Eating and drinking Jesus?

Eating and drinking Jesus?  John 6.51-59

Tis a difficult word, who can abide it?

“Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.”

It was through his flesh that Jesus lived out the life of the obedient one.

Let’s take a look at John 6.51-59 from the Amplified Bible:

"I [Myself] am this Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and also the Bread that I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh (body).

Then the Jews angrily contended with one another, saying, How is He able to give us His flesh to eat?

And Jesus said to them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood [unless you appropriate His life and the saving merit of His blood].

He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has (possesses now) eternal life, and I will raise him up [from the dead] on the last day.

For My flesh is true and genuine food, and My blood is true and genuine drink.

He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood dwells continually in Me, and I [in like manner dwell continually] in him.

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.

This is the Bread that came down from heaven. It is not like the manna which our forefathers ate, and yet died; he who takes this Bread for his food shall live forever.

He said these things in a synagogue while He was teaching at Capernaum."

Dear Heavenly Father,

These are difficult concepts to comprehend; please help us understand what Jesus was talking about—and just what it means for how we ought live.  In your precious name, Amen. 

What was Jesus talking about that day?  ‘Eating his flesh, drinking his blood.  Eating and drinking is invasive … Practically speaking, he was saying, while ‘believing in me is a good start, it is just a start’. 

Friends, eating and drinking of him means believing to the point of receiving him into our lives and letting him change us—no more status quo. The one who believes is the one who eats, really. To partake of Christ is to allow him to become a vital part of our daily lives, to consider our course of action, and our holiness quotient—not just when we partake of the sacraments—but regularly, because right living before him, with him, and through him matters to us!  To take his life into our very being is to invite his presence and influence.  It is to feed upon his words, internalizing them, endeavoring to be changed by them.  

When life brings pain our way, particularly persecution, we are able to trust him, because in a small way, we enter into his sufferings.   To eat his flesh and drink his blood is to live our lives as a kind of prayer ~ to give him ourselves, surrender to his lordship, allow him to influence our thinking and change our behavior.  

Surrender as worship,

Christine

PastorWoman.com