48 I am the bread of life.

49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.

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

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.

— John 6:48-51

51 Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”

52 “Now we know that You have a demon!” declared the Jews. “Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet You say that anyone who keeps Your word will never taste death.

— John 8:51-52

And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

— John 11:26

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

God’s love and rich divine provisions to you.

In Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, manna from heaven temporarily sustained God’s people in the wilderness. The Israelites ate, yet they died physically. Jesus explained that He Himsrlf is the Bread of Life who came down from heaven to provide eternal life for all who believe. To believe, trust and commit our lives to Jesus is to possess eternal life immediately and forever. Those who die in Christ never “see” death. When believers die, immediately they see only the Lord, who takes them to be with Him forever.

Jesus revealed that He, the God Incarnate, is the Bread of Life coming down from heaven, and then He added deeper meaning as He pointed to His imminent death. He explained that the Bread of Life He offered is His flesh—His human life. At the cross, Jesus would give His life for the life of the world. Jesus said, “everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life. Jesus’ meaning is clear: He is the object of true faith. Here, Jesus revealed how “those who look to Him” in faith spiritually “eat” the bread of His “flesh” and receive His eternal life. Believers “eat” spiritually of Jesus as we open ourselves to receive and live by the fact that Jesus died to give us a new life and makes us a new humanity.