John 6:55-56

‘For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him'.

Here He was again emphasising the importance of His death, for without it there was nothing on offer. Only the giving of His flesh could provide food for men's souls. Only the drinking of His blood through benefiting in His death could provide salvation. But through it what men can receive is better far than they can ever be aware of. And those who consciously ‘die with Him' and partake in the benefit of His death through coming to Him and believing in Him will abide in Him and He in them. They will share His resurrection life. The message is stark and clear. Those who would receive life must recognise that they can do so only through His death. Nothing short of that can make life possible.

It is customary among many to see these words as referring to partaking of the bread and the wine at the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion) but that is in fact to take things the wrong way round. The Lord's Supper certainly illustrates this truth, but here it is not simply a partaking of Communion that Jesus had in mind. His thoughts went far deeper. He was wanting them to enter fully into what was now in store for Him, recognising that it was through His death at their hands alone that they could they find life. And the aim was that men would then eat and drink (coming and believing - John 6:35) continually by a daily response to Him in His death and resurrection. It was a daily dying and rising again that was in mind (Luke 9:23; Romans 6:1), an experiencing of the power of His resurrection and of the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death (Philippians 3:10). Of course, that is also what should be in our minds as we partake of the Lord's Supper.