The Wednesday after Laetare Sunday
Posted on March 18, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. John 6:41-51 (NKJV)
6:41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” 42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Devotion
After Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, He crossed the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, in part to get away from the crowds who wanted to make Him a king. But the crowds followed Him, and when they found Him in Capernaum they began to pester Him for another sign. Jesus rebuked them and instructed them to receive the true bread of life from heaven by believing in Him.
He was teaching them about His two natures. “The bread,” as He says, “is My flesh” (verse 51). Yet He says that this bread came down from heaven. How is this possible? Jesus did not, of course, bring His flesh with Him from heaven. But since the flesh of Jesus is personally united with the Son of God, Christ can say that He is the “living bread which came down from heaven.”
This teaching is what sparked complaining among the Jews. They knew He had flesh, but they completely rejected the idea that He was also true God who had come down from heaven; nor did they believe that His flesh could obtain life for the world. But those who are faithful are able to hear and understand this by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. The Church is where our Lord Jesus continues to feed us with His heavenly blessings on earth!
Collect: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of Thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Season of Lent
Almighty and Everlasting God, Who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
