Food for Your Soul
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a hard saying from Jesus.
And it well may be a familiar passage to you; because this particular hard saying is in John Chapter 6. It’s where Jesus is talking to His followers, and He says to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood; you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”
Now friend, that is a hard saying! Even many of the disciples of the Lord shook their heads and told Jesus, “This is too difficult to understand. Who can accept this saying?” And sadly, it’s recorded from that point on, “Many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” You can understand why. I mean, of all the metaphors Jesus might use, why would He choose something so revolting, even repulsive, Christ inviting us to eat His flesh and drink His blood? It even sounds a little weird. But I believe Christ meant for those words to divide; He intended that they separate the ho-hum followers from those who earnestly wanted to abide in Christ. When it comes to intimately knowing Jesus, John Chapter 6 separates the men from the boys. Eat His flesh and drink His blood? Let me tell you what—over the years, I’ve come to see that people who suffer and suffer hard, these are the ones who find Christ’s words in John 6 to be food for the soul: bread and water; even flesh and blood.
Let me put it this way. When you’ve been dealt a hard blow, and you find yourself free-falling, when you’re down for the count, you cry out. You are starving for help and hungry for hope. You may have followed Jesus before, but now you want to get hot on His heels – no more remaining at a safe distance. Uh-uh, not for you. Being ho-hum about Christ? No way. You are dying of thirst and you simply must have the living water. If you can’t abide in Him, you are going to perish.
That’s the way I feel in this wheelchair, without use of my hands or legs; it’s how I feel almost every day when pain nearly drives me crazy— help me, Jesus! And before long, there I am, guzzling on His grace and ingesting His Word. It’s just another way of saying that I drink His blood and eat His flesh. Yes, it is true that a lot of people who follow Jesus find that phrase as hard to understand now as they did when the Lord first spoke those words to His disciples. But maybe those followers don’t get it. Jesus is talking about a level of intimacy that goes far beyond just following Him at a safe distance. That intimacy is reserved for those who take up their cross daily and stay united in Him, abiding in Christ with every breath, because they need him like bread and water; flesh and blood.
Christians who struggle with pain and suffering understand this. And I write about it in my pamphlet “Pain & Providence”. I’d like to send it to you as a gift today. Please, ask for your free copy today by visiting my radio page at joniandfriends.org. Again, ask for my pamphlet “Pain & Providence” at joniandfriends.org/radio. Do not let your suffering drive you away from Jesus; let it drive you deep into His heart, abiding in Him, drinking Him in, and eating every word that proceeds from His mouth.
© Joni and Friends
