I was recently looking over some of the stuff that Jesus says. Here’s some of the stuff He says…
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. …Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on 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 whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me. …Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Do you actually believe this? Really? …Do you receive it as emphatically as Jesus is saying it? I know what y’all do when you enthusiastically receive something – you attach your identity to it, you obsess over, you have parades for it, and you unashamedly proclaim your pride in it. It feels like Jesus is insisting that people receive what He’s saying like that! It seems like Jesus is forcing you to hate Him and kill Him OR be completely dominated and defined by Him being shamefully slain for you.
And WHY would Jesus insist on dying for you? If you’re basically a decent person, then consuming the flesh and blood of Jesus would seem a bit extreme. But if you’re an evil person (like a NAZI or something) then Jesus’ insistence on dying for you would be fitting; because you’re not a decent person, and you’re desperately in need of atonement! What Jesus is forcibly, and repeatedly, saying about us eating His body and drinking His blood (i.e. wholistically, and personally, embracing His scandalous sacrifice) would require us to relinquish all of our NAZI ways, practices, lifestyle, comrades, parades, and actions, and instead be dominated and defined by the death of this Jewish carpenter!
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