Food of the Gospel

Jesus commands us to labor for the food which endures more than just a short time—food which endures to everlasting life. He tells us also not to give ourselves in idolatrous labor for that food which necessarily perishes.

Jesus says that the Son of man will give us the bread that does not perish because God the Father has sealed Him, and gloriously honored Him beyond every name that can be given. Because of this, we honor the name of Jesus Christ as well.

“But how do we work for this bread?” the disciples wondered. Jesus answered that the work which the Father does in us is that we believe in Jesus Christ.

So you are to feed, by faith. You are to sit down at this table, by faith. You are to meditate on the meaning of the table, by faith. You are to eat, by faith.

In a very real sense it is true that we are what we eat. If, by faith, you feed upon the Faithful One, then God multiplies His grace to you and in you. If you show contempt for Him in your partaking, then God uses the Table as a moment of judgment. But no sinner ought to want to hasten any day of judgment at all. Rather, we look to the one who received judgment on our behalf in His death on the cross. We look away from ourselves, and away from our own faithlessness, and to the One who gave Himself for sinners.

So look, now, in faith, and you will see the food of the gospel.

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.

Note: I have been delivering these short homilies in our celebration of the Supper for over a decade now, and so we have quite a collection of them. In fact, in a week or so, Canon Press is going to be releasing So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, a daily devotional with morning and evening readings made up of these meditations. For various reasons, rather than continuing to compose new ones, in 2017 I am going to be pulling them from the archives—but I will continue to post them here. But if you want to get them all in one place, that will be possible soon. The release date is now January 24.