Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 6th Chapter of the Gospel according to St John; Verses 56–69:
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread[a] the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
I come from a family of tradesmen, and as such, there were no parental aspirations of a university degree. My dad declared “what you need is a trade son, something you can always fall back on”. So, with my fate subsequently sealed, at the end of year ten, dad announced that he had found me a job as an apprentice electrician. Dad knew the boss, so the interview was almost a formality, and I started the next Monday. Nobody took into account that at high school, Maths B with its algebraic formulas was my weakest subject, and that to manually calculate power loadings for motors, industrial switches and the like, as was the case in those days, one needed a fair grasp on Maths B. College two nights a week for 5 years was a great challenge, and I got little encouragement, for dad it was a ‘fait accompli’. I would keenly listen to the lecturers and so often I just did not quite understand. I would get frustrated, so frustrated in fact that I would say “this is sooo hard, I just want to give up”
Well, today, we find something similar in our gospel reading. I can empathise with the people who are gathered together, listening to Jesus as he teaches in the synagogue. And, when he is finished, a bunch of his followers come to him and say, “Jesus, this teaching is soooo hard!”
This is the last week of five in which we hear about Jesus as the bread of life. In John 6; known as the ‘Bread Chapter’, Jesus has been telling the people this meal he offers them doesn’t come from the fields or the sea, but from his very own body. As we covered in last week’s sermon, Jesus says to them that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will abide in him and he will abide in them, and that whoever does this will live forever. The crowd, now referred to as disciples, say to themselves, “This teaching is so difficult; it is so hard. Who can accept it?”
Now, it is important to understand that the English translation giving us the word “difficult,” doesn’t quite get at what the Greek word really means. In the Greek, the word means “hard”, as in solid and dense, something that would leave a bruise if it hit you in the arm. So, what the crowd is saying is that this teaching is like banging your head against a brick wall. It’s so hard. You can’t quite break through it. You can’t understand it. They are saying, “This is craziness! This is insane. This doesn’t make any sense.”
But does Jesus water it down? Make it softer? Does he explain any of it? No. In fact, to this very day, in the Holy Scriptures Jesus words are quite clear and explicit about the use of Water and the Word in Holy Baptism and partaking of His Body and Blood in Holy Communion.
In our reading, Jesus ramps the sermon up more, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry, does this offend you? Well, if this offends you, what if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; human flesh is useless. But among you, there are some who don’t believe.”
“It is the spirit that gives life”. You see the most important thing is the spirit in which any action is done. William Barclay puts it this way: "All human things are trivial if they exist for nothing beyond themselves."
That is, the real value of anything depends on its aim. If we eat simply for the sake of eating, we become gluttons; if we eat to sustain life, to do our work better, to maintain the fitness of our body at its highest peak, food has a real significance. If a person spends a great deal of time on education simply for the sake of self-improvement, they are to some extent selfishly squandering their time. But if they spend that time in order to work in servitude to God and mankind, education ceases to be trivial and becomes a God given vocation. The things of the flesh all gain their value under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Christ alone can tell us what life is, and put into us the spirit in which it must be lived, and give us the strength so to live it. Life takes its value from its purpose and its goal. Christ alone can give us true purpose in life, and the power to work out that purpose against the constant opposition that comes from without and within.
As a result of our exploration of the preceding verses in John 6 last week, we have the benefit of some insight as to what Jesus is talking about! These followers don’t. And so, not surprisingly, they leave.
How easy it is to relate to the followers who walk off on the spot. You see, when things start to lose their meaning, or we don’t really feel like we understand, it is pretty tempting to just leave, isn’t it? And, as I think about the church in today’s culture, I think we church people often speak in a language that people don’t understand.
For many people, church just doesn’t seem to have a lot of relevance. In light of all the other things going in our culture and world that do impact people’s lives, many today wonder why they should continue to go to church. So, they quit.
How do we respond to that? Do we take them aside and tell them about original sin, Jesus being God incarnate, the Holy Trinity of Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier? Do we ‘hit them with the book’? - Or do we tell them that in this church they come into the presence of a loving, forgiving God; one who died that they can live eternally. A God that doesn’t want them to be a theologian, but one who will trust Him to walk with them in their lives through good times and bad? Do we teach them that simple most effective prayer; ‘Jesus, please help me”?
When we look again at today’s gospel reading, notice what Jesus does when the people leave? Nothing. He doesn’t do anything. Why? Why not just try to make it easier to understand? Why doesn’t Jesus give the people what they want?
In the late 1980s big church growth seminars became the in thing. I have been sent to a few. If each parish had the money and the will to follow the trend, their church became a Christian entertainment centre of Biblical proportions. As recent as 2010, one, not so big church in Townsville, had two data projectors and two bands working at the same time; the children’s address was a scaled down ‘Wiggles’ type performance, and the sermon was an interactive two way talk fest. It was a really ‘rockin’ place. Sadly, when the Pastor left, so did most of the congregation. The Gospel was there, but too much of the world to distract from it.
When He saw their backs, Jesus had the power to ‘bring down the house’ – He could have made the ‘parting of the Red Sea’ pale into insignificance. But Jesus… he just lets them leave, without a word. Jesus bestows a remarkable gift but at that time they did not have the means to receive it.
You see, here we come upon a truth that re-emerges in every age. Time and again; it is not the intellectual difficulty which keeps mankind from becoming Christians; it is the height of Christ's moral demand. At the heart of any religion there must be mystery, for the simple reason that at that heart there is God. In the nature of things mankind cannot ever fully understand God. This is at the very heart of John 6: the very words that provide the means of grace to all mankind “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” Are beyond human comprehension, and it was these words that drove the people from Jesus. But for them at that time these words are prophetic. Later when they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, they will become real. Still incomprehensible, but received in faith.
As for human nature, at this point, can I remind you that Jesus has just spent weeks healing the sick – no one questioned or left. Jesus had just fed about 15,000 people with 5 loaves and two fish – no one questioned or left. By human standards, these were supernatural actions – but; they physically benefited the people – so they went unquestioned!
Well, when these followers leave, we then get, from a human perspective, one of the most profound lines in all of Scripture…Jesus looks at the twelve remaining disciples, and he says, “Do you wish to go away too?” Does Jesus have fear of being abandoned by His friends? Does He have a sense of grief in this very moment? Friends, when Jesus asked this question, He is giving these men whom He personally picked, a time to triumph in faith.
Peter responds with this beautiful line, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” - Yes, Peter asks, “To whom can we go?” And, the twelve disciples stay with Jesus.
Now, on the surface, this line from Peter sounds like a confident statement of faith, but Peter's loyalty was based on a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. There were many things he did not understand; he was just as bewildered and puzzled as anyone else. But there was something about Jesus for which he would willingly die. In the most recent analysis, Christianity is not a philosophy which we accept, nor a theory to which we give allegiance. It is a personal response to Jesus Christ. It is the allegiance and the love which a person gives because their heart will not allow them to do anything else.
Now, I don’t know why you are here today. But I do know this whole faith thing isn’t always easy. In fact, I must honestly say that, in our present culture, there are times when this life of faith seems increasingly hard. It is a very counter-cultural way of living. At times, it can seem exhausting. At times, it can seem soooo hard.
But where else can we go? Where else can we at least join together in the struggle and contemplate the mystery of this life and the mystery of the Christian faith? And that’s just it. It is something we do together. Notice that Peter didn’t say, “Lord, to whom can I go?” No, he said, “Lord, to whom can we go.” When Peter responds with these words, it is truly a significant point in the Gospel of John. It is the first time that Jesus’ closest disciples are named “the twelve.”
Their decision not to turn away but to walk forward with Christ draws them together as a community of faith. It is not any particular creed, or mission statement, or style of worship, or service program that unites them as the body of Christ. It is their professed willingness to walk together following Jesus Christ that renders them a community of faith. You see, this life of faith is not something we do on our own. We do it together and we go forward together! It is something we share together as we live together in relationship with Jesus. And when it is shared, we – together - make up the body of Christ. Jesus, the true Word of God stands here in our midst, in the midst of all the challenges of life and the challenges of the living of these days, pointing us to life and life abundant.
Quite honestly, running away from the challenges of life, running only to self, living for self, really leads to empty satisfaction. In saying this though, it is a fact that this life of faith goes against all our human instincts. It is counter-instinctive, because the words of eternal life which Jesus gives to us, tell us that we must die to sin, and that is so hard. But it is only through Christ that we can daily die to sin. We die to self and live to Christ, and in doing so, it is at the foot of the cross that we gather. It is at the foot of the cross where God is faithful, where Christ is present with us, and where, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are one in Christ.
So, in times of uncertainty and challenge, at times when we do not understand, at times when there is a temptation to leave because things seem soooo hard, may we look again to Christ and not ourselves. Like the twelve disciples, we will find there what has always been – the good news of Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God. We will find Jesus, the bread of life, the one with the words of eternal life. To whom else can we go? Amen
The Love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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