I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

John 6:48-51

There’s a trend over the long arc of history for that which was once startling, that which once seemed wrong or even blasphemous becomes taken for granted. Jesus being the bread of life is one of those things! Upon hearing that he expected his students to eat his flesh and drink his blood, some of his own followers said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (John 6:60)

I want you to meditate on this passage. Take it in and let it shock you. Imagine Jesus, in the flesh, sitting in the synagogue in Capernaum and saying to you, “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” It is not commendable or even acceptable to take this saying for granted. It is not normal to see the concept it conveys as easy to swallow, pun very much intended.

This shock induces a deeper level of understanding by igniting our feelings on the subject. It ought to be as stunning as it is comforting to meditate and attempt to really comprehend Jesus’ teachings.

Ethan Kirl