Scripture

“Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.”

Observation

Jesus is the living bread from heaven and He gives eternal life to all who eat of Him. To have eternal life, we must eat His flesh and drink His blood.

Anyone who eats His flesh and drinks His blood remains in Christ and Christ remains in them.

Application

The language in this passage can be hard for us to decode because it is so foreign to us.

Jesus is saying that He is the bread from heaven which gives eternal life. This is a reference to the manna which came to the children of Israel in the wilderness and fed them for forty years.

This manna was a shadow of the real thing- Jesus who gives us eternal life.

Jesus says we must eat His flesh and drink His blood to receive eternal life.

One application of this is that we must enter into an intimate relationship with Him so that we remain or abide in Him and He abides or remains in us.

This is a process of discipleship that leads to our lives being totally identified with the life of Christ. We must live in daily prayer, that is open sharing with Him with no hiding or pretending. We must meditate on the Word so that the Scriptures change us. Our focus must become God’s will not our own will.

Bread and wine also remind us of Holy Communion. We need to live in a worshipping community of faith. The sacrament is a physical sign of our desire to experience Christ more closely. As a body we can encourage and exhort each other to be more faithful in our walk together.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you are the true bread of heaven. Teach me how to feast on you and to let your life fill me in every way. Amen.