“Bread of Life, Part II”

August 15, 2021

First Lesson  John 6: 51-59

⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ 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. ⁵⁴ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; ⁵⁵ for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

Second Lesson  John 6:60-69

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. ⁶⁵ And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

⁶⁶ Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

“People, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world.”  Recently I heard Barbara Streisand sing that song with its empowering message of unity and acceptance.  It spoke to a time when we needed to find our common purpose in love, even as we were moving away from traditional religion and into something new.  Children, lovers, broken people all need each other.  What I was surprised to hear was a line repeated twice; “no more hunger or thirst.”

“A feeling deep in your soul (in your soul)
Says you were half now you’re whole
No more hunger and thirst
First be a person who needs people
People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world

No more hunger or thirst”

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall not thirst” (v. 35).  No hunger or thirst.

Last week we talked about Jesus as the living bread, the zoe bread, the manna that came down from heaven.  Today we answer the how Jesus gives his flesh to eat, and why Jesus’ “flesh is true food and (his) blood true drink (v. 55).   I must confess my sons sacrilegiously joke about eating the body of Christ being cannibalism.  Which I find appalling, yet it reminds me of how differently these words can be heard.  Even our passage speaks of people leaving Jesus (v. 66) and the disciples finding this teaching “difficult” (v. 60).

In ancient times, sacrifices were expected and common. One would bring a lamb as an offering to God.  Only part would be burned on the alter with some going to the priest and part going to the worshipper to make a feast for himself and family.  At that feast god was held as a guest.  When the worshipper ate, he was literally eating god, being filled by god. So hearing these words from Jesus was not as foreign as they are to us. Remember John does not tell of a Last Supper rather he talks about Jesus being the bread of life and incarnation of God.  When we hold these two thoughts together, “in Jesus we see God taking human life upon him,

facing our human situation,

struggling with our human problems,

battling with our human temptations,

working out our human relationships” (Gospel of John, William Barclay p. 123-124).  Eating the body of Jesus is a way of feeding your heart, your mind, your soul on the humanity and divinity of Jesus.  Moreover, in Jewish thought, blood stands for life.  As the blood flows from a wound, life ebbs away; and to the Jews, the blood belonged to God. Jews were forbidden to eat meat with blood (Gen 9:4) because blood stands for life.  So drinking Jesus’ blood is a way of taking life into the core of your hearts.  (Gospel of John, William Barclay p. 122-125).

William Barclay declares, “Now see what Jesus is saying, “You must drink my blood, you must take my life into the very center of your being, and that life of mine is the life which belongs to God” (224).

This leads us to the question of what is happening during communion?

Does the bread and wine change into the true body and blood of Christ?

As you know the Church as argued this point for centuries, divided over this topic.  We call the changing of bread and wine transubstantiation, a belief still held by the Catholic Church.  They believe that at every Mass, bread and wine become Jesus — his body, blood, soul and divinity- a holy mystery.  As Protestants we believe something different.  We follow Augustine and Luther’s symbolic understanding.  The bread and wine are symbols of the reality of Jesus’ spiritual gift of life.  We are fed by our eating of this bread and drinking of this wine, but we do not believe the bread and wine change.  We believe that we are changed by partaking in them.  We are changed, fed, strengthened, forgiven as we taste, eat and drink.  “The body received in the Lord’s Supper is not the earthly, human body but a heavenly spiritual body which can be received only by faith, in a spiritual way” (History of Theology, Bengt Hagglund p. 157)

Our PCUSA Book of Order explains, “The Lord’s Supper is the sign and seal of our communion with the crucified and risen Lord.   The Reformed tradition understands the Lord’s Supper to be a sign of God’s covenant. The bread of the Lord’s Supper is linked with the bread of Passover and the gift of manna in the wilderness. The Lord’s Supper thus connects us with God’s saving power and providential care from generation to generation.  Like the offering of sacrifices, a sign of Israel’s thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness, the Lord’s Supper is a sacrifice of praise and a sign of our gratitude for God’s steadfast love.  The Lord’s Supper represents God’s gracious invitation to an everlasting covenant. The Lord’s Supper also reflects our calling to feed others as we have been fed, and offers a foretaste of that heavenly banquet when God will wipe away every tear and swallow up death forever” (Book Of Order, W 3.0409).

That is eternal life.  The flesh that Jesus is offering us is his life given up on the cross so that we might live. “Jesus promises to provide food for the life of the world, his flesh and blood. Jesus promises to nourish the world with the gift of himself. For the “flesh” and “blood” of Jesus, his incarnate life and very real death on the cross, is life-giving food for us and for the world. In, with, and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion, which is nothing other than Christ’s body and blood, Jesus nourishes faith, forgives sin, and empowers us to be witnesses to the Gospel (Working Preacher. Craig Satterlee).

So the next time you partake of the Lord’s Supper know that you are being fed for a purpose.  First to be nourished in Christ’s love, then to share Christ’s love with the world, so that more will know and live in the eternal life of Christ.

Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life” (v. 54).  Craig Satterlee explains it this way, “Eternal life is being in close communion with Jesus. Eternal life is to remain in Jesus and to have Jesus remain in us. (Symbolically) we take Christ’s body and blood into our mouths, into our stomachs, into our bodies, so that Christ remains in us and we remain in Christ. As we eat and drink, Christ moves us closer to himself. Christ moves us closer to the very life of God. Christ moves us closer to himself, so close that we are as intimate with Jesus as the Father is with the Son” (Working Preacher).

We are people who need people.  We are also faithful people who need Jesus Christ in the fullness of his humanity and divinity.  Being fed by Jesus means no more hunger or thirst.  Being fed by Jesus means communion, intimacy, with God.  Being fed by Jesus means we have life eternal.  We are the luckiest people in the world! Amen!