Daily Bread John 6
Daily Bread John 6
I will be on vacation over the next couple of days.
I will pick up on Monday with John 7 God bless!!!
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
66From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
70Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" 71(He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Observation:
In this chapter Jesus is teaching about the bread that will truly satisfy, which is the bread from heaven he came to bring. Jesus first teaches the disciples by feeding 5,000 on a few fish and loaves. This teaches the disciples that as they offer up what they have up to Jesus, they can do abundantly more then they imagine. There are even leftovers to accent this point.
Then, Jesus goes on to apply the teaching by calling himself the “bread of life”. He uses an event they would all know well, the feeding of the Jews in the wilderness with manna. And then, teaches them that he is the true bread from heaven that has come down from God. He tells them that whoever believes in Him will never grow hungry and whoever comes to Him will never be thirsty.
Then, Jesus takes it a step further and says, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you.” Of course, Jesus is not meaning this literally Ie. He is not a vampire. But he is saying that by coming to know and follow him intimately through His teaching, one will have true communion with He and the Father. This is what we celebrate in Holy Communion, as we eat the bread and the wine, which symbolize his body broken and his blood shed for us.
Application:
Obviously this was a hard teaching and many of the disciples were challenged to the point of walking away. Jesus asked the twelve “Do you want to leave me too?” Peter says in a classic line, which is preserved beautifully in the church liturgies, “To whom shall we go for you have the words of eternal life.”
You see the mystery of communion is that as we receive Jesus’ body and blood through the bread and wine we are saying, I believe in Jesus that he is the bread of life. I believe there is no other way to have eternal life apart from his body and blood given for us on the cross.
It is also to say, I will live my life based on this truth. I will no longer look to other things to be my bread of life, but I will trust in the bread that has come down from heaven. What do trust in to be your bread of life? TV commercials, newspaper and internet advertisers spend a ton of money trying to convince us that their products is what we need to be satisfied. I have found they all have left me empty. The only thing that has satisfied the deep needs of my soul has been Jesus.
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for being the bread of life that meets the deepest needs of our soul. Create a hunger and thirst for your words, for you have the words of eternal life. Amen.
I will be on vacation over the next couple of days.
I will pick up on Monday with John 7 God bless!!!
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
66From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
70Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" 71(He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Observation:
In this chapter Jesus is teaching about the bread that will truly satisfy, which is the bread from heaven he came to bring. Jesus first teaches the disciples by feeding 5,000 on a few fish and loaves. This teaches the disciples that as they offer up what they have up to Jesus, they can do abundantly more then they imagine. There are even leftovers to accent this point.
Then, Jesus goes on to apply the teaching by calling himself the “bread of life”. He uses an event they would all know well, the feeding of the Jews in the wilderness with manna. And then, teaches them that he is the true bread from heaven that has come down from God. He tells them that whoever believes in Him will never grow hungry and whoever comes to Him will never be thirsty.
Then, Jesus takes it a step further and says, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you.” Of course, Jesus is not meaning this literally Ie. He is not a vampire. But he is saying that by coming to know and follow him intimately through His teaching, one will have true communion with He and the Father. This is what we celebrate in Holy Communion, as we eat the bread and the wine, which symbolize his body broken and his blood shed for us.
Application:
Obviously this was a hard teaching and many of the disciples were challenged to the point of walking away. Jesus asked the twelve “Do you want to leave me too?” Peter says in a classic line, which is preserved beautifully in the church liturgies, “To whom shall we go for you have the words of eternal life.”
You see the mystery of communion is that as we receive Jesus’ body and blood through the bread and wine we are saying, I believe in Jesus that he is the bread of life. I believe there is no other way to have eternal life apart from his body and blood given for us on the cross.
It is also to say, I will live my life based on this truth. I will no longer look to other things to be my bread of life, but I will trust in the bread that has come down from heaven. What do trust in to be your bread of life? TV commercials, newspaper and internet advertisers spend a ton of money trying to convince us that their products is what we need to be satisfied. I have found they all have left me empty. The only thing that has satisfied the deep needs of my soul has been Jesus.
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for being the bread of life that meets the deepest needs of our soul. Create a hunger and thirst for your words, for you have the words of eternal life. Amen.
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