Reading Plan Text for March 27: John 6: 51-58
There is a family story about two siblings of my mother's generation. The elder was being confirmed, and the family decided that the younger should be as well. Since they younger had not been baptized, both rites were conducted on the same day as the elder's confirmation. When the two youngsters received communion, the younger became quite ill. The image of the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ was too real for the younger sibling.
In this passage we see John the Mystic at work. Burridge does an excellent job of working through the layers and layers of meaning.
We also see Jesus pushing the envelope in ways not seen in the Synoptic Gospels, at least not this early in the story. Is it any wonder that "the Jews then disputed among themselves"? (Burridge points out that the Greek word actually means "fought".) In spite of several strains of Jewish Mysticism, it serves John's purpose to make those disputing with Jesus pretty literal minded.
Peace,
Jeffri
I did not like this passage AT ALL. I can't imagine what Jesus thought he was doing. The disciplies were pretty much literalists when it came to his teachings and frankly this teaching is just plain gross.
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