Ten Foot Pole

"Jesus said to the crowds: 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.' " - John 6:51

If it hasn't been apparent in the last 101 posts, I'm Catholic. Which means (for many of us), I read verses like these in the context of the Holy Eucharist - that is, it reminds me of the transubstantiation the bread and wine go through during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. And for many other denominations besides Catholicism, this portion of the liturgy means and is experienced in different ways from my own. So with that said, I'm going to leave that interpretation aside for this particular entry, and leave it up to you to reflect, in your own way, how what Jesus is saying aligns with your particular belief.

To me, the portion of the verse I missed was Jesus saying "the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world". And that should give you as much pause as the first part of the verse - if not more. As we get closer to the Crucifixion, Jesus talks more and more about his death, but here he gives a very clear and direct reason why he's going to die - "for the life of the world". And it's quite true - up to this point, the people of Jesus's time have a guarded, fearful view of God. They've seen God bless Moses in his exodus, but have heard Job's story of losing everything. They're quite aware of what happened to the world Noah lived in, what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah, to kings that have dared to challenge God's people, and to the trials and tribulations experienced by the Jewish population. So there is good reason to fear God.

But Jesus is saying something different - that God loves us, wants to be with us, and is willing to sacrifice his only Son to prove it to us. It's a turn-around from over a thousand years of previous history, and will take a long time to sink in.

But it will. And a new group of people will emerge, who follow Jesus and his teachings. And while they may not agree on everything, they all will understand why Jesus was here, and what that means to them.