This Bread Is My Flesh

 

  John 6:41-51

 The Bread From Heaven

⁴¹ At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I 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.”

We continue to listen to Jesus describing the great gift of himself as the bread of life, our nourishment for the journey here on this earth to our final and everlasting home in heaven.  It's not an easy journey, as Jesus well knows, so he gives us the best of all food to sustain us on our way: his own body and blood in the form of bread and wine. We love a good, healthy and hearty meal that nourishes our bodies but the fare that Jesus gives us, his own body and blood, nourishes our souls as can no other food.  It is the Food of foods, the Gift of gifts. Let us thank God  for it and partake of it as often as we can.

Bro. Rene

Dear Jesus, you are the Bread of Life. Thank you for being our nourishment on this strenuous daily pilgrimage to our heavenly home; Amen.