Eating Jesus

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."

-John 6:54-58

Jesus preaches a new definition of life. (John 10:10) A life that is full and fulfilled. A life that is peaceful. A life that is eternal. A life that is real.

This new life requires new provisions. Just as to live you need to eat, to stay alive spiritually you need spiritual sustenance. We find this sustenance in the person and presence of Christ. I don't know all of what this means, but I believe it.

When Jesus says that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink, he is not saying that his flesh is as real as real food, or that his blood is as real as real drink. Rather he is saying that his flesh is more real than real food, and that his blood is more real than real drink.

Jesus is offering something that transcends the dust-to-dust cycle of mortality. He is offering himself. For us he was broken, for us he was made sin (2 Cor. 5:21 - was made it!), "by his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-6)

I have come with one purpose / To capture for myself a bride / By my life she is lovely / And by my death she's justified... I have long pursued her / As a harlot and a whore / And she will feast upon me / She will drink and thirst no more / So when you taste / My flesh and my blood / You will know / You're not alone...

-Derek Webb, She Must And Shall Go Free, "The Church"

We need a more robust practice of communion in the Church today. No, I don't know what this looks like - I just sense we need it. We need to be partaking directly of the person of Christ and identifying directly with his life. "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me." I'm not a proponent of transubstantiation, but I have to give some credit to our Lutheran and Roman Catholic friends for taking the sacrament as seriously as they do.

We need to be eating Jesus.

Image courtesy of lcms.org