John 6:56-69 (NRSV)
Read John 6:56-69 on biblegateway.com
Verse 56Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Verse 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. Verse 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." Verse 59He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
Verse 60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" Verse 61But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? Verse 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? Verse 63It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. Verse 64But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. Verse 65And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." Verse 66Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. Verse 67So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Verse 68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. Verse 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
Devotion
“This teaching is hard! Who can accept it?” As we come to the end of the long discourse in John on Jesus as the “Bread of life” we may not be any more sure than the original disciples what it all means. Somehow, mystically, and physically, we partake of Jesus and “abide” in Jesus and he in turn “abides” in us. Something transformative takes place in the encounter, but it is difficult to describe or understand.
It is a “hard teaching” and we are often at a loss as to how to describe it or even invite others into it, but we know it when we experience it and “take it in.”
While preachers often weary of “six weeks of bread” from John chapter six, I suspect that it is because it takes so much “living into” this mystery that John spends so much time on it. How do you take in someone offering themselves fully and completely, let alone discovering that it is God that is doing so?
Prayer
Lord, help me to take in what you offer, given freely what you have given me. May your love and grace flow through me as sap through the vines to nourish all I touch. Amen.
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