Lenten Devotion: Feast on the Bread of Life (John 6.52-59)
Day 12 – 18 Mar 2025
“Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” John 6:56
I’m someone who “lives to eat” – food is a blessing, and I enjoy good food.
Once during lunch, my family had a conversation about the food and drinks mentioned in the Bible that we would love to taste. My husband Swee Pieu said he would love to taste the wine that Jesus made from water, which the banquet master described as the best wine!
My son Reagan was curious to try the manna that God provided in the wilderness, which the Bible says tastes like wafer made with honey.
My younger son Rafael said he learned in Little Seeds Preschool about how Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fishes, and he would like to try the fish.
I shared that I would love to eat the grapes that Moses’ scouts brought back from the promised land – a single cluster of grapes requires two men to carry it on a pole between them. It sounds better than the best muscat grape we can find today!
It was a fun conversation, but we soon realized that not every kind of food and drink in the Bible is safe (e.g. fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil) or desirable (Peter’s vision where he was told to eat all kinds of reptiles and birds).
Yet by far the most challenging passage is today’s reading. Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” For a person who “lives to eat”, this passage challenges me to “eat to live”.
Thankfully, the eating of flesh and blood is not to be taken literally. To “feed on Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood” is to acknowledge that all the physical food in this world, no matter how delicious and nutritious, can at best give short-lived enjoyment and sustain physical life – but they cannot give us enduring joy and eternal life.
What we need more than physical food is to abide in Jesus who is the bread of life. This season of Lent, may we find great joy as we abide in Jesus, and be “fully satisfied as with the richest of food” (Ps 63:5)
Skye Low🙏