The Scribes at hearing these words were greatly disturbed and said among
themselves, “This man is blaspheming” (9:3). However, Christ did not try
to water down or explain away His words but reasserted His claim to
forgive sins by miraculously healing the paralytic before all.
Example (b): “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day”
(St. John 8:56).
The Jews correctly understood Our Lord literally but rejected Him
asserting, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
(8:57). Our Lord’s solemn reply, which brought forth the immediate wrath
of the Jews and the risk of being stoned to death, was, “Truly, truly I say to
you, before Abraham was, I am” (8, 58-59).
Keeping in mind these two rules, let us examine Our Lord’s discourse in St.
John 6.
Our Lord proclaims “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in
the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from
heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which
came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever;
and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (vv.
48-51). The Jews present understood Christ literally but could not accept
what He said:
“The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v. 52). But Christ reinforced His
literal meaning saying, “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 you; he who eats
my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He
who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (vv. 53-
56).
Not satisfied with this, Our Lord went further and solemnly invoked His
Father’s Name to confirm His meaning: “As the living Father sent me, and
I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate
and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever” (vv. 57-58).
Nevertheless, the Jews continued in their disbelief, seeing in Christ’s words
a literal meaning that contradicted the Mosaic prohibition against the
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