Live to eat. Eat to live. Which is it? According to Jesus, the food we live to eat won't get us very far. Turn the stones into bread...what a great idea! End hunger forever, for stones are everywhere and plentiful. But Jesus wouldn't do it, even though he was starving.
Live to eat or eat to live?
On this day over 2000 years ago, bread came down from heaven. True bread. Bread that would give life to our souls. Just as Jesus promised the woman at the well that the water he gives would quench thirst forever, so now he offers the bread of life.
But we still don't understand. We're still repelled that he offers his body and blood as food and drink. He's a mystery man, even to his disciples. But there were a few who hung on in spite of the craziness, in spite of utter confusion in their heads about where this was all going and... what was he talking about anyway? He lost them.
This is his way, The Way, moving ahead without telling us clearly what he's doing. We try to follow, but we're lost. If only he would explain. If only we knew where he is going, where he is leading us. If we could just see the Father, as Philip bemoaned.
On this day so long ago, Jesus wondered if anyone would actually stay with him. He knew it was hard for them, like a camel going through the eye of a needle, and he knows it's hard for us. So he asks, "Will you also leave?"
The question is not a scolding. It's a plea. A plea for us to stick with him in spite of our own arguments against him. A plea to see him as God, even as our culture whittles him down to a wimp. A plea to have confidence that he is going to make all of this work out in a fantastic way. A plea for us to look beyond immediate circumstance to the things of the spirit.
Amazingly, our decision to stay, made in our hearts with every passing day, depends on what we eat.
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you... the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life
of the world is my flesh." They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” John 6:32; 51
May you feast on his food and live an eternal life.
