And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. John 6:35 NKJV

We cannot dwell in this world without eating food and drinking water.

Food and water is essential to our survival.

The explosion of the population of man is directly related to the ability of man to produce abundant sources of food.

Without food we hunger and die, and without water we thirst and die. So their importance cannot be denied.

We must eat, and we must drink.

Here in the sixth chapter of the gospel of John we find that because of Jesus’ extraordinary ministry he had gained a great following.

Jesus had fed over five thousand people with five barley loaves and two little fish; and he had walked on water.

Now here in the thirty-fifth verse of this chapter we find Jesus challenging those who had partook of the fish and loaves, and are now coming to him looking for more.

Jesus tells them that he is the bread of life, and he who comes to him, and believes in him will never hunger nor thirst.

Further along in the discourse, though, Jesus stuns them with the statement that if they do not eat his flesh and drink his blood they will have no life in them.

The disciples hearing this thought it was a hard saying and murmured about it.

Jesus responded to the murmuring of his disciples by letting them know that the words that he spoke are spirit and life.

After that statement many of those who were following Jesus left him. Jesus then turned to his disciples and asked them if they would leave also. Note Peter’s response. Peter said “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God.”

Let us focus on these two statements because they explain what Jesus was saying when he said “eat my flesh and drink my blood”.

First Jesus could not separate himself from his doctrine, for he is the word of God. The very word that he was teaching was about his work in the past, present or future. All of the rituals, ceremonies, and laws were a type of Christ and his work.

Well, how then do we feed on Christ? Well, we feed on him when we believe the doctrine of salvation that Jesus taught.

We feed on him when we meditate on the word of God.

We feed on him when we accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, in that he shed his blood to wash away our sin, died to pay the penalty for those sins.

We must hunger and thirst after Jesus. Feed on his life and character, and one day, we will be what we eat.

Willie Denson