By Homer Slack
Think!
Was Jesus
CRAZY?
Eat my flesh and drink my blood! “Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” No, Jesus was not crazy or drunk when He said this; neither was He promoting cannibalism. (John 6:53)
must take the good and discard the rest, as Paul instructed. “Put everything to the test. Accept what is good...” (1 Thess. 5:21). Not so with Jesus, because every word and act of His is not only good but essential for spiritual growth and life. Our spiritual growth and life will weaken and drain from us if we neglect Him.
Give away everything! “Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no thief can get to them, and no moth can destroy them. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:33-34)
Imagine you are in a lecture where a topic of great interest to you is being taught and explained but sitting next to you are friends who are constantly shuffling or talking. You say to them “Keep quiet so I can take it all in”.
As natural food and drink are essential to natural life so everything about Jesus, including His instructions and examples, are essential to spiritual life. Jesus is the bread of life, that came down out of heaven from God, the Manna that fed and nourished the Israelites as they travelled through the wilderness.
This is what Jesus meant when He said this. We need to ‘take Him ALL in’, as if we were, feeding on Him by daily taking in and meditating on all that He says and does. With other teachers we
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48). And He also said , “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:53) Feed on Jesus and live.
It is most likely that if you tell your parents that you are going to sell all you own and then give the money to the poor that they will think you have lost your mind. Jesus however, was quite sane when He said these words, and it is sound advice indeed. The material things of this life are very distracting and will too often compete with God for your attention, time and affections.
I 22
|
SHARE|MAGAZINE
April - June 2016
Jesus also taught, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”