THe Bread of Life – Part 2
My last devotion was about Jesus’ claim to be the Bread of Life and how His listeners did not want to believe what He was saying. One of the objections they raised was this:
John 6:52–53 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “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.
The Jews thought they had Jesus here: How can we eat His flesh? This is ridiculous. Impossible. There is no way. Or so they thought. But with God, nothing is impossible. He not only said we would eat His flesh and drink His blood, but gave us the means to do it. And rather than it being some kind of grotesque ritual, as it is often portrayed by those outside the church, it is one of the high points of being a disciple of Jesus.
Jesus gathered with his disciples the evening before He was to be crucified. They were celebrating Passover, the meal that remembered how God brought His people out of their slavery in Egypt to take them back to the promised land. Part of that meal was unleavened bread, which Jesus took, gave to His disciples and said, “This is my body given for you.” Then He gave thanks for the wine that was used as part of that meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19-20) He started a new remembering meal. But it was more than that. It is a communion, a sharing, a participation in the death He died that paid for your sin. When you come to the altar, you are given the things Jesus used to pay for your sin in a special and personal way because God’s Word promises to give them to you.
The one who is the bread of life gives Himself for you and to you so that you can live forever. He gave it for the life of the world, and that includes you.
