“Jesus 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.”
John 6:53 (NIV)
What do you think about this teaching?
The disciples thought this was a hard teaching, that cannot be accepted.
But our Lord tells us; “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”
John 6 is all about food, for it starts with our Lord providing physical food, and then records the lengths the people went to track Him down for more physical food, and His challenge to them to put the same effort into acquiring spiritual food from heaven. John records that many people stopped following Jesus after He told them that they needed to eat His body and drink His blood, for they could not perceive the spiritual meaning of His Words.
I think of Paul instructing the Corinthians about eating or not eating food offered to idols, and I wonder if Christians will always struggle to understand the spiritual truth that we share in the sacrifice that brings us forgiveness. The Israelites ate the meat of the sacrifices offered to God, and our Lord is the sacrifice offered once for all, so we must eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. It is a spiritual truth our Lord is sharing, the truth that a human is linked, or is in union with whatever sacrifice they participate in.
What a wonderful experience it is to participate in the Lord’s Supper at Parkdale. As those who have participated in the cross, come forward to demonstrate their spiritual union with Christ Jesus, by drinking juice and eating bread – physical symbols of the spiritual union Christ is speaking of in John 6. The Lord is present in a special way with us as we in fellowship together celebrate our union with Him, the sacrifice who took away our sins.
He is our life!
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