or Food, Nourishment, Bread, etc...
In addition to the previous post -- He is Water -- Jesus has made a point to use...well...food!...to further describe Himself to us (and the more we know *about* Him, the better we can interact with Him). He explicitly said it Himself -- He is the Bread of Life (John 6:33-35). (Don't worry, my "intolerant" friends, He's gluten-free did i just make that joke? ugh, yes i did). He is the new manna from heaven (again, John 6). Jesus really drove the point that He wasn't merely some teacher with clever things to say. He didn't say "follow my teachings" as all the other philosophers and founders of other religions have said. He said "Follow ME." And even at the risk of majorly confusing His followers, He said things that no other teacher had ever said -- things like "my flesh is food, and my blood is drink." What He was saying in John 6:53-58 is worth pondering for quite a while. Christianity isn't about a teaching, it's about a Person. Again, unlike any leader before or since, He didn't say "eat this food I give you... take these teachings and believe on them." He said "I am the bread of life... believe on Me." His teachings are not the way to salvation -- HE is.
How cool is it that when God sent down manna for the Israelites (Exodus 16) He was already thinking about Jesus: how He would provide a new form of sustenance and survival for His people; how He would fulfill and renew the covenant through Jesus -- the new manna that will NOT get old. He's the new Tree of Life, the new Adam, the new Ark, the new Moses, the new manna, the new and best wine, the new temple, the holy of holies. In Him is the fulfillment and presence of God.
In the last days of His ministry, Jesus again made the connection with bread.
Matthew 26:26-29
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
This is where we get the tradition of communion or the sacrament. It's about recognizing that Jesus Himself is what we fill our life with in order to gain spiritual nourishment. It's not about increasing our wisdom and knowledge, reading theology books, going to leadership or discipleship seminars, etc. It's about Him. The other side of communion -- opposite the bread -- is the wine which reminds us that it's by His actual, physical, human blood that we've been saved from sin.
Growing up in church, and having taken countless communions before, it wasn't until some time in 2011 while living in Utah that it finally became something huge for me. Between the verses we associate with it (whoever drinks this in an unworthy manner drinks judgment upon himself), and the tradition of "examining" oneself and confessing sin before partaking in communion, I guess my mindset was a little askew. It's easy to fall into the thought process of "I have to be worthy (and what we really mean is almost sinless!) in order to receive His blood and body." When the reality is that's when we need Him most. In 2011, during my season of being taught "brokenness" and the importance of it, I was pursuing a dependency on God and praying regularly that He would replace whatever force was driving me at the time with Himself. And it was during this season that I took communion at my church with a brand new understanding. I now felt that it was a symbol of being consumed with Jesus, a picture of living our life by His power. I'm suddenly infused, and His blood becomes my blood. Just as your body takes food and uses it to build muscle and give you energy, when we consume and digest Jesus, the same process happens. You can't "will" your body to grow or get energy. You just lay your will aside and eat food!
As with all these posts, this is just a starting point. It's significant that scripture teaches us that Jesus is like bread that must be eaten (not necessarily like a book that must be read). So I encourage you to let this post inspire you to think about Jesus as the Bread of Life and all the implications and applications that come from that.
AND REMEMBER.....
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