Word of God, Food for Image-bearers (Lent 37, 2023)

Jesus said many confusing things on earth. This passage in John 6:48-60 is one of them.

Jesus said, John 6:48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

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, “Very truly I tell you, 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 them 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 them. 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 ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

Yeah, it was a hard teaching then, but for those of us on this side of the Cross, having witnessed the Last Supper in Scripture, we can understand that Jesus’ Crucifixion was not a bad turn where evil got the upper hand and we’re suddenly all becoming cannibals.

Focus for Lent: Evil did not get the upper hand. It was the plan.

Questions for further thought:

Is it any surprise, then, that Jesus who said, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about…to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:32-34) that He would comfort Himself with Scripture, even as He was dying?

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

As God’s Very Image, Jesus yet felt in His full humanity, the forsaken condition of the sinner on account of sin. He felt it. He knew as deity that sin was deserving of wrath. He comforted Himself by calling out to His Father as His earthly ancestor David did (Psalm 22), identifying with him.

How did doing the will of God nourish Him as the wrath of God against sin was paid in full? I don’t mean to question other pastors and theologians who say God turned His back on His Son and their view of what happened. But I must ask, did God stop loving His Son in that moment in order to pour out wrath?

Did God actually forsake Him (as God’s Very Image), or did it bring glory to the Father that Jesus was crucified, identifying as sin in Image-bearers to pay the penalty of sin, according to His will?

Would God forsake Him as deity for doing the will of God or was Jesus expressing a cry of humanity in need of God’s intervention? See Philippians 2:6-11. Was He forsaken only in His humanity or also as deity?

Prayer: Father God, some teachings are hard for us to understand—that Jesus would humble Himself to death on a Cross and what happened to the Very Image that Jesus was/is in that moment of His death. Surely Your full wrath even for a moment–it is an excruciating thought that Jesus would bear this! Oh, Lord, and that we caused this pain! It’s a hard teaching… hard to understand… hard to fathom that kind of love for us as Your Image-bearers… hard for us to fully comprehend how offensive sin is to You! Jesus became sin for us. We ask Lord that You would give us understanding in some small way to make sense out of the senseless so that we can appreciate to the fullest extent Your grace, Your compassion, Your mercy, Your love, and Your forgiveness for the very ones who offended You … in every manner, all the time. We thank You, Lord, that even though our hearts still seem inclined to only evil all the time as mankind before the Flood, yet You do not destroy us without offering the opportunity for redemption of Your Image in us. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank You Lord Jesus for Your sacrifice! All glory be to You. Amen.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2023 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.