LENTEN READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

DAY 16

Reading: John 5:1-7:52

Yesterday I encouraged you to “feast” on the Lord. I did that because I knew that John 6 would be included in this morning's readings. Jesus tells his followers and those who come seeking miracles that to truly live they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. “I am” Jesus says, “the bread of life.”

What an amazing claim. Jesus compares himself to manna, the bread the Lord provided for his people during the 40 year exodus from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

I am, Jesus says, like that bread…but different.

Those who ate the manna eventually died. But, says Jesus, if you feast on my flesh and my blood you will live forever.

John tells us that most of those who heard him make this claim turned away and went back to their homes. He was left alone with the twelve.

Why did they turn? Was it because they were disgusted by what must have seemed like cannibalistic imagery?

Perhaps.

But I tend to think they were more offended by the content of his claim than disgusted by the imagery.

In saying, “I am the bread of life” Jesus claimed to have and be what God alone can have and be: the very source and sustenance of human existence.

This should not surprise us. Jesus said the same thing to the woman at the well in chapter 4. “I am” he said, “the living water. If you drink the water I give you, you will never thirst again.”

And from the lips of a normal man these would indeed be arrogant, blasphemous words. No one can read the gospel of John and come away saying that Jesus was just a “good teacher” but not God.

If he is not God then he is a not a good teacher. Good teachers do not claim to be the source and sustenance of human existence. They do not proclaim themselves the bread of life and the living water.

You can come away from John chapter six believing that Jesus was insane ( in other words; that he claimed to be God in the same way someone might claim to be Napoleon or Caesar) or that he was/is indeed God.  You cannot come away, with any logical consistency, believing that he is just another good religious teacher.

Jesus' own words make that impossible.

So the question is: what do you believe?

Think about that for a moment. If Jesus is the bread of life and the living water then nothing else is. Jesus alone gives and sustains. Jesus alone satisfies.

Do you believe that? I am not asking whether you believe this cognitively, with your brain. If you are reading this devotion, then most likely you do. That is not the question.

The question for you to answer this morning is: Do you really believe it. Do you truly live and act as if Jesus is your bread and your water?

Those who do not really believe Jesus' words seek sustenance and satisfaction elsewhere first and come to Jesus only as a last and final resort. Jesus is an afterthought or an obligation.

But if you really believe it, then he is your food. He resides in your heart and brings satisfaction. Skipping prayer and time in his Word is like skipping a meal and turning from him for any length of time is unbearable.

If Jesus is your bread then he is your life.

Is Jesus your bread?

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