Thursdays Child John 6:35-60 Things Aren't Always What They Seem

Well, I hope you liked the last entry "Son Of Man." It was fun for me to research. If you didn't catch it, it is just below this one. We looked at what Jesus meant when He referred to Himself as "The Son Of Man." Check it out.
As we continue in the book of John, we'll take a look at how Jesus tries to explain to the crowd (the crowd of 5000 He had just fed the night before) that He is the "Bread Of Life." This passage has a lot of repetition in it. It probably could have been a lot shorter, but Jesus kept trying to convince the crowd that He had come to give them eternal life, and they just weren't able to accept it. As I was reading it, I was able to understand it from both perspectives. If we look at verse 38, Jesus says "I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent Me, not to do what I want." Then in verse 42 the people said "How can He say He came down from heaven, we know His mother and father." It doesn't say how long they had known Jesus' family, but I was thinking if they knew Him as He was growing up, it would be really hard to accept Him as the Messiah.
As we look at the next exchange between Jesus and the people, this is the part that spans twelve verses. Jesus is trying to explain to them that they are to eat of His flesh, and drink His blood. You can understand why the disciples said in verse 60 "This is very hard to understand. how can anyone accept it." It was back in verse 57 that help me understand. Jesus said "I live by the power of the living Father who sent me, in the same way, those who partake of Me will live because of Me." Jesus is saying here, if you totally take in and consume and live everything I teach, you will have eternal life. I don't know why, but the word "partake" helped me to realize what Jesus was saying. I think it's very cool that, after the people told Jesus they expected Him to take care of them while they followed Him, and brought up how Moses fed the Israelites with manna, Jesus compares himself to the manna. God supplied manna from heaven to sustain life for the Israelites, now Jesus is telling them, and us, that He has come from heaven and He is all the bread we need to "partake" of to have eternal life. When He says we will never hunger and thirst again, He means when we get to heaven. Naturally we will while we're still living as humans on earth, but when we get to heaven, when all is perfect, there will be no need for food or drink. If you were having a hard time understanding what Jesus meant when He said we are to eat His flesh, and drink His blood, I hope this helped make things a little clearer.
Just remember, things may not always be what they appear. The people in this passage would never have expected Jesus to be the Messiah (and some of them still didn't believe.) So keep an open mind, the most wonderful things could come to us where and when we least expect it.
In verse 37, and 44 Jesus said "those the Father has drawn to Me." I'd like to take a look at this next time. I have heard some debate about this in the past, and I'd like to see if we can shed a little light on this phrase. Until then keep questioning, and keep searching for the answers.
Thanks for searching with me,
Paul

Thursdays Child: "Son Of Man" Examined

As I mentioned in the last Thursdays Child, I would like to take a look at the phrase "Son Of Man." It's a phrase that I always wondered what it's meaning was. It is used 88 times in the New Testament, and one that Jesus used to refer to Himself.
What I found is that there are two possible meanings. One is from the book of Daniel, in a prophecy about Jesus being the Messiah. In Daniel 7:13-14 it says, "In my vision at night I looked and there before me was like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." The second meaning actually means born of a human. An interesting use of the phrase, is in the Old Testament, it is used to confirm a person's relationship to another person. They used the phrase, like we use "next of kin" today. If a person needed to be bought from slavery, or released from jail, the "son of man" could redeem them. Since Jesus was totally human He can be considered our relative by blood, and since He was totally God, He could forgive sins. Therefore, Jesus was able to forgive the sins of those who lived when He did, and since He died and rose from the grave He is also able to forgive our sins today.
It's interesting to learn that Jesus did things that were based in His tradition. He observed the laws that were given by God, but then He would turn around and do things contrary to the man made laws, like having the man at the Bethesda pool carry his mat on the Sabbath.
It's fun to research the things you wonder about. I have wondered about the "Son of Man"" phrase for  a while. I'm glad I decided to finally find out what it meant. I hope it was as interesting for you also.
Thanks for learning with me,
Paul