Year B Pentecost 12 (& 13 readings)
John 6: 51-6951 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.The Words of Eternal Life
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.”John 6: 51-69
© The New Revised Standard Version,
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989In the name of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Gospel reading from John today is difficult to say the least. It doesn’t read well like a story or a parable, but has a long conversation between Jesus, his followers and the Jews, full of deep theological and spiritual statements. At the heart of this passage it appears, there is the dilemma, the clash, the connection, between the body, the flesh, and the spiritual life. Jesus is talking about bread, but not really flour bread, but about his body. Jesus is talking about his flesh and blood, and in a confronting way talks about taking it, eating it. Jesus says that it is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. Each sentence is made up of some huge statement so that the passage becomes confusing like a quagmire to be waded through.
Some people will say… oh what Jesus is talking about is like communion… “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
Some will say … oh what Jesus is talking about is how people have to accept him as God… “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”
Some people will say… oh what Jesus is talking about is eternal life… “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.”
Some of us will say.. oh what Jesus is talking about is the difference between the spirit and the body… “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.”
And the Church has said all these things over the many centuries. The Church has debated this passage for as long as it has been and particular from the 15th. – 20th. Centuries various groups within the church have accused each other of misinterpreting the message of this passage. Lots of preachers might speak about this passage as if it were single Lego pieces of only one theme that just fit together and ignore how quickly they fall into the trap of turning doctrine into theology into belief. But whatever we think, whatever we say, if we are honest with ourselves, we recognise that it is a very hard passage indeed. The Jews who first hear Jesus speak about these things … then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Not because they were stupid by any means, but because they asked the obvious question. Then later his disciples said “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” And Jesus asks them.. “does it offend you”?
Well of course it offends them, the eating of the body and the drinking of the blood, the boldness of the statements by Jesus that “I am the living bread that has come down from heaven”, and finally the simple knowledge that some of the people, even Jesus’ followers, did not believe, or could not believe, and so are no long able to go about with him.
And then this difficult passage ends with this amazing description of abandonment by some and yet by Peter a statement of simple faith.
“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.”
About 50 years after the death of Jesus (AD 85) there arose a group of people who believed that Jesus had no body, but was only present in spirit. They believe that Jesus only seemed human, but was really an apparition, a spirit. This belief was called Docetism which comes from the Greek word that means phantom. Of course it caused a great stir in the church and was rebuffed by the wider councils of the church, but it seems to have all been around a few words, also from John’s Gospel, in chapter 1, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…” In this great ancient church debate they argued… what does it mean… that the “Word became flesh”…. and it wasn’t long before those who espoused that Jesus was not body, but only spirit, were announced as heretics and no doubt suffered for their ways.
But you can see all the way down throughout history, in various ways, the struggle to understand such passages about the body of Christ, the Word made flesh, the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the blood, the bread of life….. So much so that you can see examples of it in the life of the church today. The Catholic Church believe that the Eucharist, the bread and wine they share at communion, at the Mass, is actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which is why no crumb is left and no drop remains after everyone has shared together; the priest consuming anything left over. Whereas in the Protestant church, the bread and wine are symbols of the body and blood of Christ, through which we believe God draws close to us. An outward act of an inward spiritual grace.
And these days there are probably way more people even in our “Christian” countries and societies, who would say, Jesus was a nice man, a pretty good bloke, but they are not so sure about the “Son of God” bit, or the… “I am the living bread that came down from heaven”… bit… or that he was anything else other than a man.
I’ve referred before to the recent Q&A discussion between Richard Dawkins (Atheist/Agnostic) and Cardinal George Pell (Catholic Church). Even in their conversation the matter of body and blood, spirit and body, bread and wine, became a topic of difference.
Cardinal Pell says…
I’ll tell you and I’ve just explained what the bodily resurrection means to the extent that I can understand it. I certainly believe that when the words of consecration are uttered that they become the body and blood of Christ. Now, I have had a little kid come up to me when that was explained and say, “Can I have a look in the challis and see if it has turned to blood?” Of course it hasn’t. We don’t believe that. It’s not against reason. I believe it because I believe the man who told us that was also the son of God. He says, “This is my body. This is my blood,” and I’d much prefer to listen to him and take his word than yours.
Richard Dawkins says:
But other Christian denominations are quite happy to take that as a symbolic metaphorical meaning. Catholics take it as a literal meaning and I take it – I’m trying to be charitable by trying to suggest that it’s that same sense in which you say that the body is resurrected because the body is certainly not resurrected in terms of the cell, the protoplasm, the proteins, the DNA. That doesn’t happen any more than the wafer turns into that. You’re right when you said that to the child. So you do not mean that the wafer turns into the body in any sense in which normal English language usage would understand. You mean it in some other sense and I take it it’s that same sense that the body is resurrected.
It is fascinating how quickly, at the time of Jesus teaching, 50 years after his death, down throughout the ages, on Q&A only a month or so ago, as 1000s of preachers speak about today’s passage. … It is fascinating how quickly we turn our struggle to understand into doctrine, theology, and dogma. Of course the Jews disputed amongst themselves what Jesus was talking about and of course some of his followers were no long able to go about with him because they were faced with their struggle to understand and their disbelieve.
And yet, in the very end of today’s passage, after all the discussion, the difficulty of the words, the desertion of some followers and now 2000 years later after all the history and debate and dilemma, we are really left with the one question Jesus asked… “Do you also wish to go away?”
And it was Peter who responded so clearly, who did not have to say he understood everything, who did not have to explain, but simply said that in the person of Jesus Christ was God. “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.”
Today’s passage has many layers, and a history of debate, but in the end it really does invite us to see in Jesus the way and life.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life
Today’s passage has many layers, and a long history of debate, but in the end if invites us to see in Jesus the way of God.
Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
Today’s passage is hard to understand, but instead of turning away, it invites us, to respond as Peter did…. “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Amen.