You assume that He could not have been linking the two? The words "This is my body" mean something different than "This symbolicly represents my body."
Not if that is what Christ did, and if that is what He tasked the Apostles with doing.
He said "do this in MEMORY of Me", not do this and then claim you have turned this peice of bread into Me, so others may receive me through this coverted bread.
He said do "this." That's what we do and the earliest records of the Church in history reflect that the earliest Christians understood "this" to be more than a symbol.
We do what Jesus did and what He told us to do. It's really that simple.
If you actually read the New Testament, you'll see Jesus uses symbolism and parables a lot and it would not make sense for Him to do this often, except for this one occasion and then not fully explain it
Again, it is a fallacy to assume that because Jesus spoke in parables and symbols that nothing He said was meant to be taken any other way. You don't really believe that, do you? Jesus spoke the plain truth many times.
As for your suggestion that He did not explain it, that is unfounded as well. Jesus gave the Bread of Life discourse and painfully explained that He was truly flesh to eat. People walked away from Him that day and He did not correct them, calling them back that it was a big misunderstanding, that He was talking in symbols.
The Apostles stuck with Him in faith, and at the Last Supper saw how He was to make this so. And after the Resurrection, to suggest that Jesus didn't explain anything to His followers is ridiculous.
SD
You assume that He could not have been linking the two?
YES!
The words "This is my body" mean something different than "This symbolicly represents my body."
Again, symbolism, Jesus didn't become a gate either. Scripture helps us interpret scripture, we see the context of words and symbols that are used and they are consistent.
Since Jesus is the Bread of Life, I assume you know it to be a reference about salvation and not a meal.
In your interpretation, we stretch the meaning and recieve Jesus through a peice of bread that we have to depend on a priest to convert for us, instead of believing in our minds, where the "believing" part is performed as opposed to our stomachs.
Similar to the forgiveness for sins through a priest, both being dependent on the church instead of going directly to God.
None of this is even hinted at in scripture. It's a house of cards. Why wouldn't we receive Jesus through believing in our hearts and minds, instead of being dependant on some ceremony that is not clearly defined in the Bible ? Don't you think Jesus would have spelled this out ?
For God so Loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.
There are a million references to faith and believing and none about gaining salvation through a peice of bread.
I'll pray for you ! Please attend a Bible study