²⁶While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

What a strange thing to say and a frequently misunderstood comment. Christian history shows divergent interpretations of what Jesus taught. One view holds that the bread actually changes into the body of Christ, though Roman Catholic theologians distinguish between the “outward characteristics” and the “substance” of the bread and wine. It remains bread outwardly, they say, but becomes the substance of Christ’s body in a mystery. Ecclesiastical scholars assign particular meanings to words to assert their theological dogma. Another view holds that the bread carries the presence of our Lord spiritually, giving it sacramental value as a mystical, spiritual activity when believers partake of it.

Additionally, we read in the apostle John’s account another troubling and misunderstood passage. A crowd had been following Jesus because of the free food He miraculously provided them: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26). He weeded out the superficial followers by raising the bar of discipleship to a level of complete commitment to Him. As He often did, Jesus used elements of an event or situation to weave a spiritual truth through a figure of speech. In this case, He used the crowd’s desire for food, which is necessary for physical life, to convey that a total commitment to Him is necessary for spiritual life:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:53–54)

He clarified that His comments were not to be taken in a literal, physical sense when complaints began rolling in:

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? … It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:60-63)

Jesus spoke in spiritual terms, not about physically eating His body, and He was making a startling call to the centrality and necessity of total commitment. I remember my high school basketball coach telling our team that if we wanted to be winners, we needed to “eat, sleep, and breathe basketball.” We understood his message; he was asking for a high level of commitment to the game. Jesus was doing a similar thing, challenging His followers to move beyond concerns for their physical life and make Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, their priority in life.

Our Lord’s message of total commitment was not “user-friendly.” Imagine a preacher on a Sunday morning preaching a message that would reduce the size of his congregation to a handful. That happened when Jesus put out this call to commitment:

“As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” (John 6:66)

Not many want to give that kind of allegiance to Christ. Most of the crowd gave up on Him because they were committed to their self-interest (their next meal), seeing miracles, and enjoying life. Commitment to Christ meant laying down their desires at the altar of sacrifice for Him.

For those who stumble over the clear and seemingly unambiguous words “This is my body …”  and eating His flesh, a simple illustration may help. I carry around in my wallet a photograph of my wife. If I take it out, show it to you and say, “This is my wife, isn’t she beautiful,” you may agree with me and say, “Yes, that is your wife, she is beautiful.” However, to be precise, what I showed you is just chemicals on photographic paper that represent her image. But, I used perfectly normal language to get my point across. So also when Jesus held up the bread and said, “This is my body,” He used normal, picturesque language to convey the truth that the bread represents His body.

In communion, Jesus vividly calls up the centrality of His physical body being represented in the bread, symbolizing it being broken—a euphemism for His physical death on the cross. That is absolutely core to what it means to be His disciple. Communion reminds us of the One who was completely committed to us and who has called us to reciprocal and complete commitment to Him. After writing eleven chapters in the Book of Romans to explain the great truth of how we are made right with God through the death of Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul pivots to the most natural and appropriate response for true believers to what the Lord has done:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Rom. 12:1)

Lord, I offer up to You the worship of my body, just as You offered up Yours for me. When I take the bread and break it, I am reminded of Your supreme sacrifice for me and my response of sacrificing for You.