Devotional for the Week

You Are What You Eat

“You are what you eat.” This phrase is frequently used in American culture to encourage young children to eat nutritious food and, yes, is often met with exasperated sighs on the part of such children. Despite the phrase having become cliché, a surprising amount of scientific truth accompanies it.

When we consume food, it travels through the esophagus and into the stomach and small intestine, where it combines with fluids and breaks down into nutrients. These usable nutrients pass into our bloodstream and to the rest of our body. Thus, the process of eating and drinking literally turns your food into part of your body. So truly, “You are what you eat.”

This week’s gospel continues Jesus’ long teaching that he is the true bread from heaven: “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty,” we heard last week (John 6:35). Today he gets more graphic: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life”—no wonder those gathered around him get upset! The Gospel of John doesn’t include the institution of the Lord’s supper; indeed, in John, Jesus himself is the Passover lamb, slain at the cross. But here, thirteen chapters earlier, Jesus declares that accepting the invitation to come to and believe in him—to “eat [his] flesh and drink [his] blood”—means life. When we take into ourselves Jesus’ words, his healing touch, the power of his love, they become part of us. They nourish our spirits so we can live in wholeness, health, and salvation (words that are all connected in the ancient languages of scripture).

It is not surprising, then, that holy communion, the sharing of literal food and drink, became a profound means by which the church receives—and becomes—the body of Christ. In a mysterious way we can’t fully understand, we truly are what we eat, and no other meal is more life-giving.