... among themselves His strange saying, only to dismiss it with contempt. Unlike the Disciples afterwards, who "when Christ appeared to them in a far more strange and miraculous manner, moved no question, but rejoiced greatly in what they saw.... .. The one, because they enjoyed not, disputed; the other disputed not, because they enjoyed. And we by that which they did are taught that this heavenly food is given for the satisfying of our empty souls, and not for the exercising of our curious and subtile wits." The Lord, who knew the state of their minds, and what was passing in these unholy conferences, becomes to them even yet more enigmatical. He does not shrink from asserting an unpopular truth. He will not explain away anything He has said. Yet was there that in His words which would have led any earnest inquirer to further revelations. So He repeats, with His usual solemn affirmation, and expands His former saying. He adds thereto a particular at which they might especially take offence, seeing that the blood was to them a forbidden thing. The Lord however tells them plainly that not only does He offer to them His Flesh with the Blood thereof, but that they must of necessity partake of it. That which these too literal Jews had asserted to be impossible, He in a spiritual sense declares to be absolutely necessary. And to those who would look below the surface of things, and consider the reason of the prohibition, that particular, "new as it was, and abhorrent from their habits and law," would have poured a flood of light upon what was dark in the former dispensation, would have served as a key to unlock the hidden meaning of those mysteries of old. For "the blood is the life," and "in Him was life." So only could those who were dead in Adam find life renewed. Life, otherwise, they had not in them. Here is the negative side 2 1 See the whole of Hooker's noble words, Eccl. Pol. v. lxvii. 3-5. There are some weighty observations on this chapter and on Hooker's, which was the universal, view of it, in Wilberforce's Doctrine of the Incarnation, ch. xiii. 2 Bp. Wordsworth notes that the 5 form of speech here is "parallel to 5 "This we know seemed a hard saying, and some went away, and walked no more with Him. But to 2 of the case. And then the Lord affirms it positively, coupling thereto, for this third time,' the promise of the Resurrection. As He took part of our flesh and blood to save us, so must we partake of His Flesh and Blood if we would be saved. And His Flesh, He adds, is truly3 food, and His Blood truly drink; not as those figurative, archetypal, imperfect things on which they fondly dwelt, whether manna of the wilderness, or sacrifices of the Law. He is the substance of all those shadows, and can satisfy as they never could. CCLXVI. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. John vi. 56-59. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. The Lord proceeds further to assert the mystery of this spiritual manducation. He applies it individually, as the Church after Him, to each. As the branch is in the vine," so is every faithful partaker in Christ. To feed upon Christ in our hearts by faith, this is to dwell in Him. Here we have the subject in its source, the principle of faith. Else those who, like Peter, knew that He had the words of eternal life, and who waited patiently, He explained it just a year afterwards at the last Paschal Supper, when He took bread, and brake it, and said, 'Take, eat, this is my Body.'"-Bp. Words. Ser. on The Inspiration of the Old Testament. 1 Vv. 40, 44, above. 2 Heb. ii. 14. 3 So in the original. See the Words of Administration, and the Rubric prefixed, in the Communion Office, and note its testimony against the tenet of particular redemption. St. John xv. 4. It is the same word there rendered abideth, here dwelleth. where our Evangelist shows it to us in its effects; as where he speaks of keeping His commandments, of confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, of dwelling in love, as proofs that we dwell in Him.' The Lord yet further confirms to us this comfortable truth, setting it forth to us by way of analogy, by a reference to the union between the Father and the Son. And He returns finally to that which He had spoken of in the outset, the text as it were and theme of His discourse. The same note struck at the beginning is heard, as in a perfect harmony, also at its close. He repeats the proposition which all before had gone to prove, declaring what is that Bread which came down from Heaven,2 wherein it differs from, wherein it is immeasurably superior to, their boasted The Evangelist informs us where these words were spoken. The Synagogue in Capernaum heard this wonderful sermon. So further on we have that challenge to the Sanhedrim, "I ever taught in the Synagogue." What signs of credibility we have here! manna. CCLXVII. THE EFFECT OF CHRIST'S SERMON ON HIS DISCIPLES. St. John vi. 60-63. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 16. Of those who had hitherto given Him a certain amount of 1 1 St. John iii. 24; iv. 12, 13, 15, 2 Called by Ignatius (Ep. ad Eph. xx.) "Medicine of immortality, the antidote of death." 3 St. John xviii. 20, 21. attention, and who in a general way had been reckoned among the disciples of the Lord, many take this opportunity to throw off His easy yoke, being offended at what seems to them an hard saying. They echo the murmurings of the Jews. That He should speak of Himself as having come down from Heaven, that He should give them His Flesh to eat! It seemed to contradict the evidence of their senses. Who can stop to listen to this? The Lord, who knew the rebellious thoughts which were passing in their minds, convicts them openly; giving them this further proof of His Divine knowledge. And He proceeds to justify both the sayings at which they stumbled; alluding first to that at which they first murmured. They should yet, so He hints, see plain proof of this. His ascension into Heaven would prove His descent from Heaven. It is like His saying to Nathanael, like His reproof to Nicodemus. Then adverting to that other saying at which they stumbled, He reproves them for the carnal interpretation they were ever putting upon His spiritual sayings. For even were it possible for them to partake of the literal and physical flesh of the Lord, it would profit them nothing; seeing it is the Spirit alone that quickeneth; the flesh to that end contributing nothing. The words of Christ were not carnal at all, but altogether spiritual. They were spirit itself. They were to be understood in a spiritual sense. "The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner.' And because spiritual, they were quickening. They were spirit, and therefore they conveyed life. They were life itself. "The body without the spirit is dead." Not till God 1 V. 43, 52, above. 2 See Eph. iv. 9, 10, and Bp. Pearson's Exposition of this. On the Creed, v. i. pp. 140, 141, 269, 270. 3 St. John i. 50. St. John iii. 12, 13. 5 Art. xxviii. Coleridge (Table Talk) upon the saying of Selden that "transubstantiation is nothing but rhetoric turned into logic," remarks upon the gradual growth of the error:-" And so it went on till the idea was changed into an idol." He "5 adds with regard to those who now explain away, and those who exaggerate the true doctrine of the real presence," the first have volatilized the Eucharist into a metaphor; the last have condensed it into an idol." If the word in v. 63 were rendered giveth life (instead of quickeneth) the connection would be made more clear. In the Nicene Creed, where the titles, attributes, and offices of the Spirit are enumerated, the cognate word is rendered "Giver of life." breathed into man's body the breath of life did man become a living soul. "In Him was life," and this life He communicates to those that believe in Him. CCLXVIII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. John vi. 64-71. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. It was not any real cause of offence in His present words that led to this defection. The real reason lay deeper far. Unbelief was at the bottom of it all. They are glad when opportunity offers for them to withdraw with some show of dignity. The Lord saw through all the pretexts by which they deceived others, and it might be themselves; and thus early He spake to the consciences of those among His professed followers who believed not in their hearts even while confessing with their lips, and of him who was about openly to turn traitor. What follows He adds, not for the discourage 1 Note in v. 64 the force of the participle, the non-believing," and (which is not gathered from the E. V.) the singular of the latter clause, "who (i.e. what man) it is that shall betray Him." It is very graphic in the original. He knows our thoughts long before; knows the present latent |