Jesus teaching the idea of eating His flesh (v51) was of course shocking to the Jews (v52). But how Jesus responds to their concerns is very interesting and even shocking (v53-56). Jesus doesn’t soften what He is saying too make it more acceptable, what He says gets stronger. He now says as well as eating His flesh they must drink His blood, and He repeats this again (v54), and again (v55) and again (v56).

Another thing to note here is that in the original language, the word translated as eat in v51 and v53 is changed to a stronger word in v54 and v56 meaning to chew. The picture Jesus is painting is getting more shocking. There are a number of possible reasons as to why Jesus does this. The first is to put off those who are casual and not serious about finding the truth from Him. The second is to get across something of the terrible nature through which salvation will be secured at the cross. The third reason is to emphasise strongly how people need to be united to Him and His death.

There can be no casual approach to Jesus. Who He is and what He does must be embraced fully. Jesus must be embraced fully in order for us to be saved. We can never treat Jesus or union with Jesus in a casual manner.