To Live is Christ — eating right

My daughter cannot eat bread. She isn’t celiac but has a problem with gluten. I cannot imagine going without bread, even though Jesus said that I do not live by bread alone. . . . I think that I could, or at least I did.

Lately I’ve not been eating regular bread, only the sprouted grain variety. Yesterday I had some regular bread and my tummy didn’t like it. I’m glad this is not true of all bread, especially when I read this verse from my devotional book this morning.

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. (John 6:51)

Jesus talked to a crowd that chased after Him when they heard He had multiplied a few loaves of bread into enough to feed thousands. However, He knew why they were there. He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (John 6:26–27)

They didn’t get it, but He kept talking. He told them that He was the living bread, the source of eternal life, but they had to eat this bread to have that life. They still didn’t get it.

Neither did His disciples. After the crowd was gone, they asked Jesus about this “hard saying.” In part, He told them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)

Since I became a Christian, I’ve looked at many different views about Jesus. Almost all of them have no idea what it means to “eat” the flesh of Jesus. Some think it is a symbol. Some think it is a horrible cannibalism. Without the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, I agree that this is a strange and hard saying. Yet God explains the key to understanding Jesus’ words through the words of Paul: 

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:13–14)

Without the Holy Spirit, no one can fully understand the Bible. Even with the Holy Spirit, Christians get truth “here a little, there a little” for that is the way of God. He knows what I need to know. He does not give me all of it at once. To do so would be like trying to eat a bakery full of bread. My body could not tolerate it. Instead, God gives me a small slice at a time, just what I need. In the beginning, my first taste of Jesus meant that He gave me Himself. In doing so, He now lives in me and I have eternal life.

Since that day, the Spirit has fed me many things. For instance, Jesus is the Word of God, the living Word for sure, but also the written Word. It is this Word that I feast on, reading, chewing, digesting — knowing, remembering, understanding, obeying. By doing this, I am feasting on Christ. He becomes my spiritual nourishment and sustenance. Without a proper spiritual diet, my spiritual life would weaken into uselessness.

Using the same ‘bread’ analogy, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

In this verse, the Greek term translated “word” is rhema. It means “that which is needed for the moment.” In other words, God gives me the portion that I need for each day, my “daily bread.” I cannot gorge myself. He controls the portions because He knows me as His created and adopted child and knows what I need to be strong and live for Him.

I marvel at the wonderful care of God. He gave me spiritual life in Christ then feeds that life by drawing me into His Word and near to Him. No banquet could taste better or be more important that sitting down to a meal with Jesus.