Eat my Flesh
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. John 6:56
This is what my husband and I like to call the famous “Eat my flesh and Drink my blood” sermon that really put the religious leaders of Jesus day over the edge. It is a message that offended many people because they did not understand the meaning. Even though Jesus was being quite graphic, it feels like He is pushing back on what the Jews were complaining and murmuring about.
I personally believe that Jesus was saying this in the simplest form. He talked about the manna that came down from heaven in the wilderness to feed the people when they were brought out of captivity in Egypt. That manna coming down each morning from heaven was God’s provision to save them from dying in the wilderness. There was no food there for them to eat, so God provided it for them. Likewise, He sent Jesus down from heaven to save us from dying in our wilderness of sin. The explicit part about taking Him in by eating and drinking is similar to what He taught about being the living water. He is what we need be saved from eternal separation from God and dying in sin.
Jesus came to save us from spiritual death like the manna from heaven saved the people from physical death long ago. Jesus wanted to people there to understand that they needed to receive Him into their lives as Lord and Savior to save them just like they needed the manna in the wilderness to save their lives long ago.
We still need His flesh and blood today. The message of Jesus coming down from heaven to save all people is still the good news each one of us needs in our life. We must invite Him in to be the Lord and Savior and live with Him day by day just as if He were inside our heart, because He is. The message of eat my flesh and drink my blood was not received well in Jesus’ time because people did not understand what He was saying and sometimes that still happens. Let’s make sure that we are telling the message of Salvation to others so they can receive the provision from heaven that God sent for them too.
Today I want to encourage you to receive the bread from heaven if you have not already done so. By simply confessing that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and inviting Him into your life to guide and protect, you can become a child of God today. Pray this prayer of salvation from your heart and Jesus will come into your life and be the bread and sustenance that you so desperately need. Eat His flesh and drink His blood today and receive all the provision and supply that God has given you from heaven above.
Pray: God in heaven, I know I’m a sinner and I need a Savior. I want to turn away from my sinful life to the life You have planned for me. Please forgive my sins, cleanse me from my past, and make me new today. I know Your Son, Jesus died for me. I believe in my heart that You raised Him from the dead. At this very moment, I accept, confess, and proclaim Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior . . . to be Lord of my life from this day forward. I now have a right relationship with God my Father through this salvation in the blood of Jesus. I thank You for giving me Your Holy Spirit to guide me and to empower me to accomplish the things You have planned for my life in Jesus’ name, Amen
Today’s scripture reading: John 6:41-59
41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.
47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
The Daily Dose 