It is scripture that says "this bread is my body" and "my flesh is food indeed". Do you likewise require any other miracle to appear twice in the scripture?
It SEEMS clear to me that in the New Testament aborning context, There was a particular SOMETHING (including mystery) which God insisted on confronting the Jews of that era with. And, it was the very horrific notion of eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His Blood in any sense, context, representational mode.
It was AT LEAST, imho, challenging them; forcing them; requiring them to forsake all the standards and prohibitions of Judaism and accept CHRIST ALONE as access to GOD THE FATHER—and to do so in a way which wholesale jangled their LAW BORN BLOOD-IS-FORBIDDEN sensibilities.
I think God has a penchant for doing that. He leads along a certain track and then requires that we wholesale abandon that track and FOLLOW HIM along an entirely different and often, at first, horribly jangly track. And if you haven’t experienced or observed that, then I’d be inclined to think you haven’t followed God very long or haven’t been paying attention.
I think the object is, yet again, GOD ALONE. He will not tolerate ritual for ritual’s sake—NOR ANY OTHER THING OR ANY OTHER ACTION OR ANY OTHER CREATURE to substitute for INTIMATE ONE ON ONE RELATIONSHP WITH HIMSELF. PERIOD.
Perhaps it is like a wise father. He knows that in 10 years, when the son is 16, they will be moving to a foreign country. And that the forces and persons in that foreign country will be full of temptations and hazards for the teen boy. He also knows that the utmost loyalty to DADDY, himself, will be essential to the boy’s and the family’s survival and prospering in the new land.
So, for 10 years, the father leads the son along a certain track. Then, after comfort has really set in and the boy is really depending on that track, the father changes it and requires the son to utterly abandon that track and ABSOLUTELY BLIND FAITHFULLY follow the dad along an even contradictory track.
Because the wise father knows that it is not the particular track that’s the issue—but utter faithfulness to following DADDY that is crucial to life and health and prosperity.
I don’t think the analogy is far off.
Throughout the Old Testament, God was frequently throwing monkey wrenches in the middle of things HE HIMSELF had established but which the Israelites had gotten too complacent in and trusting of—in and of the rituals themselves vs TRUSTING GOD HIMSELF. ONLY THE LATTER IS TOLERABLE TO GOD ALMIGHTY. GOD ALONE.