Have you ever paused to consider the shocking nature of Jesus’ words when He instructed His followers to drink His blood and eat his flesh? It’s one of those moments in Scripture that still makes us uncomfortable today, even with our understanding of the metaphor.
Jesus deliberately chose language that would have been deeply offensive to His Jewish audience—language that likened Him to pagan practices explicitly forbidden in the Torah. And to make matters worse, He didn’t immediately explain this metaphor; that explanation would come much later at the Last Supper. This radical teaching caused most of His followers to abandon Him, which raises questions about Jesus’ teaching methods. Could it be that sometimes the most transformative truths require us to struggle through initial discomfort and confusion?
Biblical Insight
In John 6:53-56, Jesus declares, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has everlasting life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” This statement was deliberately provocative because the Torah explicitly prohibited the consumption of blood in Leviticus 17:14: “For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life… Whoever eats it shall be cut off.” Jesus wasn’t merely making His audience uncomfortable—He was challenging their entire understanding of how one connects with God.
So why drink rather than apply? In the Old Testament sacrificial system, blood was indeed applied—sprinkled on the altar, on the mercy seat, even on the people as in Exodus 24:8. This external application signified covenant relationship and cleansing, but remained an external ritual. Jesus, however, was introducing a radical new covenant reality: not just external cleansing, but internal transformation. By using the metaphor of drinking, He was teaching that His life (represented by blood) must become our life—internalized, assimilated, and fully integrated into our very being. This wasn’t about a one-time application but about continual sustenance and nourishment from His very life.
When we examine the cultural context, we discover that this teaching came shortly after the Passover feast (John 6:4). The Jewish people understood blood in terms of life and covenant, but they applied it externally as protection (as in the first Passover) or for ceremonial cleansing. Jesus was deliberately subverting these familiar concepts to communicate that the new covenant would be fundamentally different—not just covering sin, but transforming lives from within. His teaching method here reveals something profound about divine pedagogy (the art of teaching): sometimes the most important truths require a radical disruption of our existing frameworks to get our attention.
Practical Wisdom
This approach of Jesus teaches us something vital about spiritual growth: transformative truth often begins with disruption. When we encounter teachings in Scripture that make us uncomfortable, that challenge our preconceptions, or that seem initially difficult to accept, we shouldn’t immediately dismiss them. Instead, we might be encountering one of those moments where God is inviting us to dig deeper, to “search out the matter” as Proverbs 25:2 suggests.
The Glory of God is indeed to conceal a matter,
and the glory of kings—those who reign with Messiah—is to search it out.
In our walk with the Lord today, we need this same willingness to be challenged and even confused before reaching understanding. The Holy Spirit doesn’t always give us easy answers; sometimes He leads us through a process of wrestling with difficult concepts until they transform us from within. This is especially true regarding how we understand the blood of Jesus. It’s not just something applied externally to “cover” our sins; it’s a life-giving reality that must be internalized through faith to transform us. When we truly “drink His blood” metaphorically speaking, we’re accepting His very life into ours, allowing His nature to become our nature through the indwelling of His Spirit.
Clearing up misunderstandings
One common misunderstanding about Jesus’ teaching style is that He should have been clearer to avoid losing followers. However, this reflects our modern preoccupation with building large audiences rather than making true disciples. Jesus wasn’t interested in accumulating casual followers who wanted comfortable teachings; He sought those willing to wrestle with difficult truths until they were transformed by them. His approach wasn’t a tactical error but a deliberate sifting—separating those who came for the miracles and bread from those who would follow Him even through challenging teachings.
Another misconception is that the “drinking blood” metaphor was primarily about the communion ritual. While the Last Supper certainly gave concrete expression to this teaching, Jesus’ point in John 6 was far broader. He was speaking of the complete identification with Him and His sacrifice—a total reception of His life into ours that communion symbolizes but doesn’t exhaust. The sacrament helps us remember and participate in this reality, but “drinking His blood” refers to our ongoing, moment-by-moment dependence on His life within us. It’s about living from His life rather than our own resources, a continuous internal reality rather than just a ritual observance.
Conclusion
Jesus’ shocking command to drink His blood reveals a Messiah who wasn’t concerned with popularity or immediate comprehension, but with transformation at the deepest level. He spoke truths that required wrestling, meditation, and divine illumination to fully grasp—because these are the truths that transform us most profoundly.
His teaching methods challenge us to move beyond superficial engagement with Scripture to a place where we allow His words to provoke, disturb, and ultimately reshape our understanding. As we embrace this approach, we discover that some of the most uncomfortable teachings initially may become the most life-giving when fully understood and internalized. The life is in the blood, and Jesus invites us not just to be cleansed by it externally, but to be nourished and transformed by it internally.
Did you know
In ancient Hebrew understanding, blood was considered the carrier of nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ)—the life-force or soul of a creature. When Jesus spoke of drinking His blood, He was using language that would have been understood as receiving His very life-essence or soul into oneself—a concept far more intimate and transformative than mere external application. This understanding gives even deeper meaning to why Jesus chose this particular metaphor despite knowing how provocative it would be.
