Lifegiving Bread (John 6:22-71)

During their wilderness wanderings, God gave manna to the followers of Moses to keep them physically alive in the desert. Jesus plays on that occurrence when speaking of himself as a kind of manna, or “food,” that God sent into the world to give spiritual life to his people.

Jesus calls on us to internalize what he stands for in values and purposes, to taker into our physical selves what he stood for while he lived among us. Taking his character into ourselves is like “eating” him, becoming like him as he was in his physical condition. It is like eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

When Jesus compared himself to manna, he was not talking specifically about communion bread and wine. But these elements symbolically do involve what he was talking about. We do this in remembrance of him, we say, but it is remembrance for a reason: to call us to living out his character, values, and purposes as demonstrated most vividly by giving his body to be broken and his blood to be shed.

We refresh in ourselves this high calling of God in Christ Jesus.