One of the bigger divisions between Catholic and Protestants, with respect to theology, is in the understanding of the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion.

Catholics believe in the doctrine of “transubstantiation,” that is the belief that the bread and wine turn into the actual body and blood of Christ, while retaining the accidents (appearance) of bread and wine. When the priest consecrates the bread of wine, they are no longer just bread and wine. Christ is present in the bread and wine body, blood, soul and divinity.

Protestants take a different view, some, such as many Lutherans, holding that Christ is present in and under the bread and wine (consubstantiation), although the bread and wine do not change as in the Catholic view. Others, believe that Christ is present spiritually when someone partakes of the bread and wine. And still others believe that the bread and wine are symbols that remind us of Christ’s death.

The central question is, do the elements of bread and wine change when the priest pronounces the words of the institution, as Catholic, most Eastern Orthodox and a few Anglican churches believe? Or is the Lord's Supper a memorial meal, through which the grace of God flows to believers in the act of believing and remembering, as most Protestants belive?

Much of the difference in opinion is centered on the Gospel according to John, chapter six, when Jesus tells us, “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.” (John 6:53-54) Catholics maintain that this chapter must be taken literally, while Protestants believe it should be taken figuratively.

A good look at the passage in context, and in light of other sayings of Jesus, will lend a clue as to exactly what this difficult passage means.

The first part of understanding the context is to recognize in which Gospel this passage occurs. This is the Gospel according to John. Each Gospel writer tells us the good news about Jesus from a different perspective. Matthew is writing to a predominantly Jewish audience, and shows us how Jesus fulfilled Jewish prophecy. Mark and Luke focus on what Jesus did. John approaches the story from a very spiritual, metaphysical perspective.

Mark starts his Gospel at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Matthew and Luke start with a genealogy that shows us how Jesus, in his human nature, is a descendant of King David and other notable people in the Old Testament.

But John starts with the grand proclamation, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1-2) He goes on to say, “…to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God…” (John 1:12) and “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)

Jesus has come down from Heaven, and gives life to those who believe in Him. Indeed, one of the most famous verses of the New Testament is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John, in his first epistle, repeated that idea, “Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God…” (1 John 5:1)

It is against this backdrop, the idea that belief in the Christ is what saves us, that the narrative in John chapter six unfolds.

Jesus has just spent time in Jerusalem (see Chapter 5) preaching and healing the sick. He and his Apostles have crossed the Sea of Galilee, and thousands of people followed him. Here, after preaching, Jesus fed the multitudes with the five loaves of bread and two fishes. And after witnessing that miracle, the people said, “This is indeed a prophet who has come into the world!” (John 6:14) The Evangelist tells us that “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him away by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” (John 6:15) The crowds missed the point of the miracle, and instead of learning the spiritual truth, they were looking to him as an Earthly leader, who, as we know from the other Gospels and from history, would throw the Romans out of Israel and establish a Jewish political state.

But the crowds followed him again. Jesus knew they were looking for him not because they believed in him as the Son of God, but because they were impressed by the miracle, and saw him as a means to power. “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” They didn’t see how the miracle pointed to who he really was.

He tries to explain to them that they must believe that the Son of Man will give them eternal life, and they ask him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” The answer is straightforward, and repeats the idea John set forth in verses 1:12, 3:16, 5:24, and many other passages in this Gospel. “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29)

Record players did not exist in ancient Israel, but despite Jesus sounding like a broken record, “believe… believe… believe…” the people still did not get it. “Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe in you?” (John 6:30) He had made the lame walk, cured lepers, made the blind see, preached the Good News, and right before their eyes had multiplied the loaves and fishes, and these people were asking for a sign?

They pressed on and reminded Jesus that Moses gave their ancestors bread in the desert. Here now they are looking again to Earthly sources of salvation, believing it was Moses who fed the Children of Israel during their exodus. Jesus corrected them and reminded them that it was not Moses, but God who sent the bread from Heaven.

They then ask, “Lord, give us this bread always.” (John 6:34) Jesus reply is “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall never hunger, he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I have said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” (John 6:35-36) We are accustomed to hearing that inspirational quote “I am the bread of life…” and put it on the front of church bulletins and on posters of Jesus, but we cut Jesus off before that next sentence, “But I have said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” Jesus came down from Heaven, he performed the signs that the prophets spoke about, and yet the people still do not believe.

He repeats the instruction, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

Now the crowd is stuck by the implications of what he is saying. They are finally beginning to understand what he is claiming. And they begin to think he is either blasphemous or crazy. Here, the paraphrase of the Living Bible better captures the tone of their objection: “’What?’ they exclaimed. ‘Why he is merely Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. What is this he is saying, that he came down from heaven?” (John 6:42)

Jesus then tells them not to murmur among themselves and again repeats the instruction, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” (John 6:47) He then compares himself to the Manna sent down on Israel, a physical food that they ate and still died, and says he is the food sent down from heaven that they can eat and never die. Again he says, “I am the bread of life…” (John 6:48) and telling them how he was to die, “… and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51). People in the crowd then begin to argue, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) “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.” (John 6:58) In other words, not bread that you eat like the manna, which did not give people eternal life.

What was the instruction that Jesus repeated over and over in the passage? It was to believe. Believe in the Son of God. And the Son of God came down from heaven like Manna, but unlike manna, which was to sustain the Israelites physically, this bread will sustain their souls. I believe here it is best understood in a spiritual sense. Physical bread (manna) for this life, spiritual bread (Christ) for eternal life. In this passage, eating is Here eating is believing.

The crowd took offense at the notion that Jesus claimed to come from heaven as explained in verse 41, and after that, the rest of what he said did not makes sense to them. “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60)

At this point, Catholics might argue that if Jesus was only speaking figuratively, he would have explained it to the crowd when they got confused and asked, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) Many disciples walked away that day, and he could have clarified himself to avoid losing them. It could only be because he was speaking literally, that we would indeed have to eat his true body and true blood in what would later be known as Communion, and the crowd did understand this. But throughout the discourse, Jesus had said “All that the Father gives me will come to me…” (John 6:37), and “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” (John 6:44) and just as many of the crowd were about to leave, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me, unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:65) Not everyone hearing his words that day were meant to believe. He knew he was saying things that would be misunderstood or doubted.

Nevertheless, he did come back to Earth (forgive the pun) and explain in verses 60 - 64, “This is a hard saying…” He knew what he had said to them may be difficult to believe. “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending to where he was before?” If they found his claim to be outrageous, then what might they think when he fulfilled the prophecies and ascended into Heaven? And here he makes it clear that he was speaking of a spiritual truth, “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” The whole discourse was about spiritual truth, not things that can be perceived or accomplished in the flesh. It wasn’t about eating literal bread (i.e. Communion or any other kind of bread) but rather about believing that Jesus was sent from Heaven by God. This faith in God's Chosen One, and all that it implies, is the way to eternal life.

Eating became a metaphor, or example of what people should do. Jesus spoke in figurative language on many occasions. For example, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” (John 15:5) Would we believe that Jesus is a plant? And look at Jesus’ conversation to Nicodemus back in Chapter 3. Here Jesus said to Nicodemus, “…unless one is born anew…” and Nicodemus wondered, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb…?” (John 3:3&4) Jesus meant it figuratively, but he did not stop to say so. Instead he continued his explanation of the spiritual truth. Nicodemus, being more perceptive and open to Jesus’teachings, didn’t go away, but evidently became a believer. He defended Jesus in front of the religious authorities after this incident (see the end of Chapter 7) and was at Jesus burial (chapter 19).

Jesus himself explained, on the night he was betrayed, that he taught the disciples in figurative language (John 16:1), and would soon speak plainly to them. And we all know that Jesus was well known for speaking in parables, as can be seen in all the Gospels.

And indeed, the ones who did not believe went away. But the apostles stayed. This episode wraps up as follows:

The apostles got the point. (All but Judas, who Jesus knew would betray him.) While they would still have to see Jesus crucified and risen before they fully understood, they knew at enough at that time to admit that as difficult this “bread of life” teaching was to believe, they knew it was Jesus who they had to believe in.

So when Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19) he was speaking just as figuratively there as when he said he was the bread of life.

We share the bread and wine to remember what Jesus did for us. There is no magic in the elements of communion. The grace of God flows into the hearts of the believers who gather to remember Jesus. It’s the act of believing and remembering that brings the blessing. It‘s not a change in the physical elements of the bread and wine, but a change in the disposition of the soul toward God. This was the message Jesus was trying to delver in chapter six, the “hard saying” that made many disciples turn away, that Jesus was the Holy One of God who came from heaven to bring us eternal life.

The message of the Gospel according to John is: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29)

(Unless otherwise specified, all the scriptural quotes are from the Revised Standard Version)