2nd Wednesday of Lent (March 4). You are what you eat

Prepare to Listen.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
 
Prayerfully Read John 6:52-59
52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  53So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  54Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day, 55for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  56Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.  57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.  58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”  59He said these things while he was teaching in a synagogue at Capernaum.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
When Jesus saw the crowds coming to him, he asked Philip (v. 5), “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”  Philip assumed he meant literal bread, the crowd’s immediate need, and didn’t have a clue.  But Jesus had a spiritual need in mind.  Where can you find spiritual food for these people?  His answer, as Brodie admits, is “quite revolting.”[1]
 
Jesus said, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man[2] and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”  If you’re thinking literally, you’ll agree with Brodie.  It’s revolting!  But Jesus wasn’t speaking literally.  He gave Philip a spiritual answer to his question.  Bread, that is, spiritual nourishment, can only be found in Jesus, the Word made flesh.  “Eating” is a good metaphor for believe, since what we eat both nourishes and becomes part of us.
 
To eat Jesus is to believe in Jesus.  When we do, he comes into us, abides in us, nourishes our inner being, shapes us to become what we eat—like Jesus, fully alive.  Jesus’ answer was also a rebuke to his critics, the Jews.  They bragged about their ancestors who ate “the bread of heaven,” manna, in the wilderness.  But that bread was inadequate and they all died.  The bread and drink Jesus gives is life-giving.  We eat his bread through reading and internalizing his Word, submitting to God’s ways, obeying God’s command.  Bit by bit, with consistent reading, we become what we eat.  If we fail to eat this bread Jesus offers, we will discover there is no life in us.
 
What are you eating?  How life-giving is it?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Bread of Life, give me you bread always so that I become what I eat, more like you.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  You are what you eat.
[1] Brodie, Thomas L.  The Gospel According to John.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.  1993, p. 286.
[2] Jesus’ favorite self-designation.