, to be doing the works of God, and what did he say? Believe on Him!

Skipping on down:
35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

So yes, on down further, it says many of the disciples turned away, but Jesus says why here. It's because they did not believe. Yes, they were following him for a while. And he already said earlier it's because they were after physical blessing. But then he exposes the deeper reason why they turned away, and that's because they did not believe in Him! And this is what you will see all the time in the so called Christian world, especially in churches and movements where physical blessings are promised to those who come to Christ. So people will come, to get those physical blessings, and when that doesn't happen, they will turn away, because they never truly believed in Christ.

Then we read:
47Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53So Jesus 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 you. 54Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.


We of course know Jesus's words are symbolic here. He doesn't literally mean, eat his flesh and drink his blood. That would be cannibalism which that's how the people took it. His words are spiritual. And he confirms that here:

60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

So Jesus was speaking spiritually, but many of the people could not understand what he was saying because they were not believers, and so could not understand Jesus's spiritual language.

1 Corinthians 2:14
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

And then Jesus goes on to say, "these words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe. And then he says, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

You said:

"Notice that many of His disciples that had been following Him up to that point left when Jesus gave that teaching. They were okay with it when it was just about faith and belief but when Jesus got specific about what they had to do, they were offended and didn't want to hear it."

So I disagree with you here. Those that ended up walking away, did not have faith in Jesus, as the Son of God. And yes, they were offended, because they couldn't understand his spiritual language, and thought he was talking about cannibalism.

Then it says:

66After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

So do you see, those that continued on with Jesus, were the true disciples, the true believers that believed he was the "Holy One of God!" They were the ones that would drink his blood and eat his flesh. And what does that mean? Abide in Him! And true faith in Him will cause us to do that. We walk and move and have our being in Him! We aren't perfect, that is in our flesh, but we are His children. He is our Father!

You can't believe in God unless you are born again. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again!" And if you are born again, you have the Holy Spirit living in you! This is what Jesus meant by all this. We must be in Him and Him in us, or we don't have eternal life. He said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life." No one comes to the Father except through Him!

There is only one way to receive the Holy Spirit, and that is through faith. There is not a bunch of stuff we do to be able to receive the Holy Spirit. We just believe! What must we be doing to be doing the works of God? Believe on Jesus! If we believe on Jesus, we have the promised Holy Spirit, who is a guarantee of our inheritance. And it is by the Holy Spirit, that we live out the Christian life. The Holy Spirit guides us, convicts us, teaches us, comforts us, and does good works through us.


You said it's not grace that changes us, but Christ. Well grace is how Christ deals with those that are his, so it is Christ that changes us, yes, but he changes us through grace:

1 Corinthians 15:10:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.