The Eucharist. The Real Deal. Part 7

We continue in John chapter six. "'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. But there are some of you that do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that should betray him. And he said 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father'" (Jn 6:63-65) Here in verse 63 Christ is saying man's flesh is of no avail. He is NOT saying his flesh is of no avail. To interpret that Jesus is meaning his flesh is of no avail would contradict everything he just said a few verses back. Jesus is saying that man is not going to understand this, thinking in a carnal sense. You need to understand this in a spiritual sense.

Stephen K. Ray in his book St. John's Gospel "Jesus is simply saying that the 'fleshly' mind cannot understand the deep things of God. He is not saying that 'his flesh' profits nothing; rather, it is natural understanding, 'the flesh' devoid of God's Spirit, that profits and understands nothing. The Father must draw each person into belief. Without the assistance of the Spirit, Jesus' words are not believed (Jn 6:64-65). If these words of Jesus are not believed, the divine life is not participated in, the body and blood of the Lord in the Eucharist are partaken of unworthily, and the person chances the forfeiture of the resurrection of eternal life. Jesus makes this clear."

I'm not trying to be smug in using definitions. The reason for these definitions is because some protestants when they read John 6:63 interpret "spirit" to mean something along the lines of "symbolic". Jesus does not say "the words that I have spoken to you are symbolic and life"

Wiktionary defines:
Spiritual (comparative more spiritual, superlative most spiritual)
Positivespiritual
Comparativemore spiritual
Superlativemost spiritual
Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul
Of or pertaining to the God or a Church; sacred
Of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural
Notice that none of the definitions of Spiritual resemble any thing relating to mean symbolic, or figurative.

Metaphor (countable and uncountable; plural metaphors)
(uncountable) The use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it isn't, implying a similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described, and without the words "like" or "as".
(countable) The word or phrase used in this way. An implied comparison.

Symbolic
Pertaining to a symbol.
Referring to something with an implicit meaning.
Talk at ya Later