Jesus made the statement in Matthew 6:53,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day didn’t get it. His disciples didn’t get it saying, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” Jesus continued in verses 54-56,
“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
The natural mind cannot understand what Jesus is saying here. The religious leaders tried to take it literally and some religious people today still do. We know that He was not saying that we literally had to eat Him because in John 6:63 he says,
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
It behooves us to understand what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood because we don’t want to find ourselves in the position of having no life in ourselves. We are quite plainly talking about life and death. We have to be abiding in the Lord and He in us, or we’re dead.
We are well aware that if we don’t eat or drink anything for days, we’ll eventually die. Most of us don’t let a day go by without eating or drinking something, however small. No one enjoys the feeling of hunger or thirst to the ragged edge of death. Most people have never been in that place of desperation when it comes to physical survival. Yet, I’d venture to guess that most people exist in that place when it comes to spiritual things. Some might get a small glass of milk on Easter and Christmas.
Why do you suppose we ever allow ourselves to wander away from the very Source of life, even one that is freely offered? Pride. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, and it was what took Satan from being a beautiful angel in God’s presence to a twisted, deceived enemy of God and His creation. Here are a few of the (many) lies that drive how people live in this day and age, and they are really rooted in pride.
Lie #1: I can make it on my own.
Scripture is very clear that we can do nothing without the Lord. Our plans and fleshly desires lead to one thing: death.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” - Prov 14:12
Lie #2: I can’t stop worrying about the “important” things.
I honestly believe that we somehow feel that we have more control over things when we worry about them. We try to take ownership of major decisions in our lives when we have no business doing so. Not only does worrying not accomplish anything, but it even shortens our lives here on earth. Don’t believe me? Go Google stress and the effects it has on our bodies. It’s obvious that worry and stress are major issues in our society, just based on the sheer amount of information about stress relief out there. It’s pretty sick that the media puts out a bunch of garbage for some kind of weird adrenaline high on news of disaster and chaos and then has the audacity to tell us about some new method for stress relief.
Lie #3: God is holding out on me.
Again, this is not new. Remember what the serpent said in the Garden of Eden about the fruit from tree of the knowledge of good and evil? (See Gen 3:1-4) There has never been a time where it was a good idea to think “God isn’t getting me what I want; so, I’m going to get it for myself.” But, that is exactly what our culture teaches us to do.
The world’s concept of living is staying healthy, having nice things and maybe even trying to do some good for others. The problem is that this form of “living” can only become striving for the things that we want out of life. We become convinced that we have to compete with everyone else on the planet for the life we want. We get to the point of thinking we’re alive because we’re breathing and have a pulse. This “living” is really a slow dying. The logical conclusion of this path is becoming our own God:
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” - 2 Thess 2:3-4
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” - 1 Cor 3:16-17
God’s desire for us is that we stop striving for the “good” in life and receive His best that He has already offered us. Jesus didn’t live for Himself, and He didn’t live because of His own actions. He lives because the Father lives and Jesus feeds on the life coming from Him. We must in turn feed on the life coming from Jesus.
“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
This feeding by abiding in the Vine is how we truly live. We have to continuously move our focus away from the strivings of this temporary existence to the eternal life and love of our heavenly Father. It is a moment-by-moment battle sometimes, especially when so many things are vying for our focus, even some that seem to be “good” things.
The best part of all is that if our sole desire is to never allow our connection to the Vine to be hindered, we will quickly find that the Lord handles the cares of this life. He does a much better job of handling them too! We don’t even have to strive to abide in Him. We simply seek His face by faith, knowing that He will feed us. We live by His flesh and blood, not by our own.
“But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’ Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’”
Next time we’ll look more into feeding on the living bread. Stay tuned…