August 13 - John 6:44-51

Daily Reading & Meditation

Sunday (8/13): "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever"

Scripture: John 6:44-51

41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, `I have come down from heaven'?" 43 Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Meditation: God offers his people abundant life, but we can miss it. What is the bread of life which Jesus offers? It is first of all the life of God himself -- abundant life which sustains us not just physically but spiritually as well, and not only for this age but also for the age to come. The Rabbis said that the generation in the wilderness have no part in the life to come. In the Book of Numbers it is recorded that the people who refused to brave the dangers of the promised land were condemned to wander in the wilderness until they died. The Rabbis believed that the father who missed the promised land also missed the life to come. When Jesus offers us real life he brings us into a new relationship with God, a relationship of love, trust, and obedience. And Jesus offers us real life which lasts forever, a life of enduring love, unending fellowship, and lasting communion with the One who made us in love to be with him forever. To refuse Jesus is to refuse eternal life, unending life with the Heavenly Father. To accept Jesus as the bread of heaven is not only life and spiritual nourishment for this world but glory in the world to come.
Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced at Capernaum – "the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh" (John 6:51). Jesus’ passing over to his Father by his death and resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Last Supper and celebrated in the eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the church in the glory of God’s kingdom. When the Lord Jesus commands his disciples to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he invites us to take his life into the very center of our being (John 6:53-54). That life which he offers is the very life of God himself. When we come to the table of the Lord in the eucharist and when we listen to the words of scripture we encounter the risen Lord himself who is the living bread which comes down from heaven.