Bible Study Seattle

Jesus’ death on the cross supposedly put an end to the temple animal sacrifices.  Yet how many Christians had chicken today?  Did not that animal sacrifice its life so they could live?  The same goes for vegetables and grain.  And many Christians say a blessing before dinner – is that not thanking God for the animal sacrifices that sustain us?  If not for the death of grains, vegetables, and animals, we’d all be dead.  Jesus’ death is the same thing, but on a much grander scale.  One of his hard sayings had people scratching their heads:

“I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”  Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So 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 yourselves.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up 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 also will live because 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.”  John 6:48-58

The Pharisees could only think of cannibalism, but Jesus clarified to his followers:

“Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”  But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble?  What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”  John 6:60-63

Jesus was talking about spiritual life, not earthly.  This was over the heads of most people at the time.  But YHWH has designed life to be sustained by death.  The immortality that everyone pines for is at the discretion of YHWH himself.