We are frequently reminded about healthy eating. We’re told, “You become what you eat.†If we eat healthy foods, we develop healthy bodies. If we eat jonk food, we have a good chance of becoming unhealthy. Food can become a weapon in the armoury of the advertisers: they try to sell us food to make us fit; food to make us slim; food to make us beautiful. The old saying goes, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.†And it’s true that certain foods are conducive to long life. If we eat and drink with this in mind, we stack the odds in favor of a long and happy life. While there may be elements of truth in all of this in regard to our physical life, Jesus leads us to a new level of understanding. “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you.†Life here means our life in relationship with God, Who loves us and comes to make a home in us when we keep the commandments.
Our life depends on what we eat and what we drink. God uses this common experience to lead us to hunger and thirst for life that is eternal. We long for salvation, to be rescued from death and to be brought to eternal life. The whole story of the Bible is the story of God who satisfies the hunger of the human heart for life. It’s a story that spreads out to embrace every generation, every nation, every man, woman and child. It is the story of God who “loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.†And the food of eternal life is the bread and wine that Jesus gives. Our “Amen†is our commitment to the new and eternal covenant, our desire to be united with Jesus, both here in this world and throughout eternity. It expresses our faith that we are eating and drinking the food that nourishes us for eternal life.