For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
All Commentaries on John 6:55 Go To John 6
John Chrysostom
AD 407
I.e. this is no enigma, or parable, but you must really eat the body of Christ; or Hemeans to say that the true meat was He who saved the soul.
Or, having given a promise of eternal life to those that eat Him, He says this to confirm it: He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in him.
And because I live, it is manifest that he will live also: As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father, even so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me. As if He said, As the Father lives, so do I live; adding, lest you should think Him unbegotten, Bythe Father, meaning that He has His source in the Father. He that eats Me, even he shall liveby Me; the life here meant is not life simply, but the justified life: for even unbelievers live, who never eat of that flesh at all. Nor is it of the general resurrection He speaks, (for all will rise again,) but of the resurrection to glory, and reward.
For if it was possible without harvest or fruit of the earth, or any such thing, to preserve the lives of the Israelites ofold for forty years, much more will He be able to do this with that spiritual food, of which the manna is the type. He knew how precious a thing life was in men’s eyes, and therefore repeats His promise of life often; just as the Old Testament had done; only that it only offered length of life, He life without end. This promise was an abolition of that sentence of death, which sin had brought upon us. These things said He in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum; where many displays of His power took place. He taught in the synagogue and in the temple, with the view of attracting the multitude, and as a sign that He was not acting in opposition to the Father.
