To take John 6:53 as Jesus telling the disciples to literally eat of His flesh and blood is a grave mistake. The interpreter should assume that a passage uses non-figurative language unless this assumption creates an absurdity or the general context indicates otherwise (Gibbs 2004, 261). The belief that Jesus was condoning cannibalism is quite an absurdity, and in effect violates the general context of what Jesus was teaching his disciples. God’s laws from the Old Testament state that we should not murder in Deuteronomy 5:17, and the prophecies of the Messiah’s death are clearly in the Scriptures and cannibalism does not fit into the gospel plan. There is nowhere in the Bible where we here of cannibalism being acceptable to God, or even a necessary evil to survive. This all stands to support that this belief would be an obvious absurdity
Jesus teaches it plainly in John 6:63 when He says that the words He spoke of are spirit not of flesh. The disciples up to that point were much more numerous, but these words seemed to confuse the majority of them, so many disciples left, all except the chosen twelve. Jesus states that He specifically chose them, and most likely made the teaching hard to imagine or understand, to fulfill the purpose of filtering down His followers. If only the doubters stayed to hear an explanation rather than leaving His presence, which is similar to an interpreter who would look at verse 53 in total isolation and not continue reading on. The easiest way to clear up this belief would be to study the immediate context, and continue reading the complete thought of the author.
The author is writing a narrative and what we should remember is that Scripture interprets Scripture. The Bible cannot contradict itself, nor should a single passage somehow bring a new teaching all by itself, but rather a belief or doctrine should include multiple passages. The proper interpretation would be that Jesus is saying you must be willing to follow even to the death, and possibly a foreshadowing of the believers partaking in communion in the early church to come.
