The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Galilee
- Chapter 73 -
Explanation of the Lord about 'eating His flesh and drinking His blood'
Now the disciples said: "Lord and Master, this lesson that You gave us can be well understood, but once in Capernaum where so many people from all regions around Jerusalem followed You and when You gave a similar instruction about eating Your flesh and drinking Your blood, it was clearly a hard teaching, namely for those people who did not understand Your simple, clear word as it should be understood according to its true meaning, and that is why many disciples of that time left You. We ourselves did not understand it at first, but the innkeeper, who has never been a disciple of You, gave us its interpretation. And if we now compare that teaching with this one, it means the same as what You have now very understandably and very clearly explained to us. Are we right or not?"
2
I said: "Indeed, because bread and flesh are one and the same, as well as wine and blood, and whoever will in My word eat the bread of the Heavens and will drink the wine of life by acting according to that word, thus by doing the works of the true, most unselfish love for God and his fellowman, will also eat My flesh and drink My blood, for as the physical bread that is eaten by men is changed in man into flesh and the wine that is drank changed into blood, so will also in the soul of man the bread of My word be changed into flesh and the wine of the active love be changed into blood.
3
But when I say: 'Whoever will eat My flesh', then by that is also indicated that he has not only taken My word into his memory and into his brains, but at the same time also into his heart, which is - as I already said - the stomach of the soul, and he also did the same with the wine of the active love, which is by that no more wine but already the blood of life, because the memory and the reason of man are in relation to the heart, just like the mouth is in relation to the physical stomach. As long as the physical bread is still between the teeth in the mouth it is still no flesh but bread, but when it is chewed and comes into the stomach and is there mixed with the stomach juices, then it is, what concerns its fine feeding particles, already flesh, because it corresponds to the flesh. So also with the wine or with water, which certainly contains also wine substances, because without water, which is carried by the Earth to feed all plants and animals, the grapevine would die. As long as the wine is kept into the mouth it will not change into blood. However, in the stomach it very soon will be changed into it.
4
So whoever hears My word and keeps it into his memory, keeps the bread in the mouth of the soul. When he seriously begins to think about it with his reason, he chews the bread with the teeth of the soul, because the reason is for the soul what the teeth in the mouth are for the physical man.
5
When My bread, thus My teaching, is chewed by the reason, or has been understood and accepted as the full truth, it also has to be accepted in the heart by the love for the truth, and by the firm will it has to be changed into deeds. When this happens, then the word is changed into flesh and by the serious decisive will into blood of the soul, which is My Spirit in him, without which the soul would be as dead as a body without blood.
6
The serious decisive will corresponds to a good digestive capability of the physical stomach by which the whole body is kept healthy and strong. When the digestive power of the stomach is weak, then the whole body is already sick and weak and will even become sick from the best and purest food.
7
It is the same for the soul in whose heart the will to transform the teaching into deeds has become weakened. He does not achieve the full, healthy, spiritual power, is divided, falls easily into all kinds of doubts and objections, and tastes one time this and then again another kind of food to see if perhaps that one may have a better and more strengthening effect. But with that the soul, who once has become somewhat sick, is still not completely helped. 'Yes', you ask yourselves, 'can a sick soul then not be helped at all?' O yes, I say. But how?"