We love food. We live in a culture that bows down before food. Our weekly meetings usually involve food. We eat when we're hungry, we eat when we're sad, we eat when we're bored and we eat when we're happy. We eat before we eat (appetizer) and we eat after we eat (desert). We love to eat. However, eating is dynamic. We eat because it's enjoyable and yet we eat to stay alive. Food is both a necessity and an indulgence. Fully aware of this, we find Jesus in John 6 proclaiming, "I am true food" (v. 55)
First, let's talk about false food. Better yet, we can call it fast food. Fast food is that cheap stuff that satisfies you in the moment but can leave you with the pains of a stomachache or a clotted artery later. Fast food is easy to get, convenient, and requires little to no preparation. However, many of us spend our lives bouncing around from one spiritual fast food joint to another. Let's get a little more practical. Here are some examples of spiritual fast food: relationships, the approval of others, beauty, a sense of accomplishment, power, or lustful indulgences. If none of these seem to land, allow me to press a little further. Spiritual fast food can also include your sanctification, your bible study, your ministry and your fellowship. Yes, we can experience all of these things and still be spiritually malnourished. How? "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me." (John 5:39) There is a type of religious devotion that will cause you to be fat rather than strong.
So what is true food? What is this food that is both a necessity and an indulgence? Simple. Jesus Christ crucified. "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" (vv 6:53-54) I believe Jesus is going for shock value here. Like any good teacher, he is saying something that will resonate in the minds of the hearers. Surely the Jews were thinking about the Levitcal law which strictly prohibits the drinking of blood. "I will set my face against that person who eats blood" (Lev 17:10) I imagine they were grumbling among themselves saying, "Surely he can't be speaking literally. Is he commanding us to disobey God's law?" However, the same sun that melts the snow hardens the clay. "...for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life" (Lev 17:11)
This food that Jesus is talking about is his atoning life, death and resurrection. Because the saviors blood was spilled, you stand justified before a holy and righteous God. Because the saviors flesh was torn, all your sins have been blotted out. Because of he who knew no sin becoming sin, you have been made the righteousness of God. There is no way to improve righteousness. There is no way to improve justification. There is no way to improve on what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. This is true food! What Jesus is telling us here is "Come! Eat of this food." To eat something is to acknowledge that it is edible, nourishing and real. Jesus Christ came on a search and rescue mission for you. He gave his flesh and blood for you. This is applicable, this is nourishing, this is real! Feed on this! Meditate on this! Allow this to be of first importance in your heart! Don't waste your time laboring for the food that perishes. Rather, labor for the food that endures to eternal life. I pray that God would draw you every day to feed on the gospel as both a necessity and an indulgence.
"He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it."
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