On the False Dichotomy of Physical vs. Spiritual
Often in examining the words of Jesus in John 6, “teachers” who really ought to know better say something like, He's talking spiritually, not physically. He doesn't mean we have to eat his actual flesh. Sometimes they'll say it this way, It's metaphorical, not literal. We all agree Jesus is talking about spiritual things. Yet those things being spiritual does not require that they are not physical (aka material). It can be (and in this case is) both: He's talking about a physical thing (His flesh) that is also spiritual. To say that spiritual == not physical is a false dichotomy. As Jesus says, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, AND [not “but”] that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And that this can be both: as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We know that His own flesh was born both of the flesh AND of the Spirit. That His flesh was ind