Jesus Knew How We'd Take It And He Still Said It

It's important to remember who Jesus is. He is human, yes, but also God. A prophet. The Prophet. Jesus is one in being with the Father. As He Himself says, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).

We know that He had a tremendous knowledge of events that were to come and John writes that "He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:1-2).

Jesus is one with the Father. He was with the Father from the beginning. Jesus is, in every way, God. That's Christianity.

And God, as we know, knows all. He's not bound by the constraints of time. All things are NOW to God. He's omniscient. That's why Paul could write "for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren" (Romans 8:29).

Jesus, being one with God in nature, shares this ability. Jesus, in the beginning, was with God (John 1:1) and knew all that God knew. Sure, Jesus apparently gave up some of this knowledge temporarily when he became human (He admitted He didn't know when the last day would be--that only the Father knew). But Jesus also acknowledged "I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me” (John 12:49-50).

One of these things Jesus said "as the Father told him" was the well-known "you must eat my flesh and drink my blood" command in John 6.

We need to stop and think about that for a moment: When Jesus entered heaven after His ascension, He and God didn't get together, take note of how the early Church was interpreting Jesus' words literally, and conclude "Well, we blew that. We probably should have been a little more clear--probably shouldn't have been sooooo in love with the metaphor. Oh well, eventually--millions of souls later--we'll send some Reformers to straighten things out and get the Church back on track regarding that bread and wine thing."

Jesus knew ahead of time the impact those words would have on the Church through the first 14 or so centuries of Christianity and yet, He didn't temper them. He didn't soften them. He didn't retract them or clarify them when He was confronted except to stress the literal interpretation even more strongly.

Jesus had the ULTIMATE opportunity as a speaker and teacher: He had the ability to know ahead of time--an eternity ahead of time--how people at any given point in time would understand His words. He had an eternity to fine-tune, to hone His message.

And with all of that foreknowledge, that time, Jesus said what He said. And He did so KNOWING fully how it would be interpreted by the vast majority of Christianity. So, either Jesus was fully cool with the vast majority of Christian history misunderstanding (and blaspheming) His teachings, or . . . He said what He said because He KNEW the Church would get it right....