Do you remember when Jesus asked his disciples if his teaching offended them and many of them turned back and no longer followed him?  It was because of tragicomic hope.

In John 6 Jesus fed the five thousand and then snuck away in the middle of the night.  When the crowd found him again he decided to explain to them that there was another kind of bread that they should want.  "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven…I am the bread of life."  Shortly after that statement the crowd began to grumble.  Now instead of Jesus, taking the time to explain the metaphor to them he decides to take it to the absurd. 

"This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." v51b

Couldn’t he have stopped to explain the connection with manna in the desert and that his death on the cross was going to be like that?  He could have made a nice little connection to the Lord’s supper for them.  Not Jesus.  For him the good news has to have an edge to it.  It has to have a twist.  The good news needs to sound like bad news with a smile.

"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him." vs53-56

"Bite Me!"  That’s the gospel according to Jesus.