What would you do if someone told you that you must eat their flesh and drink their blood to be in fellowship with them? I don’t know about you, but I would quickly move away from that person! Jesus said this in context to people following Him after He gave thanks for some five barley loaves and two fish, and they multiplied to feed five thousand people. The next day, the people wanted another meal, and Jesus taught them that He is the true bread that gives everlasting life to those who believe. This led to the statement of eating His flesh, which He said He provides for the life of the world.
Some of the disciples leaned toward not following Jesus any longer because of this hard saying, probably not understanding He spoke of His death and resurrection. Then He told them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (John 6:63).” He said He gives His flesh for the world and then says the flesh counts for nothing. He was not telling them to eat His flesh literally. He was inviting them into fellowship with the Spirit, to walk the earth as He did in reliance upon His Father.
Through fellowship with the Spirit, in a fully human body, Jesus gave His body for us that we may have the Spirit to fellowship with, in our bodies, along with the promise that He will raise our bodies on the last day just as He was raised (John 6:40). What a marvelous mystery and gift, especially in the advent season. God, in Jesus, comes to be with us in a human body, fellowship with the Spirit, keeping Him dependent on the Father against all temptation to do otherwise, to the point of death on the cross—in His body. He then resurrects and gives us the promised Holy Spirit and calls us His body, while we wait for His return when He will raise our physical bodies, going from corruptible to incorruptible.
Just as Jesus chose to do nothing on His own apart from fellowship with His Father, we are given the gift of the Spirit to do the same. In this sense, the flesh counts for nothing. We do not live in fellowship with God through the strength of our body but in reliance on the strength of the Spirit. As we rely on the Spirit, we commune with Jesus, receiving His flesh and blood (His power in which He walked the earth). We no longer live, but Christ lives in us. We live by faith in the Son of God, and His strength lives through us in these fearfully and wonderfully made bodies He gives us. Part of communion is to remember Jesus’ broken body and poured out blood and that we get to partake of His power, through the Spirit, that enabled Him to give His life for us.
Holy Spirit, these things are hard for the rational mind to comprehend. God, you do not ask us to fully understand rationally but to trust You with our whole heart. We do this by faith, receiving Jesus’ words that are spirit and life. Teach us how to commune with Your Spirit that we may experience the life of Jesus living in and through our bodies while we wait for our full redemption.