Saturday, August 15, 2009

Pentecost 11, Proper 15

In the eight verses of this morning’s gospel Jesus mentions the word “eat” eight times. Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man you can not have eternal life. What does Jesus mean by these words? Is Christ to be literally eaten? Jesus says, “believe in Me,” “come to Me.” Christ is to be taken into one’s life, digested so that Christ permeates the whole of life. As food is taken into the body is lost in the body, and brings strength to the body, so Christ is to become a part of us. It is a way of becoming one with Christ. Many today are searching for a personal experience with Christ. It is expressed in the phrase, “born again.” Christ desires

1. To be personalized – He desires a personal experience.

2. To be individualized – a one to one experience.

3. To be internalized – Christ comes into a person’s life.

4. To be homogenized – Christ and the believer are fused into one.

In these words Jesus will also use the word life six times. The believer eats Christ to live spiritually just as one must eat physical food to life. Either that or starve to death. Christ is our spiritual food which is necessary to life. Isn’t it interesting that we can have spiritual hunger pains and can die spiritually from lack of food? It is eternal because it is the life of Christ who is eternal.

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