Thursday 9th March
Read John 6:63-66
“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you – they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.’
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (NIVUK)
Distracted and offended by Jesus’ claim that they must eat His flesh to find life (v60-61), Jesus points them to the source of their real offense – His claim to have come down from heaven (v62). Then, just like His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus draws the mutually exclusive conclusion that life is not found in observance and sacrament and religion (the flesh) but only granted freely and graciously by the Spirit (v63a). It is in that sense that ‘the flesh counts for nothing’, rather than the sense that ‘flesh’ is completely worthless. After all, ‘the Word became flesh’ – so it is clearly not completely empty of significance!
The divine claims sitting beneath Jesus’ words to these disciples are very hard to miss. Consider the words of Jeremiah addressing Yahweh: “When your words came, I ate them;they were my joy and my heart’s delight…” (Jeremiah 15:16a) (NIVUK). When Jesus speaks, His words are full of the Spirit and life – they are divinely life-giving. Jesus’ words are the same as Yahweh’s words – providing joy and delight. This is unsurprising when John considers that Jesus is ‘the Word become flesh’, and Jesus claims that unless we eat His flesh we remain dead and apart from the life of God.
Rather than reading John 6 as a literal sacrament that magically gives life perhaps ‘eating His flesh’ is most perfectly fulfilled by ‘dwelling on His words’? It is only by dwelling on His words, and in doing so, knowing Him better, that we remain in Him and find life. Spend time dwelling on these words today…
