Physical sustenance…
Who doesn’t have to eat and drink? Food and drink are secondary only to the air we breathe. They give us physical strength and without them we could not function in the world!
We give thanks for food producers who grow and prepare the things we need to remain physically healthy and active in the world.
Meaningful sustenance…
This week is the Jewish Passover, where the deliverance from Egypt is remembered.
In Exodus 12, God gave Moses instructions that they should prepare to travel, having bread without yeast (representing the eradication of sin), painting the blood of a sacrificial lamb on the doorpost (the lamb was also eaten). Thus, the Angel of Death ‘passed over’ those houses. Blood and bread were imbued with powerful and deep symbolism - deliverance and new life.
Eternal sustenance…
As Jesus sat at the Passover meal with his disciples, He transformed the meaning of the physical food and the Passover bread and wine, injecting them with the eternal significance of that first Good Friday.
As we need food and drink, and just as we need to remember God’s faithfulness, we need to partake in His body and blood as a remembrance of the eternal sustenance of His body, broken for us, His blood, shed for us.
When you look at this bread and wine, what do you see?
‘For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.’ - John 6:55-57
Date - 4.4.23 | Author - Kev Shaw | Series - Easter
