Pentecost 10

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer (Psalm 19:14)


SEASON: Pentecost 10
PROPER: 15 B
ST. JOHN’S CHURCH
DATE: August 17, 2003

TEXT: John 6:53-59 – So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

ISSUE: This passage is a continuation of John’s emphasis upon Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life, and very Eucharistic. The need to feed upon the body and blood of Christ is surely surreal, and poetic like. The very idea of consumption of flesh and blood surely got the attention of the listeners. But the impact is significant. To eat of the body and blood of Christ was to become the flesh and blood in the family of God through Jesus Christ, to participate in God’s way and wisdom. What grace is bestowed upon those who feed upon the bread of life.
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Last week, the Scripture reading emphasized the importance of Jesus as the Bread of Life. Unlike in our culture where bread is often eliminated from the diet, in the first century bread was the essence of life providing 50% of the peasants diet. Jesus as the Bread of Life implied that spiritually, to embrace the Jesus was the very essence of the spiritual life. The concept of Jesus as the giver of spiritual bread was an important theme in the early church, and that theme continues in today’s reading from John, and very dramatically so.
In today’s reading, John’s gospel account has Jesus saying, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Perhaps our familiarity with the weekly Eucharist may diminish the impact of that statement. This statement is another one of those things that Jesus is supposed to have said, or at the very least was for John a profoundly outrageous comment he attributes to Jesus, which is made in the Capernaum synagogue. I’ve talked with you about how surreal some of Jesus’ parables were, like the men working in the vineyard and all getting the same wage, and even how mystically surreal the miracle of Jesus walking on water was. Now we have a very surreal and outrageous statement referring to the consumption of flesh and blood. How outrageous a statement it is, especially when it is suggested that Jesus made the statement in a Jewish synagogue. The concept of eating flesh or drinking blood for the Jews would have been appalling at the time, not to mention that it is not really very appealing to us either when you think about it. I’ve known young children who were reluctant to participate in the receiving of Holy Communion, because they had heard that it was eating flesh and drinking blood.
The Hebrew Scripture laws were very clear that the eating or drinking of blood of any kind was forbidden:
· In Genesis 9:4, Noah is given instruction after the flood ordeal as to what he can eat among fish, animals, and green plants, but “The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood.”
· Leviticus Law (17: 10,1214) writes “If an Israelite or any foreigner living in the community eats meat with blood still in it, the Lord will turn against him and no longer consider him one of his people.”
· Even in the New Testament Book of Acts 15:29 early Gentile Christians are told: “Eat no food that has been offered to idols; eat no blood . . .” The taboo hung on at least as it was related to Gentile pagan practices.
The early Christian church, according to historians, was often given a bad name for the idea has spread that this secret cult was slaughtering infants and drinking their blood at its ritual services. The very concept or thought of eating flesh and blood was repulsive to be Jews, Muslims, and atheists. Even today in a world that knows Hannibal the Cannibal Lecter in the movies the concept of eating the flesh and blood is comically tragic. For a time there was the doctrine of Transubstantiation that the bread and the wine at the Eucharist were in fact changed into the body and the blood of Christ. At the Reformation in England, the doctrine in the Church of England was changed to that of the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament, which did not attempt to define how the body and the blood of Christ was present. The doctrine was best expounded by a poem attributed to Elizabeth I, Queen of England:
“’Twas God the Word that spake it,
He took the Bread and Brake it;
And what the Word did make it,
That I believe, and take it.”
Needless to say the concept of eating flesh and blood is daring, and again, another one of those surreal scriptural things that needs sensible study and interpretation. What did the church mean – what is the meaning - by this very dramatic statement we find in John’s Gospel account?
In a time when the world was facing very difficult times, the Church and the life and ministry of Jesus was intent upon establishing and looking forward to the Kingdom, the Realm, the Domain of God. It is as difficult to say that we must eat the flesh and blood of Jesus as it is to say that God came down from heaven to live among us. But that very theological principle is at heart of our faith. Jesus was and is the Word of God that came among us, and people were called upon to also be born from above, to become citizens of the Kingdom of God. We refer to our children as our flesh and blood. To eat or partake of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ meant to see oneself in a very startling and surreal way as a participant in the family of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. They very concept is that of becoming the spiritual and the real flesh and blood with the Lord. What a statement of grace; the free gift of God is bestowed to his creation that we may be flesh and blood with Jesus.
It is imperative, I think, that to fully appreciate and understand the Scriptures, you really do have to appreciate the poetry, the surreal aspects of the scriptures that challenge the imagination and that gives lasting impacting dramatic insights. John’s gospel is particularly good at this poetic imagery. For instance, in the synoptic gospels Jesus has a last supper with his disciples, which is a Passover meal. He takes the bread, gives thanks to God, and breaks the bread, and shares it with his disciples. Then, he goes to be arrested and crucified. The Gospel account is quite different. The last supper in John is the day before the Passover. There is no breaking of bread or drinking of wine mentioned. What is mentioned is that Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. Here, the Lord becomes the peasant slave and example to his disciples, demanding them to do what he has done to them, be the servant of all. Jesus is the uncanny God that has come into the very depths of the world to assist in the human intimacy and refreshment. In John’s Gospel, the supper of impact is the Feeding of the 5,000, where there he picks up the bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and distributes it to the whole crowd of people in complete overflowing abundance. There comes the great revealing revelation, “Surely this is the Prophet who was to come into the world!” And the further poetic revelation that Jesus is the Bread of Life is revealed.
One of the things I want to convey is that the Holy Bible and the rich stories and surreal wonders of our Scriptures are not a literalistic baseball bat to hit people over the head with to make them believe what you and I may believe and think. Rather it is a revelation of the glory of God gorgeously revealing the love, the intimacy, and the family and flesh and blood into which we are called.
For centuries and from Sunday to Sunday, many Christian people have gathered to participate in the Eucharist, Holy Communion, Mass, Divine Liturgy, Holy Communion, or Holy Mysteries. Call it what you will. Perhaps, we do become too familiar with the Service and forget its roots, meaning, and theology. It is indeed a feeding, a feeding upon the Bread of Life, which is Christ. It is the table of the Lord that we come to, with hands outstretch for spiritual feeding. Our human need that expresses we do not live by bread alone, but by the essence of the Lord as the Bread of Life, and we are really, truly participants into the Body, the Blood, the flesh and blood of the Holy God that washes our feet and accepts us into his Family and his Kingdom.
Whatever comes, however our lives may be shaken, challenged, distressed, troubled, threatened, whatever your sins, the table is always set, and the Family is always there.
“Come and eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, fear, loneliness, anxiety, and live, and walk in the way of insight,” says the Wisdom of God. (Paraphrase of Proverbs 9:6) Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34)