“It is finished.” –John 19:30
So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” (John 6:53–58 NLT)
Nutritional science tells us that even the heartiest of breads made of whole wheat lack the proper complement of nutrients for a full, healthy life. In fact, there is not one food item that meets all of the nutritional requirements necessary for long-term health. There is dietary truth found in Jesus’s rebuttal of Satan’s temptation to turn stones to bread: “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Yet in John 6, Jesus seems to be saying that a certain kind of bread—his flesh, the true bread from heaven—is the source of true and eternal life.
This is no contradiction. After all, Jesus is God, and it is precisely because He is God—the Word made flesh—that any who eat of His flesh and drink of His blood will have eternal life. Jesus is, in part, connecting manna, bread from heaven, with Himself, the Bread of Life who descended from heaven to be with us. The first was a temporary source of life while the Israelites wandered in the desert; the second is the ever-lasting Source of life for all who choose to partake. Consider some way to share the good news of this bread from heaven found in Christ, or someone to share it with; put your plans into motion today.