It is of primary importance that we remember the manna in the desert was interpreted by Israel in terms of word and instruction - the Torah is bread. John wants to say in his Gospel that the Logos, the Word, is food - who is Jesus! God feeds men and women by His Word, and Jesus is His Word. We are now and forever fed by the new manna - Jesus Christ! That’s why Jesus says: “I am the bread of life!”
A man and a woman is “taught of God” by hearing Jesus, hearing the Word, the Logos, and by eating the bread and drinking the blood of the Eucharist. And the result of this is that we are drawn to Jesus by the grace of Jesus. The process is circular, and John wishes to assert that this “coming to Jesus” is set in motion not by our human volition but by Jesus, by God’s initiative in Jesus. We don’t stand up and walk down the aisle to receive communion on our own effort, or by our own choice, but rather, we are drawn to the banquet table by the body and blood of Jesus on the Cross! To limit communion in any way is to chose and to behave, inaccurately, as if we are the authors and definers of the eucharist. We do not “define” or “allow” others to receive communion based on our fallible theologies, because in communion we are draw by Jesus who is The Bread Of Life! Jesus, who is the bread of life, is the feeding miracle recorded on the Cross and at the Last Supper. And there is no asterisk on the Cross, suggesting that the death of Jesus on the Cross is for just some people but not for all. Communion is about who Jesus is!
So take some time today in prayer reflecting on the meaning of Jesus’ death on the Cross.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” 1 Corinthians 1:8.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
Romans 5:8.
“Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” Philippians 2:8.
“And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” Colossians 1:20.
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