July 5
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TRUE FOOD AND DRINK
52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “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 yourselves. 54 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 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 eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
– John 6:52-59
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Once again, in this account, we get a glimpse of the unbelief and blindness of the Jewish leaders who claim to be knowledgeable about the laws and doctrines of their religion. Despite Jesus’ revelation of Him, being the bread of life earlier, they still grumbled and expose their narrow minds and continued unbelief. They take the statements of Jesus superficially and literally. Their hearts are not involved when they hear the truths because they are so concerned with self-protection. They wanted to ensure the people’s esteem and honor are on them and not on anyone else. They couldn’t bear the thought that what Jesus was saying was true and they are wrong. No matter how much Jesus explained to them about the requirement to have eternal life, they still couldn’t understand it.
Jesus declares that life forevermore is only through partaking of His body and blood and those who do so, gets to know Him deeper. He explains that it is only by doing so can we claim that we abide in Him and He in us. His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink that leads to life everlasting.
Do we partake of the true food and drink that only comes from Jesus’ sacrifice of his body and blood? So, often, we fail to partake of Christ’s body and blood which draws us away from being intimate with Him. We fail to get close to Him, so that we can remain intimate with Him. We lose life when we forget to abide and commune with Him. The world has corrupted and distracted our main purpose in life: to be united with Jesus and thus glorify the Father. We become so immersed in living isolated from Him and we begin to build walls to protect our own images and agendas.
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REFLECTION
• Why is it important to feed on the true food and consume the true drink?