One of my favorite sayings of Jesus is where he declares…

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Yesterday someone gave me a loaf of fresh homemade bread. Who cares about carbohydrates? It was absolutely delicious!

Bread, in most parts of the world is the "staff of life." So what is Jesus saying here? He is saying that just as your body needs nourishment, so your soul needs nourishment. If you don't eat physical food, you grow weak, malnourished, and eventually you will die. Thus, Jesus is teaching that what physical bread is to your body, he is to your soul. He is teaching that when you "ingest" him, his life becomes yours. Eternal life. He says it over and over again in the second half of John chapter 6. He calls his flesh "true food." He says "Whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me." "Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life."

For some people this is confusing. Actually, when Jesus said these things, we read that the people "disputed among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'"

The answer is faith. Faith in him. Faith that engages him. In these texts "eating" is a metaphor for "believing."

Jesus summons his people to nourish their souls. We do that, of course, in our church during the celebration of the Lord's Supper when we take communion together. When we do that, we enjoy the special, real, spiritual presence of Christ. There he ministers to us uniquely where we need love, comfort, strength, forgiveness, or hope. And, more than that, we "feed on him" throughout the day, every day. His word, the Bible, informs us of who he is and what he has done, and by faith we appropriate him and make him ours. Along with the word, prayer is a communion with him whereby we exhale our spiritual impurities, and inhale newness of life.

Jesus uses many metaphors to describe himself: Door. Shepherd. Temple. Living water. Light of the world. The True Vine. But I really like this one – "I am the Bread of Life." Don't you?

Musing’s from Pastor John, March 28, Click to Email Pastor John