In reading through the bible in a year, jumping into the New Testament has been like going from the desert to a refreshing water pool. Jesus comes on the scene and breaks the 400-year silence from heaven. He came as a baby. He came as the Word made flesh. I wonder what it was like to hear that sweet baby making his first sound. Oh, how sweet it must have been. I wonder what was happening in the heavenlies as he did? I imagine all of heaven holding their breath in great expectation.
As I was reading the Gospels, each recounts the events of Jesus' life. Some cover a story not covered in the others, or multiple covers a story from different perspectives. I love that they tell the stories this way. It brings such a beautiful tapestry of richness to the stories.
I was reading about Jesus feeding the 5000 men plus women and children. I have read this story many times in my life. But one thing stood out to me in my reading. It was the time of the Passover. As I am also studying Jen Wilkin's study on Exodus, "God of Deliverance," I am confident that is why I noticed it. We just finished studying Moses, explaining to the Israelites how to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and use the blood to avoid the last plague sent to free them from slavery. He also explained how they were to keep this as a celebration for the years to come to remember how He set them free from slavery. He explains the feast of unleavened bread that they were to observe, which we see observed in John 6.
As I read further in John's record of this story, he shares that Jesus tells them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood to follow him. I laughed so hard as I read this. I was not being disrespectful but just entering into how the listener must have processed that. I was tickled at how the looks on their faces must have been. Can you imagine?
Then a bit of sadness washed over me as it went on to say that many stopped following him at that time.
Bear in mind that he had just fed 5000 plus wives and children with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish the day before. All ate and were satisfied with those 5 loaves and 2 fish, and when they gathered up the leftovers, there were 12 baskets full. They met him there because they saw what he had done for the sick. He had been healing many. The following day, he said a hard thing they couldn't understand.
How often does the word of God confront and convict us with the hard stuff, and we walk away or withdraw from Him? What if we did more like the disciples when Jesus asked them, will you leave me now? And we answer him and say, where else will we go? "You have the words of eternal life; we believe and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."
The words he was saying were true. He is the bread that was sent from heaven, raining down on us like the manna, which was the sustenance for the Israelites. Then with the Passover, it was the unleavened bread because they would be leaving Egypt swiftly and wouldn't have time for the dough to rise. This is so full of meaning. During the Passover observance annually, they would break the bread and eat it together. This all ties in with what Jesus was saying about His body being broken for us. Take and eat it. If we come to him, we will not hunger, for he is the living bread, and he says those who eat it will never die. And he says this bread is his flesh. This is how we abide by consuming his flesh, and John starts his story in John 1 by telling us that the word became "flesh" and dwelled among us. He lived out the word for us to see.
He also told us we were to drink his blood. Yes, that is what he said. The blood he speaks of is alive. It brings life to the flesh. When our heart stops beating, our flesh dies. He was the perfect unblemished lamb that was sacrificed for us. John the Baptist said of Jesus, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Just as the Israelites had to apply the blood to the doorframe of their house to avoid death, we, too, must have the blood applied to our flesh so we would not die eternally. Jesus says that those who don't eat his flesh and drink his blood have no life in them. Those who do will have eternal life and be raised with him on the last day.
He says his flesh is true food, and his blood is true drink. He notes that consuming both is how we abide in him and him in us.
In verse 43, we must note that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. So, let's pray for the drawing of ourselves, our loved ones, our community, and the world.
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