Author: Jeff Englund

John 6:54a

” Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…”

In this passage from John 6, we are with Jesus and his disciples when the crowds who had wanted to make him king by force finally catch up with them. Having fed the 5,000 with all the bread they could eat, Jesus is now using the fact that they all ate as much as they wanted as a metaphor for the “real bread” of life which is Jesus himself.

Jesus restates his theme about eating his flesh and then adds the phrase, “… and drinks my blood…” This had to rattle the people there. Continue reading “Blood”

John 6: 53

” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

Here Jesus expounds on the concept of life. Without Him in you, there is no life. How is that possible you ask? My heart beats! My lungs breath!! I can see, and speak and hear! Am I not alive?

While all of this is true, Jesus defines life differently. Continue reading “Life”

John 6: 52

‘Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”’

This is a good question! How can this man give us his flesh to eat? How, indeed?!

Let’s look at this as a metaphorical equation of sorts (from verse 51):

Jesus = living bread
Jesus comes from heaven
Eating the living bread = eternal life
Living bread = Jesus’ flesh
Jesus gives his flesh for “the life of the world.” Continue reading “A Metaphorical Equation”

John 6:51

” I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Yes, we probably could have lumped all of these bread comments into one batch and baked the whole thing together, but this is three minute Bible not 51 minute Bible or some such thing. So in keeping with the three minute theme, we are visiting familiar territory again. Continue reading “Repetition”

John 6: 49-50

” Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.”

Throughout the Gospels, there is a battle that rages between Moses and Jesus. Unfortunately for the Jewish leaders, the battlefield existed only in their minds. In reality, Jesus and Moses both serve the same God and both taught the same lessons about serving God: Love God above all else and your neighbor as yourself. Continue reading “Moses vs Jesus”

John 6: 48

“ I am the bread of life.”

My neighbors have a cat. They also have two dogs and several kids. Because of the dogs mainly, but maybe because of the kids, too, the cat spends a lot of time outside, and most of the time seems to spend that time in my yard. After several years of trying to chase the cat out of my yard, I finally gave up and decided to be friends with the cat. I even gave her a name, a “street name” if you will. I call her Smudge because she is a light colored cat with a dark smudge of color across most of her face. Continue reading “Smudge”

John 6: 47

” Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.”

This is one of those verses that presents the Gospel in its simplest form. The one who believes has eternal life. Wow. That is pretty simple! But simple is not always easy to do, nor is it always something we can easily grasp.  Continue reading “Simple Gospel”

John 6: 46

” No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.”

There He goes again! Talking about heaven like he has been there!! Who does this Jesus guy think he is??

Time and time again Jesus speaks as if he is from a different planet, but in fact, he is from a different reality altogether. A spiritual reality. A reality invisible to our eyes of flesh but something we can glimpse with our heart if we try.

Imagine being a Pharisee who is vested in maintaining the status quo. Imagine that this Jesus guy comes along and turns your world upside down by apparently breaking religious laws about the Sabbath (supposedly from God, but in fact from men) and doing things like touching the unclean. (Of course, an unclean person would be “clean” after Jesus touched them!) As a Pharisee, you are looking at a nobody, an itinerant Rabbi from the backwoods of Nazareth. An un-pedigreed bumpkin followed around by a bunch of hayseed backwoods sheepherders. Continue reading “Jesus Guy”

John 6: 45

” It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.”

In yesterday’s verse, we hear Jesus saying that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them…” Today he quotes scripture saying, “They will all be taught by God,” and that “Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.”  Continue reading “Sense”

John 6: 44

” No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

This verse is a bookend to verse 37 where Jesus says, “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” It almost sounds like people have no choice in the matter. Yet it is important (oh so important!) that we remember Jesus’ perspective. He does not speak as though he were only a man. He speaks as one who has “come down from heaven” (verse 38). He speaks as one who sees us from God’s perspective. One who sees inside men’s thoughts and hearts.  Continue reading “Perspective III”