Rise up!
Take hold of the living bread, the spiritual bread that has come down from heaven: if you eat of this bread, you will live forever.
The bread that I offer you is my life, which I give for the life of the world.
I am the bread of life come down from heaven, that you may feast on spiritual food, and because of this receive spiritual life and not die.
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."
--Jesus
These words from Jesus were met with a natural repulsion. One translation states:
Why would Jesus use such a radical idea to convey a deep spiritual truth? Hyperbole? Or the Divine progression of moving Infinite Ideas from simple concept (miraculously turning a few loaves and fish into a feast fit for life-seekers) to active fundamental transformation into Truth and Righteousness--the heart of redemption?
Those who turned away, the bread-only mob, like any human being who miserably fails to ponder God's inconceivable and loving bounty that has "glorified our being with rights so deep, so high, so delicate, that their satisfaction cannot be given until we desire it--yea long for it with our deepest desire" (MacDonald), were not yet fit to understand. Fit like Peter who demonstrated in declaring: "Where shall we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE!"
These words from Jesus were met with a natural repulsion. One translation states:
"From this time many of His disciples went away backward, and were no more walking with Him."
From a human standpoint, eating human flesh and drinking human blood entails something abominable to the human experience and actually forbidden in Old Testament law. The penalty was death.
Even without the law, what rational person wouldn't reject such an abhorrent suggestion?
The most wretched of conditions some humans have indeed found themselves in (aside from any form of cannibalism which is an entirely different, vulgar, depraved state of mind) is to be so desperate to survive that eating a fellow is the only alternative to death.
As gruesome as that sounds, especially for anyone who lives comfortably situated near a pantry full of food, there is a deep truth to Christ's metaphor: desperation for the Life-Giving Truths of God is a universal theme throughout scripture carried to completion in the Perfect Representative of our Creator God!
The most wretched of conditions some humans have indeed found themselves in (aside from any form of cannibalism which is an entirely different, vulgar, depraved state of mind) is to be so desperate to survive that eating a fellow is the only alternative to death.
As gruesome as that sounds, especially for anyone who lives comfortably situated near a pantry full of food, there is a deep truth to Christ's metaphor: desperation for the Life-Giving Truths of God is a universal theme throughout scripture carried to completion in the Perfect Representative of our Creator God!
- "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." Psalm 42:1
- "O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water." Psalm 63:1
- Seek [trample out a path to] the LORD and His strength; Seek [yearn to touch] His face continually." 1 Chronicles 16:11
- "But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to argue with God..."Please hear my argument And listen to the contentions of my lips..."Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him." Job 13:3,6,15
Why would Jesus use such a radical idea to convey a deep spiritual truth? Hyperbole? Or the Divine progression of moving Infinite Ideas from simple concept (miraculously turning a few loaves and fish into a feast fit for life-seekers) to active fundamental transformation into Truth and Righteousness--the heart of redemption?
Those who turned away, the bread-only mob, like any human being who miserably fails to ponder God's inconceivable and loving bounty that has "glorified our being with rights so deep, so high, so delicate, that their satisfaction cannot be given until we desire it--yea long for it with our deepest desire" (MacDonald), were not yet fit to understand. Fit like Peter who demonstrated in declaring: "Where shall we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE!"
Christ will be found of those that seek him, first or last; and it is worth while to cross a sea, nay, to go from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, to seek Christ, if we may but find him at last. These people [the crowd who partook of he bread and fish miracle meal] appeared afterwards to be unsound, and not actuated by any good principle, and yet were thus zealous. Note, Hypocrites may be very forward in their attendance on God's ordinances. If men have no more to show for their love to Christ than their running after sermons and prayers, and their pangs of affection to good preaching, they have reason to suspect themselves no better than this eager crowd. But though these people were no better principled, and Christ knew it, yet he was willing to be found of them, and admitted them into fellowship with him.
Christ came to put life into the minds of men, principles productive of acceptable performance Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, John 6
God is offering the one thing we cannot live without:
His own self!
we must make room for Him;
we must cleanse our hearts that He may come in;
we must do as the Master tells us,
who knew all about the Father
and the way to him!
-MacDonald
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Comments are welcome. You can post them here or send me an email: clyon2msu@gmail.com. Thanks for reading, hope you are encouraged, blessed, challenged and grow stronger in your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Charlie