“I am the living bread which came down from heaven:
if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews
therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh
to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. .
. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that
I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and they are life” John 6:51-3,
63.
When Jesus
gave the bread to His disciples to eat and said 'this is my flesh' and the
grape juice to drink and said, 'this is my blood', He meant it in a figurative
way. Jesus often spoke figuratively regarding Himself. For example: Jesus said,
"I am the door" (John 10:7), and the "way" (John 14:6). But
all agree He was not transforming Himself into a door or a highway. This is why
the practice of the Eucharist is not Biblical. It is impossible for man to
create anything (God is the Creator) especially for man to create God.
The Jews
also thought that Jesus was speaking in literal terms. To leave no room for
confusion Jesus Himself clarified that He was referring to spiritual things
(see John 6:63).
This is not
to say that we should not break bread together in remembrance as Jesus told us
to do, but it is not to be believed that the bread is the actual body of Christ
(suggestive of cannibalism) and the grape juice His actual blood. It is
interesting to point out that those who practice the last supper must keep in
mind that Jesus was practicing the Passover, during which the Jews were to have
no leaven for 7 days in their houses (Exodus 12:15). So, the idea of drinking
fermented wine in remembrance of this is totally foreign to the Bible because
Jesus and His disciples did not drink fermented wine at the last supper.
