Well, they sure didn’t expect & accept that they would literally eat Him. They weren’t sure what else he meant, but knew He didn’t mean THAT.
For someone who spoke almost exclusively in parables etc, taking “eat me” literally was obviously wrong.
“Well, they sure didn’t expect & accept that they would literally eat Him.”
Sure they did. http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/father/a5.html
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/father/fathers.htm
“They weren’t sure what else he meant, but knew He didn’t mean THAT.”
Yes, He did. https://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/euchc2.htm
“For someone who spoke almost exclusively in parables etc, taking “eat me” literally was obviously wrong.”
Nope. Remember, we know what “eat my flesh” means when used as a metaphor: Psalm 27:2:
New International Version
When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
As a metaphor it isn’t something positive.
Jesus meant what He said. You eat the Passover Lamb (just like in Exodus 12).
“They weren’t sure what else he meant, but knew He didn’t mean THAT.”
You might want to read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Not-Bread-Alone-Historical-Eucharistic/dp/1579181244
Christ said this to his disciples:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
And the Jews argued among themselves saying:
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Then Jesus said to them
Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
On hearing this, many of his disciples said,
This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?
Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them,
Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words that I have spoken unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life
Christ backed up His words by saying that they are Spirit and they are Life.
At this point his audience could only have understood that Christ meant what He was saying.
Christ stood by His words. He declared them to be Spirit and Life. He declared that His flesh was real food and His blood was real drink.
No-one who heard Him was in any doubt that He meant what He said. This is why so many of His disciples stop following Him
They left Christ, unable to reconcile themselves to His stark and obvious meaning. They knew Christ wasn't speaking in metaphor. His teaching shocked them into leaving. Just like many on this thread, they could not accept it.
And Christ watched them go. He didn’t call them back to explain what He’d really meant. He stood by His words. He did not retract or clarify them.
There are simply no other ways to take the John 6 narrative. Like those people in Capernaum we must accept that Christ literally means for us to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood.