“Flesh” and “blood” here point to Christ as the crucified one and the source of life. Jesus speaks of faith’s appropriation of himself as God’s appointed sacrifice. Since “flesh and blood” was a Jewish idiom for the whole person, Jesus might have been calling people to consume him fully by completely believing in him. Jesus was not talking about literal blood, of course. He said that his life had to become their own, but they could not accept this concept. He was predicting his death and what it would mean to all believers. The Gospel writers and the apostle Paul used body and blood imagery in teaching about the Lord’s Supper.