“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6
Well, it all began with eating (Eve and the forbidden fruit) and it all ends with eating (Jesus, the bread of heaven). Which one is worth it?
For many things, to be “worth it” means that it (whatever the “it” is) will last for a long time. Eve ate the forbidden fruit so that she would have the eternal knowledge of God (she died, by the way). The Egyptian Pharaohs called themselves gods and were entombed with things that they would need for the afterlife (gold, food, pets, servants and sometimes wives). We, too, look for things that are going to last for a long time (I am hoping that I never need to buy another car or house).
Throughout history, we see people attempting to somehow beat death and be eternal. In our Gospel reading for this week, Jesus presents us with such an “easy” way to accomplish this…eat His body, drink His blood, partake of the Bread of Life. Anyone who does this will have something eternal; Life in heaven! In other words, we are to keep His teaching concerning life, forgiveness and salvation.
However, when presented with such an “easy” gift, it was and is hard for people to swallow. Upon hearing that Jesus wanted the people to eat His body, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” We are told that this was too hard of a saying for them to swallow.
You are what you eat, and Jesus, the Bread of Life, wants to be in us and wants us to be in Him. To do that, we must do things that go against our earthly beliefs and trust His words, especially if we want eternal life. We must eat Him so that we are what He is.
Sometimes it is not so easy because worldly concepts are quickly advancing into our daily routines and philosophies and are easy to accept: Evolution vs. Creationism; Pro-death vs. Pro-life; Racial Equality vs. Spiritual Children; Acceptance of all ideologies vs. God’s ultimate decrees; Personal values vs. God’s values; Many gods vs. THE One True God, THE Author of life and THE Bread of life.
Not too long ago we sang the hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation”. And in that hymn we sang this precious truth: Elect from ev’ry nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food.
And to one hope she presses,
With ev’ry grace endued.
Unless, by the strength of God, we are able to stand by these thoughts, these concepts, these singular, unchangeable, immutable TRUTHS, we cannot stand at all.
To whom shall we go? There is but one who has eternity in His hand: Jesus, THE Christ, THE bread of Life.