48I am the bread of life. 49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. (John 6:48-59)
Thoughts: Jesus made one of seven "I am" extraordinary claims here (in John) that point to His divinity. He had inferred one earlier in John when Jesus told the woman at the well that he was the living water and the Messiah. Just as He was Living Water earlier, so He is Living Bread now. The woman at the well wanted to get a bucket of this "Living Water" and the Jews freaked out about eating Jesus' skin. But they were focused to much on this world. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world, neither is His water or His bread of this world alone. The early Romans likewise accused Christians of "cannibalism" for talking of eating His flesh. It is a feeding done by faith not by teeth on bones. Partaking in Jesus- ingesting His way into our lives gives us eternal life. Even the strictest literalist would hardly say that taking the Lord's Supper means we go to heaven. We are given eternal life by believing, not by eating. But believing is symbolized by eating. It is having the Christ become a part of who you are. It is disseminating Christ into every cell just as cells are nourished by what we eat.
Prayer: Lord, I partake in you. I believe in you. Let me live my eternal life beginning now- not just after I die.
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