Turn to Jesus and Live

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

TURN TO JESUS AND LIVE

John 6:52-59

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."  59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

NIV

Some men just don’t get it and it is for certain these Jews Jesus was teaching in the synagogue were ones who did not get it. They were only thinking in the seen, or the temporal, thinking that somehow in order to gain eternal life they were going to have to become cannibals and feast on the body and blood of this man Jesus. That had to be the most absurd thing they ever heard. It was ridiculous to even suggest such a thing.  They must have thought this man, Jesus, was either insane or possessed. We will see a little later many stopped following him and even his disciples had a difficult time with this teaching. But once again we understand Jesus was speaking metaphorically as if one had to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood in a literal sense, anyone who was born after Jesus died and was raised and ascended back into heaven would not have a chance to be saved. But the fact remains that in order to obtain eternal life we have to consume or take Jesus into our heart, we have to take all of Him, all his words, all his life that he gave up for us on the cross. The idea of food that we actually eat gives us the truth as to how we must consume Jesus. If we do not eat food, if we starve ourselves for long enough, we will die. We cannot continue to live if we do not eat, our body requires food and liquid in order to sustain life as we know it. However, this life is only temporary, as no matter how many years we eat and drink the food of this world, we are going to die anyway and that is because of the sin of Adam of whom we follow after. Because of being his descendent and under the same curse, we are doomed to a temporary existence, a certain, defined number of days. But if we accept the teaching of Jesus and eat of the eternal food that he gives, we are released from the curse and are reinstated into God’s original plan that man should be eternal. Had Adam obeyed God and never touched that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but had eaten from the tree of life, we would not even know of evil and we would be living forever still in a world that would have been a complete paradise of God. So, Jesus is the newer bread of life, and we must forsake that evil we know of, repent of it and turn to Jesus and live.