The Bread of life! However, as I grew up, for no apparent reason, I became more and more disinterested in this bread.

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Marcus Benson
5 years ago
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1 The Bread of life! As a young man, growing up in Nigeria. I loved eating bread. Not just any ordinary bread but very special bread that was made in a bakery right on the street where I grew up. I loved his bread not only because it was sweeter than many of the others but also because you could get them straight from the oven, warm and soft. However, as I grew up, for no apparent reason, I became more and more disinterested in this bread. On our recent holiday in France, we stayed in a flat that is almost over a bakery and every morning, we will go down and get a baguette or any of the other types of bread available. This became a sort of ritual for us in first couple of days, but by the time we left, it was no longer one of the things we do on waking up. We decided we wanted another type of bread that was not available in the bakery and we will drive to the local Supermarket to get it. I am sure we can all relate to this pattern behaviour. We can all remember when we first acquire a taste for something and we will go out of our way to fulfil our longing for it but over the years this longing diminishes and what is left is the feeling of déjà vu or even questions of why did we had that longing? Bread is important in the history of mankind. We can even argue that Bread is as old as the history of mankind, in Genesis 3:19, God said to Adam, By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread" 1 P a g e

2 This is the first time that the word "bread" (Hebrew: lechem) is used in the Bible. Today in the world, there is hardly any culture or society in which bread is not eaten. In the Prayer Jesus thought us, he prayed, Give us today our daily bread This is a prayer that God should on a daily basis give us enough manna, lechem, enough bread to sustain till the next day. In our Gospel reading today, we continue with the I am the bread of life sayings of Christ. The bread Jesus is referring to here is not just the physical bread. It is more than the physical loaf that is eaten. It is the food that nourishes all physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is the food that makes us grow to be more like Christ. This is why he said to his listeners, Your ancestors ate manna and died. But, what Jesus is giving us, is not just the bread for sustenance. It is the bread of life. The bread unlike my Nigerian or French bread, the bread that is unlike the manna the Israelites ate; the bread that is unlike that of any supermarket or any earthly baker. The bread that Jesus is giving is the Bread of life, this is the bread that came down from heaven, the bread that never perishes or go out of date. This is the bread that can only be had by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ. He said, 2 P a g e

3 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them But like always, they did not understand what he meant, they though he meant literarily eating his flesh. They would have thought him weird and crazy. How could we eat his flesh? How could we drink his blood? Are we cannibals? They started grumbling amongst themselves This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? The teaching of Jesus is hard to receive, not only for his listeners over 2000 years ago. It is hard for many in our society today. We have heard it said over and over again that there is absolutely no power in the blood of Christ. Many have argued that Christ has no saving powers since he can t save himself. But like Peter and the disciples that remained with Jesus, we know that He alone can save. And so when we eat His Body, and drink His Blood, we have a part in Him not only here on earth but also in eternity. I was once told a story of a Christian that invited his unbelieving friend to church. As part of the service, the Priest, during the communion prayer said as we always do that the bread in the body of Christ and the wine the blood. This unbelieving friend was horrified, that people could plainly be drinking blood and eating raw flesh. What he and many others like him fail to understand, is that when we share communion, when we say we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ, of course 3 P a g e

4 we are not drinking His real Blood or eating his real Body! If that s the case, there shouldn t be anything left with the number of people eating and drinking for over 2000 years! What we are doing is remembering Him as he commanded us to do. He said, do this in remembrance of me. So when we eat the bread and drink the wine, we remember his offering of Himself on the Cross. His dying and rising, we remember is mighty and glorious ascension, we remember His promises of eternal life; we remember that He alone has the words of eternal life. When we eat and drink, we remember that Christ is with us because He is the Emmanuel. When we feed on Christ in our hearts by faith, we allow him and his words to nourish our souls just as we allow food to nourish our bodies. In the bread and wine of the Eucharist, Jesus gives Himself directly to us, to sustain our new life in him. In this we draw from life from Him the author and source of all life. In the bread and wine, we integrate Christ into our being, drawing life from him, integrating him into our being. We must never take this offer for granted Often we forget the importance of what is on offer. We need to constantly remind ourselves especially as we come to the communion table, that the bread we eat and the wine we drink though ordinary. 4 P a g e

5 As we come to communion, let us take a moment to remind ourselves that we are coming to Jesus, the one who has the word of life. We are been given the bread of life and we are been given to drink the wine of eternal life. Eating and drinking is fundamental to the human condition - what we eat becomes a part of us, it affects our health, our mind, our mood. As we eat this bread and drink this cup, may our lives, our soul and our body reflect the glory and majesty of Christ. Amen 5 P a g e

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