Daily Devotion for Thursday 29th May 2025

St John 6: 41 – 51

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’  They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’  Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves.  No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.  It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.  Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

Reflection

The Jews already knew what God was like and what the Heaven he lived in was like. They had learnt that at home and in the synagogue. They were puzzled how what Jesus was saying could fit in with their prior knowledge. Jesus made Heaven sound as if it were a sort of second home that he – and possibly they – could move in and out of almost at will. But surely it must be remote and impenetrable.

One of the most exciting theological works on my bookshelves is by John V Taylor, missionary statesman and 1980s Bishop of Winchester. He was well aware that Christians, as well as Jews and others, are prone to create a God suited to their own culture and expectations. In The Christlike God the central argument is that to discover what God is like, we need to strip away everything except looking at how Jesus lived.    
 
An offer of living bread is just one example of how God reaches out to us; and does so long before we have decided whether we like God enough to want to reach out to him. The living bread is not an alternative to the weekly shop but an opportunity to reach into the infinity and eternity of God. It is as much about now as about another way of living on the other side of death.

If you have ever had links with The Boys’ Brigade, you may remember a painting of a boy stepping out in his short trousers and BB uniform. A figure who is clearly intended to be Jesus is beside him and has his hand on the boy’s shoulder. The painting is called “I will come with you.” For me at the age of eight, that was enough. Decades later, it still is.  

Prayer

Lord Jesus,
our route to God and God for us,
help us to accept what you want to give us
so that the world feels like yours and our lives are never lived alone.

When you give us living bread
stop us complaining it is not the right flavour
and help us to share joyfully in the feast that has already started and will never end. Amen