God's Last Words

BREAD AS A SYMBOL
John 6: 51-58 (NRSV)   

A German immigrant went to a Diner every day for lunch. He always ordered the soup of the day. One day the manager asked him how he liked his meal. The old man replied, "Vas goot, but you could give a little more bread."

So the next day the manager told the waitress to give him four slices of bread. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asked. "Vas goot, but you could give a little more bread," came the reply.

So...the next day the manager told the waitress to give him a whole loaf of bread with his soup. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asked, when he came to hand him the bill. "Vas goot, but you could give maybe a little more bread," came the reply once again.

The manager was obsessed with seeing this customer say that he is satisfied with his meal, so he went to the bakery, and ordered a six-foot-long loaf of bread. When the man came in as usual the next day, the waitress and the manager cut the loaf in half, buttered the entire length of each half, and laid it out along the counter, right next to his bowl of soup. The old man sat down, and devoured his bowl of soup, and both halves of the six-foot-long loaf of bread.

The manager now thinks he’ll get the answer he is looking for, and when the old man came up to pay for his meal, the manager asked in the usual way, "How was your meal TODAY, sir?"

The old man replied, "It vas goot as usual, but I zee you are back to giving only two slices bread!"

Humans have been eating bread ever since water and grain were mixed to make the first porridge. Bread is a staple of life. We relate to bread. We covet bread.

The early Jews related to the concept of bread and to God providing manna during their time in the wilderness. Bread is an important part of every meal in Israel and the middle East. People relate to bread from a physical perspective. But Jesus is asking them to relate to it as a spiritual symbol of relationship (John 6: 51-58).

“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.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

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. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.

Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 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.”

This scripture passage is almost the most controversial to the early church (Jesus rising from the dead is first). The early church was called cannibalistic because of this teaching.

It should also be noted that extra-biblical texts used by the Jews (The Book of Enoch) claimed that the eating of human flesh and the drinking of human blood was why God decided to destroy the world by water in Noah’s day. So people would have a sense of “icky-ness” about this teaching in the first place.

The Gospel of John’s Jesus uses incredibly challenging language in chapter 6. So trobling in fact, that some people stopped following him because of it.

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Imagine hearing this for the first time. Imagine hearing this without any previous experience of Communion and what we call the symbolic Eucharist host.

Imagine a young, perhaps educated, couple attending church for the first time in their lives—maybe even this Sunday as this passage is read! They might think they’ve stepped foot into a Twilight movie or book, surrounded by vampires?

Christians setting around saying, "Pass me another Jesus finger." 

Imagine hearing Jesus say these words.

We know that some in the crowd took offense at Jesus so much that they stopped following him because he said these things – we’ll talk about it next week.

It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t soften or lighten His language in the least bit.

There’s not even a hint that he might be speaking poetically or metaphorically. He doesn’t just say it once, and then move on to other things. Clearly Jesus doesn’t know anything about political correctness or even politeness for that matter.

Eat my flesh. Drink my blood. If you don’t you’ll die. If you do, you’ll live forever.

He drives this point home with clarity and repetition.

We hear it, as people who are “churched,”and I think we let the words land around us without much reaction. I mean, of course Jesus is talking about a symbolic Eucharist…right?

Some church traditions claim (in support of a literal interpretation of Jesus’ words) that God transforms (transubstaniation) the bread and juice into the actual body and blood of Christ during the prayer of blessing (called the epiclesis).

In the Reformed tradition we hear these words against a lifetime of seeing: take, eat, this is my body (chopped up bread)…take drink, this is my blood of the new covenant (grape juice). For us, they have lost their offensiveness and we say, "pass me another Lady Finger." We understand it’s just religious ritual and symbolism. We unite with Christ spiritually.

But, Jesus didn’t launch these rhetorical bombshells so that they’d fizzle with time.

No, I think it’s clear that Jesus was stirring the pot on purpose. He wanted to say things that challenged people, even to the point of having to decide that they’d have to leave if they didn’t get it.

One thing is clear here: Jesus isn’t about people-pleasing. He’s not about glad-handing, and smoothing out the wrinkles so that everyone can go away happy.

He’s not even worried about them coming back again. He’s not about just saying and doing just about anything to pack the joint, to increase membership and tithing.

As a pastor I get it. I hope you all get it too.

Following Jesus means…sometimes you need to say the hard thing, or, “Eat my flesh and drink my blood, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”

Or hang around until you really understand what Jesus means!

Sometimes the truth is easy. And good. And, maybe even fun! Something everyone can stand and cheer about. But, there are those moments when the truth is hard. And, to some, offensive.

Speaking the truth might just mean that some won’t like you anymore, they’ll stop coming on Sundays. They’ll vote with their feet. You’ll see it happen with Jesus as well.

 And then you’ll see Him get nailed to a cross and left to die. Alone. Naked.

Because the teaching is important. Offering the grace of salvation must be done. It means spiritual life or physical death to those who hear. It has to be spiritual bread because humans will always try to control the physical bread.

Sandwiched between the two foods of paradise, the forbidden physical food of Genesis, and the spiritual food awarded to “over comers” in Revelation 2: 7, Jesus’ invitation to eat his flesh/blood as bread gives a key to our movement from fallen Adam to being an “over comer” in Christ. God ties everything together. 

To eat or not to eat was the question before Adam and is before us in this “do-over” offered by Jesus. This time God not only provides the food, God is the food and God gives power to choose it.  

This new food nourishes us in a way that invites us to a new level of intimacy with Jesus giving power to "do the works that I do." We become like Jesus spiritually through the “food” we eat. Amen.