This week I got to talking about a meal that was recently served at a Presbytery meeting. It was a tasty meal. There was a long line of buffet with fish, chicken, green beans, okra, pickles, and even jalapeños. It had all the makings for a good and healthy meal. And yet, there was something just a bit unusual about it all. As I took my plate and was getting ready to load it up, I looked down the row of serving trays and noticed that all of the food was the same color. Every one of those items was battered and fried. What would have otherwise been a fairly colorful meal was monochromatic! I ate some of everything and it tasted gooood. However healthy the chicken, fish, and veggies were, something tells me they lost a bit of their nutritional benefit in the grease.

Jesus tells us in the gospel of John that He is the bread of life and that we are therefore to eat His flesh. Calling himself the bread of life, gives you a clue that the meal Jesus offers is of great value. I’m convinced that many of us take the bread that Jesus offers and try and fry it up into something more palatable, and consequently lose the richness of it altogether.

Because Jesus is the Bread of Life, we must eat His Flesh. What does this life look like? That’s what I want to look at as we go through this passage.

Small group/famaily discussion guide