so ahead, gnaw on me............

Jesus tells us to gnaw on his flesh.  It is necessary, he says.   Really.
It's right there in the Greek although English translations ashew the word 'gnaw' and use the word 'eat' for not so obvious reasons.  The writer of John is often abstract and a bit obscure but he is down and dirty here.  Either you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood  or you have no life in you.

Can't be more concrete than that.  It's a nasty image and for periods of history Christians were thought to be cannibalistic because of this very text.  (I am assuming that there are no other reasons folks would think Christians were in the business of eating one another.)

This is my least favorite portion of John's 'bread of life' discourse.  I am torn between the concrete image of us taking the flesh of Jesus into ourselves and making this entire passage so abstract, so metaphorical that the afront of the language is lost.

Jesus wants us to be serious about our relationship with him and through him, with the Creator God.  This is not to be a 'kissing cousin' type of relationship.  We are not to stop by for a quick visit now and again like we do with an aging and forgetful uncle.  We are to join ourselves to the Son - take into ourselves the reality of his life, his love, his sacrifice and his death.  We are to draw our daily strength from him - and we can because he now lives in us and we in him.  It reminds me of the Genesis text that speaks of the joining of husband and wife "and the two shall become one flesh.'

If we are of 'one flesh' with this Son of God then we are of one purpose and mission as well.  We are called to a life of service and loving.  We are called to forgiveness so all others might find their true selves and be their best selves.  We are called to trust the Father and Creator right to the very end.

When I distribute the bread at communion I am careful to keep the pieces of bread manageable.  Not too hard a crust or too big a piece so folks aren't chewing away as they receive Christ's blood in the wine.  There is no 'gnawing'.  There is often very little chewing.

I wonder if we shouldn't all get enough bread that we will need to take time chewing it up, considering its texture, its taste, and the very presence of Christ among us.  The wonder of the communion table lies in the presence and promise of Jesus and I would sure hate to reduce that to a 'manageable' size.  We need to be confronted regularly with the mystery not just of Jesus' presence, but of God's eternal love as well.  It is something that is worth chewing on.