Tuesday, January 10, 2023

 

Tuesday, January 10, 2023


Psalm 25

Genesis 1:20-2:3

John 6:41-59


Observance: William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, martyr (d. 1645)


This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.


When God first made us, blessed us, and called us good, He gave us food to eat. As those who had dominion over all creation, made of the same stuff as the rest of creation yet placed over it all, He gave us that stuff to eat as food. The scientific explanation is a little miraculous; how we humans eat things like bread, fruit, vegetables, steak, fried chicken and so on and then turn that food into energy that our bodies use to grow.


When we disobeyed God, and brought down everything else in creation with us, we also took down that miracle of eating and growing. Matter cannot sustain itself forever, and so it is with our digestive systems.


But when Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, entered into creation, he repaired the breach between the material and the spiritual. (The Bible likes to talk about “flesh” a lot, and quite often, this material substance of which everything in our plane of existence is made of, is what it is referring to. Spirit, whatever that is, is what God is – immaterial, yet existent.) God is not only spirit, but He is also the source of life.


And so, this is the miracle of the incarnation, of Jesus’ existence as both man and God. He is not only our creator God, who gave us all the plants of the field to eat in that first week, as well as the miracle of manna from heaven to the Hebrews in the wilderness; He is also our spiritual food. Our spirit consumes the bread of heaven and so by the miracle of spiritual digestion we are able to live forever. That one thing we need to live, God, has given Himself to us as our eternal nourishment. He is a spiritual buffet, always open, always giving us as much as we want and need. Jesus presenting Himself as the bread of heaven is the beautiful lesson that God’s generosity is matched only by His power to sustain life: infinite.



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