Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, August 26, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Bread is the most basic of foods. The poorest of people subsisted on little else in Jesus’ time. In fact, the diet of most people for most of history was nothing like our taken-for-granted staples of meat and dairy and fresh fruits and vegetables along with our myriad starches, including bread. Jesus’ followers understood bread; it was literally life for them. Jesus, too, was life, like bread but unlike any bread they had ever tasted before.
Just as grain-made bread was at the center of life in Jesus’ time, Jesus’ living bread is at the center of our lives and sustenance now. And just as bread is hearty, nutritious, and wonderfully tasty, Jesus’ love makes life not just possible, but delicious.
How do I feel nourished by the living bread that is Jesus?