"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." (John 1:51)
Bread is nutritious, but it isn't nutritious on the level Jesus reserves for himself as the living bread. Bread feeds us, but we need to feed ourselves with it again. And its nutritious effect cannot guard against the deterioration of our abilities or skills that come from the brokenness of this world that we all labor within and under.
Jesus is the eternal Son of God, pre-existent with God the Father before all things. Among other places, Philippians 2 points us to this. Jesus' flesh is a gift, not only of his own life, but a gift to a world, an entry of the Lord into his own creation.
We receive this gift through the means of grace. This is how we eat. We are baptized. We receive the Word of God in such a way that we obey it. We receive the Lord's Supper. We understand ourselves to be feeding upon the life of Jesus so that his life grows within us in such a way that we live forever, because Jesus' life is a resurrected life in a body that can never be destroyed. And we are united to him in this way by his Spirit.
God loves this world. The gift of his life is for the life of the world. Our world is intended by God to savor with the health for which it was always intended. This is the gift of Jesus. This applies to every last inch of all God has created.
Jesus is nutritious living bread, bread that builds you up not only for the next few hours, but for all eternity. Christians are often tempted to focus so much on others being fed with Jesus that we forget to feed ourselves. I feel this. I need to eat, to pray, to read Scripture, to feed on Communion in worship if I have any hopes of feeding others. I want to see others feed on the same living bread that I enjoy throughout each day.
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