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The leaning I have in the Spirit is that Jesus means for us to eat His flesh and drink His blood really - but not literally.

That is my leading as well, dearest sister in Christ. It seems to me we must take care not to be too literal-minded if we wish to grasp the intentions of God's Word. A literal reading tends to be reductionist....

Thank you so much for sharing all of your insights, dearest sister in Christ!

This morning, in remembering my testimony last night at post 15182 - it occurs to me that I should have addressed the observance of the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper as well as the Spiritual discernment of John 6:32-71.

So here goes...

Israel was given many ordinances to observe (and they developed quite a few on their own as well.) Circumcision, wave offerings, sacrifices, feasts, priestly apparel, construction of the Ark, Tabernacle, Temple and so on.

We Christians are given but a few – the bread and wine, baptizing in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, washing each other’s feet and so on.

All of these ordinances have a Spiritual purpose and meaning which must be discerned. Just “going through the motions” not only doesn’t accomplish anything but can also be an offense to God:

Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. – Isaiah 1:10-18

So we must look for the Spiritual purpose behind whatever ordinances we observe.

Take for instance the washing of each other’s feet. (John 13) We are clean because of what Christ has done for us. But we are yet in the world, so we pick up dust on our feet as we walk in the world. So, should we pick up a basin of water and a towel and wash a brother or sister’s feet, our thoughts should turn to this ordinance and Him and our obligation to help one another remove the dust we pick up being from the world.

Likewise is the observance of the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper. In either case, we must remember the Spiritual Truth behind what we are doing or the end of it is Spiritually perilous to us:

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the [same] night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

After the same manner also [he took] the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me.

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink [this] cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of [that] bread, and drink of [that] cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. – I Cor 11:23-29

We need to be careful and avoid reductionism when we read the scripture. For example, when we read of Mary becoming the disciple’s mother at the foot of the Cross, it is important to grasp the eternal dimension in which the relationship between Mary and the Church is defined, and not merely an economic arrangement.

At the same time, we must read what is written. When Jesus struggles to explain that the Eucharist is real food and at the same time His real flesh given for the salvation of the world, we should not be tossing that away as too literal, when the passage insists on literal meaning with such force.