The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity 18 08 24
OLD TESTAMENT READING: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14
NEW TESTAMENT READING: Ephesians 5:15-20
GOSPEL John 6:51-58
I am the bread of life, we have been hearing these words of our Lord Jesus Christ for the past three weeks or so. Jesus started to proclaim he is the bread of life after the feeding the multitudes with five loaves and two fish.
Jesus did not come into the world to create a group of people who will follow him but for something much more profound. He came to invite people to come to him, believe in him and to share his life. He is the Son of God and he is God and he is offering his life that is what makes it very special. He wanted to drastically change the nature of people with his divine nature.
This is the plan of God, all those who are drawn to Jesus are to share in the life and nature of Jesus. In doing so become more than a mere human, people living with a new nature that of Jesus Christ the son of God.
The type of life that Jesus was offering was eternal life, or in other words abundant life or fullness of life. This makes us live our lives differently and abundantly. Our lives are also redefined we do not live our life span but beyond that to live eternally as Jesus is eternal.
This is all possible when one eats his body and drinks his blood.
To eat his body and to drink his blood is to be nourished by him and our own flesh and blood are energised by his body and his blood. It means to receive Jesus and be impacted by Jesus in every aspect of our lives.
We remember these words of Jesus when we partake in the holy Eucharist that is where we share in the body of Jesus and drink the blood of Jesus.
Jesus said ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink’. When we participate in the Holy Eucharist we are reminded that we have a life beyond our death. The sacrament prepares us for eternity. On the last day when Jesus appears he will raise us up and take us to be with him and live for eternity.
Jesus also said ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father’, The Eucharist helps us remind ourselves that our relationship with Christ is that of a communion with Jesus, he is us and we in him.
Jesus Christ shares his life with us and elevates us to live as a different and new people with his love with his nature and with his purpose.
Our prayer can only be thank you Jesus for sharing your life with us.