John 6: 35, 51, 53-58 (NIV) - 35 Then Jesus declared, ”I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
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.”
53 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. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Jesus is the bread of life! He is the one who will fill us in our deathly hunger.
We are to eat the real food and real drink.
Hear the echoes of the prophet Isaiah’s words (55:1-2):
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
Today’s devotional art is El Greco’s Christ Carrying the Cross
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/El_Greco_-_Christ_Carrying_the_Cross_-_WGA10559.jpg
Again, just take in the painting. Of Jesus who is on the road to the cross so that we can feed on him and live!
Prayer: Father in heaven, thank you for love. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Thank you for Jesus who for the joy set before him endured the cross. In Jesus name. Amen.
HJK
