“Christ is truly present spiritually in the Lord’s Supper.”
The context of Jesus’ statements concerning the eating of His flesh and drinking His blood was the feeding of the 5,000 around Passover time. The crowd is looking for more bread (John 6:26, “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled”) and Jesus directs their attention to the manna that the Children of Israel ate during the exodus right after the first Passover.
Jews identified manna with the Law (Torah) (Ex. 16:4, “Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no”) and the need to daily eat it and drink it in (Sirach 24:20-24, “He who eats of me will hunger still, he who drinks of me will thirst for more; he who obeys me will not be put to shame, he who serves me will never fail.’ All this is true of the book of Most High’s covenant, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the community of Jacob”). Jesus says He is greater than the Law (Torah) (John 6:35, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”)
Jesus is explaining to the Jews that believing on Him was eating and drinking (John 6:29, “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”) just like they do with the Law (eating and drinking).
Well put.
Thx Thx.
To add to you exposition are some comments on John Wycliff:
“In 12 theses he (Wycliff) declared the Church’s doctrine unscriptural annd misleading. for the first time since the promulgation of the dogma of transsubstantation by the Fourth Lateran was it seriously called into question by a theological expert........
This prohibition (by the Duke of Lancaster) Wycliff met with a still more positive avowal of his views in his CONFESSION, which closes with the noble words,
“I believe that in the end the truth will conquer”. “
(Schaff’s Hisotry of the Christian Church, Volume VI)
Wycliff was of the view that the bread and wine were symbols of Christ’s flesh and blood and that they remained so.
But Peter said, "Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean."
that he repeated three times to God, lays to rest the blasphemy of transubstantiation.
For that matter, Peter was such a stickler for the Law, that AFTER his conversion and filling with the Holy Spirit, he STILL slipped back into Judaism.
So either Peter ate flesh and drank blood and lied later to God.
Or not.
Jews identified manna with the Law (Torah) (Ex. 16:4, “Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no”) and the need to daily eat it and drink it in (Sirach 24:20-24, “He who eats of me will hunger still, he who drinks of me will thirst for more; he who obeys me will not be put to shame, he who serves me will never fail.’ All this is true of the book of Most High’s covenant, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the community of Jacob”). Jesus says He is greater than the Law (Torah) (John 6:35, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”)
Jesus is explaining to the Jews that believing on Him was eating and drinking (John 6:29, “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”) just like they do with the Law (eating and drinking).
AMEN.
"...lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." -- Matthew 28:20 "I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD." -- Ezekiel 34:15