Last Sunday I shared a word from John Calvin, who wrote about the connection between Jesus’ declaration that he was the Bread of Life and the Lord’s Supper. He wrote:
[T]he Lord intended, by calling himself the “bread of life” (John 6:51), to teach not only that salvation for us rests on faith in his death and resurrection, but also that, by true partaking of him, his life passes into us and is made ours—just as bread when taken as food imparts vigor to the body. [John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV:17.5].
I invite you to keep these words in mind as we dive into the reading for today from John 6, which continues the discussion from last Sunday.
To set the stage, I invite you to envision Jesus teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. He’s telling them that he is the bread from heaven. He also tells the congregation that those who partake of his flesh as true food and his blood as true drink will abide in him, and he will abide in them.
As you can imagine, these are difficult words to hear. So, while the people might recognize that there’s something special about Jesus, it’s also understandable that some of his disciples might feel as if “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (Jn. 6:60 NIV).
When Jesus heard his disciples arguing about what he was saying, he asked them: “Does this offend you?” Jesus asks us the same question. Now some people are easily offended and others enjoy offending people. There are people who get a kick out of saying and doing things that make people mad or uncomfortable. I have to admit I’ve been muting some old friends on Facebook because they keep writing things that I find offensive, and I’m not easily offended!
While I don’t think Jesus got a kick out of offending people, he wasn’t afraid to say what needed to be said. Sometimes Jesus stepped on people’s toes and pushed their buttons. That’s what happened in Capernaum. He said some things that confused his disciples during his sermon in the synagogue. After Jesus asked his disciples whether his words offended them, he pushed the envelope even further. If they were offended by what he said about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, what would they think if they saw the Son of Man ascend to where he had previously resided? As they tried to figure out what that meant, he added that it’s the Spirit who gives life and not the flesh. If that’s true then how does that affect his words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood? Don’t worry if you’re confused!
Jesus isn’t finished yet because he lets the congregation know that some of his disciples didn’t really believe in him. In fact, one of his disciples was going to betray him. When he said this, some of his disciples began to walk away. This was, in John’s Gospel, a defining moment in Jesus’ ministry. Some of his disciples would continue on with him and others would leave. The choice was theirs.
When Jesus saw some of his disciples walking away, he turned to the ones who stayed behind and asked them: “Do you also wish to go away?” Peter was the first to stand up and answer him. Peter began by asking a very pertinent question: “To whom would we go?” After all, “you have the words of eternal life.” And, you are the “holy one of God.”
In many ways Peter’s declaration in John 6 replicates his declaration in Matthew 16. In Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples who had been out on a preaching tour what the people were saying about him. Who did people think he was? After they reported what they’d been hearing, he asked them: “But who do you say that I am?” Here again, it’s Peter who stands and answers Jesus’ question. Peter makes what is often called the Good Confession: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Mt. 16:13-16). If put we these two confessions together, what we have is Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the “Messiah, the Son of the Living God,” the “Holy One of God” who has the “the words of eternal life?” So, where else would they go? Where else would we go?
Now, I don’t think Peter fully understood what he was saying, but he revealed the truth about Jesus. It’s good to remember that the life of faith is a learning effort. Peter still had much to learn, even as we have much to learn as we move toward spiritual maturity, which, as we read in Ephesians 4, means attaining the “full measure of Christ‘s stature” (Eph. 4:13).
When we dive deeper into John’s account of Jesus’ words about abiding in him by partaking of his flesh and blood, we encounter an important question. That question is: Who is Jesus to you? What difference does believing in Jesus mean to your life? When I use the word “believe” I mean: Are you willing to entrust your life to Jesus?
Here in John 6, believing in Jesus means abiding in him, even as he abides in us. That is, to believe in Jesus means staying connected to him, just like a living branch has to stay connected to the vine if it’s going to bear fruit (Jn. 15:4-5).
While not everyone was ready to receive Jesus’ words because they were just too difficult to digest, Peter and the other disciples who stayed with Jesus understood that Jesus had offered them the “words of eternal life.” So, even if they didn’t fully understand what Jesus was saying, they seemed to know that if they stayed connected to him then they were on the right path.
Jesus’ words in John 6 are difficult to receive, but if we read them through the lens John provides in his prologue then perhaps we can better understand their meaning. John’s Gospel begins with the declaration: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John tells us that this Word was with God from the beginning and that through him all things came into being, and “in him was life.” Then John writes in verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14 NRSV).
When Jesus invites us to eat his flesh and drink his blood as true food and true drink, he is speaking as the Word of God who became flesh and brought life to the world. While these words about eating flesh are difficult to receive, I believe that John wants us to know that the words that bring life come to us when we partake of the life of Jesus, who is the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. By abiding in him, we experience life that is eternal.
When we participate in a communion service, and eat the bread and drink the juice, we participate spiritually in the life of God. As Calvin reminds us, when we partake of the communion elements, Jesus’ “life passes into us and is made ours—just as bread when taken as food imparts vigor to the body.” While St. Augustine didn’t have John 6 or communion in mind, I believe that these words from his Confessions carry a similar meaning: “You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” [Saint Augustine, Confessions (Kindle p. 3).] This is what happens when we abide in Christ, who is the bread of life.
As we ponder the question Peter answered, together with Augustine’s declaration about restless hearts, I believe that this word from Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm can also help us as we seek to abide in the body of Christ, which in a corporate sense is the Church.
It is not any particular creed, mission statement, style of worship, or service program that unites them as the body of Christ. It is their professed willingness to follow Jesus Christ that renders them a community of faith. What a blessed word to remember as we agonize over mission statements, budget priorities, worship attendance, or other preoccupations of churchly life. It is our commitment to follow Christ alongside others that makes us the people of God. [Feasting on the Word, p. 385.]
There is a phrase from the Eucharistic liturgy of my Episcopal youth that has some resonance here as we ponder this invitation to abide in Christ. During the communion liturgy, the priest invites the congregation to “Feed on him in your hearts with thanksgiving.” That is Jesus’ invitation this morning. Let us spiritually feed on him in our hearts with thanksgiving so that Jesus might penetrate our lives and bring peace to our hearts and unite us with him and with one another.
As I close, I invite you to consider the words of the chorus of Richard Blanchard’s gospel song:
Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of Heaven,
feed me ‘til I want no more,
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.
[Richard Blanchard, Chalice Hymnal, 351]
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