Friday, August 23, 2024  

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Today's Scripture
John 6:51–58

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So 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. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” (NRSV)

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Reflection

With my fingers flying away at the keyboard as I’m writing this reflection, it is nearly lunchtime, and I am hungry. This sensation of hunger feels peculiar right now as I’m contemplating Jesus’ self-description as “living bread,” and his blood as the “true drink.”

The lunch that I’m craving, once I’ve eaten it, will put an end to my hunger pangs, stabilize my blood sugar, and stimulate my tastebuds. What, then, is the hunger and thirst that Jesus proclaims he’ll satisfy if we consume him — and what does it mean to consume Jesus in the first place?

Interestingly enough, in this passage, Jesus is not referring to the Lord’s Supper, even as we contextualize his words today from our own experience of receiving the sacrament. In John 6, Jesus makes the direct connection to himself as the holy source of life-giving nourishment in the same vein as the manna from heaven that preserved the lives of the ancient Hebrews in the wilderness.

Jesus, as living bread, fills us and abides in us, forever. Our relationship with Jesus satisfies us with the never-ending presence of God so that we are never alone or forsaken. The hunger that Jesus satisfies for humankind is the pang of isolation and the fear of abandonment.

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Prayer
As we live, move, and find our essence in you, O Lord, may you continue to fill us and nourish us with your life-giving Spirit. May the blessed assurance of eternal life invigorate us now. Amen.

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Written by Nancy Benson-Nicol, Associate Pastor for Caring Ministries and Spiritual Formation

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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