A forever life is offered in this week’s gospel passage* by the young rebel rabbi. He calls himself “The Bread of Life,” saying, “The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.” The people around him are taken aback, to put it
mildly, and then question the cannibalistic nature of his offer. He doubles down: “By eating my flesh and drinking my blood, we enter into each other.”
This is the most provocative thing I’ve ever heard, yet I’ve been repeating these words at every single communion service, mantra-like, for decades, not stopping long enough to consider how strange and intimate this is. Eating him? An all consuming and wild invitation! A rich and vibrant life arrives by the enveloping, fully partaking…the breathtaking deep dive. Eating life with one’s trembling hands like it’s a meal that came when you thought you’d never have one again. Things can’t be known by standing ankle deep in the mystery. Climb all they way in! Don’t just taste it, eat it all!
He offers not just part of himself, not simply his thoughts and ideas, but everything. Becoming food and drink, in order to provide the full representation—a portal through which we can touch, taste, see, and feel our connection to the Divine, and all living things. An all encompassing communal connection. One table. One meal. Shared. I believe that Jesus claims this identity in order to be squarely and concretely located in every time and every place. Right here, right now…the specific and the real. Broken, blessed, and given.
I believe that he spent a lot of time thinking, “What must be done to move these hearts? What will infuse life into these cracked jars of clay? What will sustain them?” An enlightened heart, a hometown leader risen up, born under a special star, and under the most difficult of
circumstances. “Maybe they will believe if I give up the thing that they hold most dear?” And in an untamed counterintuitive measure, Jesus declares himself as real and sustained nourishment.The most intimate main course. Come close, say thanks, and put the teacher in your mouth. We become what we eat.
This table is set. He moves from making meals to being one. The caveat here is that everyone is invited…even those with whom we’d rather not dine. The Giver of the feast smiles, handing us his life…our lives…and says, “pass it on down.”
*John 6:51-58
-Jim Marsh, Jr., Bread of Life Church
- What has shocked you into awareness of your spiritual life?
- How are you spiritually fed? Who’s at the table with you?
