Eat His Flesh To Live

From today’s reading…

What is up with all this talk of bread and flesh and eating and living and dying, huh?

Reading it without understanding history can be confusing. (It’s why we always read the story of Phillip instructing the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 precede this Gospel reading.)

The price of sin is death. Peoples have known this intuitively for as far back as there are written records, as seen in the Aztec practice of human sacrifice in Mesoamerica 3,000 years ago, the Mayan human and animal sacrifices as well as bloodletting, the burning sacrifices of the Celtic Druids, and the ancient Chinese making drowning sacrifices to the river god, Hebo.

The Jews sacrificed bulls, lambs, doves, wheat, and wine. When they sacrificed animals they were instructed to cook the flesh and consume it.

These animals were not some distant beast brought in from a dairy farm 50 miles downwind and conveniently lead to slaughter.

No. These animals were part of their way of life. They raised these cows and sheep. They laid hands on them to confess their sins before they slit their throats, bled them, then opened them on the altar.

These were prized possessions whose sacrifice stood in place of the Jews. Their flesh was consumed out of necessity for both their physical and spiritual bodies.

So Jesus’ audience was well-aware of what He meant when He spoke the words in today’s reading.

And being aware of what He said and following what He meant is the only way to…

Stay the course. Keep the faith. Endure.

Now go sell something.