Jesus once explained to his disciples, “The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who don’t believe…” (John 63-64a CSB). From this we concur, Jesus gives spiritual life to those who believe on Him through faith in His Word.

What preceded these words was a knee-jerk reaction some people had which made them leave Jesus. They left because they were offended by what He had to say. They didn’t grasp or understand the true meaning of His words. Jesus had referred to himself as the “living bread that came down from Heaven” and how “the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (cf. John 6:51, v. 56 CSB).

 
Now, in the Law of Moses God had forbidden the drinking of blood, so it was natural for those who obeyed God to be offended. But here’s the kicker; they didn’t stick around long enough for Jesus to explain what He meant. “The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life…” Jesus was speaking from the Spirit, not from the realm of the flesh as they had hastily assumed.

This discourse took place before Jesus ate with His disciples at His Last Supper. There, Jesus ‘fleshed out’ His words through the elements as a memorial of His death. But no one could say His chosen disciples hadn’t already tasted and seen that the Lord was good (cf. Psalm cf. 34:8 CSB) — or that (aside from Judas Iscariot) they hadn’t already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. It was always Christ Himself that brought life thorough the Word — nothing had changed.

Sometimes we get so hung-up regarding the mysteries surrounding the Lord’s Supper, we separate ourselves over our interpretations and forget how to love and worship the Lord.