Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven... This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world... Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life... For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him" (John 6:51-56).

How do Christians feast on Jesus? Not just by swallowing, but by faith. How is Jesus present in the Lord's Supper? Not by bringing his body and blood back down to earth or being sacrificed repeatedly in transformed bread and wine, but by drawing us back to his sacrifice on the cross and by lifting our hearts to him in heaven as we eat and drink. "Yet we do not go wrong when we say that what is eaten is Christ's own natural body and what is drunk is his own natural blood--but the manner in which we eat it is not by the mouth but by the Spirit, through faith" (Belgic Confession). "As surely as I taste with my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord, ... so surely he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life with his crucified body and poured-out blood" (Heidelberg Catechism).

If we eat this sacred Supper without reverence for Jesus and respect for his church, it is deadly. But if we feast by faith in the crucified, risen, reigning, returning Savior, he nourishes us for eternal life.

PRAYER--"Christ, the living bread from heaven, Christ, whose blood is drink indeed, here by faith and with thanksgiving, in our hearts on you we feed." Thank you, Lord. Amen.