Cross Quote #8

"Now, Jesus makes the extraordinary claim that I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:51). Eat my flesh and drink my blood, he goes on to say, and the narrator reports that these remarks were so offensive that even some of Jesus' followers left him, partly because he sounds like a suicidal cannibal, partly because he makes his own death and our participation in it the key to life. God save us from communion bread disguised by silver platters and lace doilies. We eat raw chunks of him, together, or we die alone. The words of Jesus and the thoughts behind them are too grisly and too deep and too unsafe for a disciple to invent. Jesus clearly thought that people could only thrive in this life if they joined together continually for this relentless absorption of him, piece by piece."

from Thomas Schmidt's A Scandalous Beauty.