👂👂👂"He Who Has Ears To Hear, Let Him Hear"

I. 1. Blood is Required for Forgiveness

Hebrews 9:22

"Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins."

This verse echoes Leviticus 17:11, anchoring the theology of atonement in the sacrificial system:

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls."

This is not merely biological but deeply spiritual. The idea is that:

• Blood = life force.
• To spill blood is to empty life.
• To offer blood is to offer life.

In a sacrificial context, the blood of an animal was a life-for-life substitution, prefiguring the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ:

"He poured out His soul to death..." (Isaiah 53:12)
"This is My blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matt. 26:28)

Why is blood required?

• Blood signifies life: In ancient Israel, life was sacred because it came from God. Blood was not just a bodily fluid; it symbolized the very essence of life.
• Sin brings death (Romans 6:23). Bloodshed was a vivid and costly reminder that sin has a price: the forfeiture of life. A substitute life, through blood, could be offered to uphold both justice and mercy.

Thus, forgiveness isn't a matter of forgetting sin, but of covering it through a life exchanged.

2. “Unless You Drink My Blood…”

John 6:53–56

"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you... For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink."

This was shocking to Jesus' audience. But He was not advocating cannibalism; He was teaching a spiritual mystery:

• To drink His blood is to take in His life, poured out in love.
• To partake in His blood is to join His covenant, like ancient sacrifices which were sealed with blood.

In covenant theology, blood bonds parties together. To drink His blood is to say:

“I accept Your life as mine. I bind myself to You. I live by You.”

And therefore, if we refuse His blood, we are saying:

“I will live by my own life.”
But that life is already forfeit because of sin (Eph. 2:1).

3. Blood as Proof of Love

John 15:13

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Jesus didn’t just say He loved us; He bled to prove it.

• Blood is love made visible.
• It is suffering embraced for the good of another.
• His blood was not spilled by accident. It was poured out (Mark 14:24) intentionally in love.

The cross was not just a judicial act but a relational, covenantal one:

“This is how much I love you—I give My life to have you. I spill My blood to heal you. I die so that you may live.”

Summary Points

Reflection

Blood is sacred because life is sacred. Jesus didn’t just die; He gave His blood to enter into a new kind of relationship with us—one sealed with His own life. To “drink His blood” is to say:

“I live by You now. My sin is forgiven, not cheaply, but by blood. And I am Yours.”

It’s no wonder Paul could say:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me...” (Gal. 2:20)

He had drunk the blood—taken in the life—and now lived a new life by the Spirit of the Son.

In John 6:53–56, Jesus says:

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you… My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

Many of His disciples responded by saying:

“This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60)
“After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.” (John 6:66)

Even though they were culturally and religiously familiar with sacrificial practices, blood, covenant, and prophetic metaphor, they still turned away. Why?

II. 1. Literal Hearing vs. Spiritual Understanding

John 6:63

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”

Jesus is calling them to a spiritual reality, but they are stuck in the literal, flesh-bound interpretation:

• They ask: “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (v. 52)
• They hear cannibalism; Jesus is offering union.
• They interpret through the lens of natural thinking, not Spirit-led discernment.

Paul later reflects this same issue:

🧠 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God… they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14) 🕊️

2. Offensive to Religious Sensibility

Drinking blood was strictly forbidden in the Torah:

• Leviticus 17:10: “I will set My face against any Israelite who eats blood.”
• To them, blood = sacred life = God’s domain.

So Jesus’ statement not only sounded grotesque but blasphemous:

• He claimed His own blood must be drunk — as if He were divine, offering life.
• For devout Jews, this was too much. It tore at the fabric of their religious identity and purity laws.

They didn’t see that He was the fulfillment of those laws—not the breaking of them.

3. Expectation of a Different Messiah

John 6 begins with the feeding of the 5,000—a Messianic signal. The people responded:

“This is indeed the Prophet… they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king.” (John 6:14–15)

They wanted a political savior, not a suffering Savior:

• Bread was easy to accept.
• Cross-shaped love was not.

When Jesus spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He was prefiguring the cross and communion—a Messiah who dies to give life. This offended their expectations. He wasn’t confirming their nationalism; He was exposing their need for internal transformation.

🍞4. Lack of Hunger for the True Bread

Earlier in John 6, Jesus rebukes the crowd:

“You are seeking Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” (v. 26)

Their motivation was temporal provision, not eternal truth. They wanted a Messiah who:

• Met their needs.
• Fit their mold.
• Left their pride intact.

But Jesus offered something deeper:

• Himself as the Bread of Life.
• A new covenant through His body and blood.
• A call to abide in Him (v. 56), not just receive from Him.

This required faith, humility, and spiritual hunger—and many simply didn’t have it.

5. Spiritual Blindness and Hardness of Heart

Jesus later says:

“No one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:65)

This is not about exclusion, but spiritual readiness. Many had:

• Hard hearts (as with Israel in the wilderness).
• Dull ears (as Isaiah prophesied).
• No desire for a kingdom that required self-denial and surrender.

Summary: Why They Didn't Understand

✨Application: Do We Miss Him the Same Way?

This account is not just history—it’s a mirror:

• Do we come to Jesus for what He gives, or for who He is?
• Are we willing to be spiritually offended so that we may be spiritually awakened?
• Can we receive a Savior who pours out His life and calls us to do the same?

Like Peter, we must say:

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Jesus consistently speaks of spiritual truths, but His audience—whether the crowds, the Pharisees, or even His own disciples—misunderstands because they are interpreting through a worldly, fleshly lens.

This disconnect exposes the confusion, frustration, and blindness that comes from trying to understand the Kingdom of God with a worldly mindset.

III. 🕊️ 1. John 3: Nicodemus and Being Born Again

Jesus: “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus: “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 is speaking of spiritual rebirth through the Spirit.
• Nicodemus interprets it biologically.
• Confusion results because Nicodemus is a “teacher of Israel” but cannot grasp heavenly things (v. 10–12).
• He is trained in Scripture, but still thinks earthly.

🌾 2. John 4: The Samaritan Woman and Living Water

Jesus: “If you knew... who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
Woman: “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.” (John 4:10–11)

• Jesus offers spiritual life (living water = eternal life through the Spirit).
• The woman thinks of physical thirst and literal water.
• Her worldly thinking limits her understanding, yet she is gradually awakened to spiritual truth as Jesus reveals Himself.

🍞 3. John 6: Bread of Life Discourse

Jesus: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life…”
Crowd: “What sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?” (John 6:27, 30)

• Jesus is speaking of spiritual nourishment (Himself as the true bread).
• The crowd is focused on physical bread (miracles, provision).
• Their materialistic mindset blocks them from seeing the deeper truth that He is offering Himself.

👑 4. Luke 17:20–21 – The Coming of the Kingdom

“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed... for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

• The Pharisees were expecting a visible, political kingdom.
• Jesus was pointing to a spiritual reign—God’s rule breaking into human hearts through the Messiah.
• Their obsession with signs and externals blinded them to the reality already among them.

🏛 5. John 2:19–21 – Destroy This Temple

Jesus: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Jews: “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

• Jesus speaks of His body as the temple.
• They think of Herod’s physical temple.
• A spiritual truth is misunderstood because their focus is on physical structures and religious systems.

💰 6. Luke 12:13–21 – The Rich Fool

Man: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus: “Take care… life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

• The man wants earthly justice and money.
• Jesus responds with a parable warning against greed and false security in wealth.
• The man’s worldly lens makes him miss the danger of a covetous heart.

🐎 7. Acts 1:6 – The Disciples Still Expecting a Political Kingdom

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

• Even after the resurrection, the disciples are still thinking politically and nationally.
• Jesus redirects them to the mission of the Spirit and the witness to the nations.
• The Spirit would not restore earthly power but empower spiritual mission.

✨ THE CORE ISSUE: Worldly Minds in a Spiritual Kingdom

Romans 8:5–7

“Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh… the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.”

• Spiritual things require spiritual minds.
• Worldly assumptions (security, power, success, signs) conflict with the ways of God’s kingdom.

✨ SPIRITUAL HEARING IS REQUIRED

1 Corinthians 2:14

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him... they are spiritually discerned.”

Jesus’ audience often:

• Heard with physical ears but not spiritual ears.
• Had expectations rooted in self-preservation, power, and cultural assumptions.
• Could not see the spiritual revolution Jesus was announcing.

🔄 Reflection

We face the same danger today:

• Seeking Jesus for provision, not transformation.
• Reducing the Kingdom to politics or comfort.
• ✨ Reading Scripture only for what it gives us, not what God reveals about Himself. ✨

But Jesus keeps calling:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 4:9)