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Continued The Jews murmured about him (Jesus) because he
said "I am the bread who has come down out of heaven." They said "Is this man not
Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that he now says "I
have come down out of heaven."
Jesus
answered them and said "Do not murmur with one another." Nobody can come to me unless my
Father who sent me should draw (attract) him. And, I will raise him up in the last
day. It has been written in the
prophets "They shall all be taught about God. Everyone who hears from the Father
and learns will come to me."
It is not that anyone has seen the Father except for the one who has
come from God. He has seen the Father.
Truly truly I say to you that the one who believes has eternal
life. I am the bread of
life. Your fathers ate manna in
the desert and died. This is
the bread from out of heaven which has come down so that anyone who eats of
it may not die. I am the living
bread who has come down, from out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will
live for ever. Indeed the bread
which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
The
Jews therefore argued with one another about this saying "How can this
man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus therefore said to them
"Truly truly I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of
man and drink his blood you do not have life within yourself. The one who eats of my flesh and
drinks of my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up in the last
day. For my flesh is truly food
and my blood is truly drink.
The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in
him. As the living Father has
sent me so I live because of the Father. Also the one who eats me will live,
even that one, because of me.
This is the bread from heaven which has come down, not like the
fathers who ate (c/f in the desert) and died. (Rather) the one who eats this bread
will live unto the age."
These
things he said while teaching in a synagogue
in Capernaum. Many of the disciples on hearing
this said "This is a hard (type of) word. How can one hear (and accept)
it?" But Jesus, on knowing
within himself that his disciples were murmuring about this said to them
"Does this offend you?
What then if you saw the Son of man ascending back up to where he
was before? It is the spirit
who 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 who do not believe." Jesus in fact knew from the
beginning who those people were who did not believe and who the one was who
was betraying him. He said
"I have told you that nobody can come to me unless it has been given
to him (that is, the attraction to do so) from the Father."
From
his saying this, many of his disciples went away and no longer walked with
him. Jesus therefore said to
the twelve. "Do you not
wish to go as well?" Simon
Peter answered him "Lord to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We have believed and have
known that you are the holy one of God." Jesus answered them "Did I not
choose twelve of you. Yet one
of you is a devil." Now he
spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot for it was this one, who was one
of the twelve, who was about to betray him.
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Continued And, the one who had died and had been bound hands
and feet with bandages and who had his face bound round with a napkin came out. Jesus said "Loosen him and let
him go." After this many
of the Jews who had come to Mary and who had seen what he did believed in
him (Jesus); But some of them
went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. The chief priests and the Pharisees
therefore assembled a council and said "What are we doing (about
this), because this man is
working so many signs? If we leave him to go on with this everyone will
believe in him. (Then) the
Romans will come and take from us both our place and the nation." But a certain one amongst them,
Caiaphas, who was high priest that year said to them. "You do not know anything. Nor do you understand that it is
expedient for us that one man should die for the people rather than that
the whole nation should perish."
But (in saying this) he did not realise that he was actually making
a prophecy as high priest for that year. He prophesied that Jesus was about
to die for the nation, and indeed not only for the nation but for all the
scattered children of God so that he (Jesus) might gather them into
one.
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Note in the pair of paragraphs above here how there is betrayal
discussed in the first paragraph while in the second one some of those
who have witnessed the rising of Lazarus go to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem who then
decide to 'sacrifice' Jesus.
As well as the theme of betrayal both paragraphs here show a
self-giving by Jesus.
One could wonder if, 2,000 years after the words of Jesus about giving
his flesh to eat and his blood to drink it is any easier for someone to
either understand this or to accept it.
Much of the first paragraph below appears to be repetition. But if (c/f the analysis of Reality Search) Jesus reflects the
true order of the universe, it follows that people who try to pattern
their lives on what he has set out will find a greater identification
with Ultimate Reality. As
Jesus c/f the cosmic Christ, exists within (but is not identical with)
the universe, then it follows that his existence could also be found
within something material and which he specifies. "Touching"
this could help people become more linked in with his “way”.
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5. Is
doubted and outlawed
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to be killed,
sought after in temple, discussed
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7:1-13
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in Galilee . . not Judea
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11:53-57
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not openly
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7:1-13 After these things (his offer of
life-giving bread and the rejection of this by many of his disciples)
Jesus continued to walk around Galilee.
He did not want to go
around Judea
because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jewish feast of the Tabernacles was near. His brothers therefore said to him
"Leave here and go into Judea so
that your disciples (those that had left him?) can see the things that
you are doing. After all
nobody would want to do these sorts of things in secret. but would rather
seek to be in the open. If
you are doing these things show yourself to the world." His brothers
said this because they did not believe in him.
Jesus therefore says to them "My time has not yet
arrived. But your time is
always ready. The world
cannot hate you. But it hates
me because I show that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast
because my time has not yet been fulfilled." And saying this to them he stayed
on in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up
to the feast, then he also went up, not openly but as if in secret. Therefore the Jews were looking
for him at the feast and they said "Where is that man?" There was much murmuring about him
in the crowds. Some said
"He is a good man."
But others said "No.
He deceives the crowd."
But nobody openly spoke about him because of their fear of the
Jews.
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11:53-57 From that day on (after Caiaphas
prophesied that one man would die for the nation) they (the Jewish
council) considered that they might kill him. Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly amongst
the Jews. Rather he went away
from there into the country near the desert, to the city called Ephraim
and he remained there with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was
near and many people from the
country went up to Jerusalem
before the feast so that they might purify themselves. They therefore sought Jesus
(there) and said to one another while standing in the Temple. "What do you think? It
appears that he is definitely not coming to the feast?" Now the chief priests and the
Pharisees had given the order that if anyone knew where he was they
should inform on him so that they might arrest him.
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