Sermon 8/17/03
My So-Called Life - 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14, John 6:51-58
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Are you getting tired of these stories about bread yet? In my researching for this week's sermon, many pastors and theologians wrote about their lack of anything different to say on this text that they had not said in the three weeks before. I, too, had trouble figuring out where I was being led by this text. Haven't we covered it already? Yes, Jesus is the bread of life. Fine. We get it. But no, God answers, we don't get it, like the crowds surrounding Jesus didn't get it. So we'll have another go at it.
Today Jesus talks to the crowds about real life. If he saw himself as the real thing to offer to them, he saw the benefit for them as real life, an alternative to the emptiness of life he saw in so many pressing in on him. Jesus' offer made me think of the short-lived TV drama titled "My So-Called Life." Jesus spoke to the crowds about a real life lived in opposition to the so-called life everyone was used to. So, today we find ourselves in the final week of Jesus' teaching about his role as the bread of life. Jesus has confronted the crowd with another bold claim, and we pick up again with this verse. He tells them, "I am the read of live 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 crowds respond in confusion and uncomfortable questions. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat," they wonder?
Unfortunately, Jesus says little that will calm their confusion and clear up their questions. He shows them that they still don't understand. He doesn't help them ease their minds or simplify things. Instead, in fact, he speaks somewhat cryptically, and seems to challenge them by the language and metaphors he chooses to use. Jesus says 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, 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."
Perhaps you and I don't have any problem with what Jesus says here. It may sound a bit strange, for sure, but we just take it as a reference to communion. Perhaps Jesus is just foreshadowing the last supper that he will share with his disciples? Unfortunately however, the crowds don't have the knowledge of what will happen that we have. All they know if what their Jewish faith can tell them about what Jesus is saying, and what their faith traditions would tell them is that what Jesus is saying about drinking his blood and eating his flesh is appalling and directly against their laws. The Jews followed strict dietary codes that prohibited consuming the blood of animals in certain ways - and to consume then the blood of a human would be the worst, most vile offense. Further, what Jesus suggested actually sounded too much like cannibalism - in fact the early church was often accused of cannibalism by non-Christians who didn't understand the communion rite. So what were the crowds to think? How else could they be expected to take Jesus' words? What does it mean to eat of the flesh of Christ and drink of his blood, the one who says he is the bread of life, and that by eating and drinking of him we will never be hungry and thirsty?
"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." These words of Jesus are hard to ignore. Theologian Martin Luther, who led the Protestant Reformation, shared his thoughts on this text and tried to explain it in a way that makes it easier for us to understand who Jesus is and what he is talking about here. He writes, "Let me give you a clear illustration which may prove helpful. If [someone] takes pure water and makes sugar water or syrup of it, this is no longer called simple water, but sugar water. Nor do we then say that we are drinking water. To be sure, we are drinking water. Yet it does not taste like water. It has a new flavor and strength; it tastes of sugar. It is water, yet not pure water, but sugar water. It does not act like water; for it is sugar water, and I cannot properly consider it water. Indeed, it was water; but it is now so permeated with sugar, cinnamon, and other spices that it has been transformed into a different essence and now has a new quality and taste." Luther continues, "This is a crude illustration, but it serves its purpose for simple folk and tends to show that Christ is not simply to be viewed like any other human being. To be sure, flesh and blood, marrow and bone, skin and hair are really present in him; for he was born of [Mary]. He has hair, a head, legs, arms . . . just as truly as you and I have. But I am only flesh and blood. So are you. We are nothing but water, bones, and flesh. But a sugar was added to Christ's flesh, so that [the one] who sees his flesh and tastes and drinks the blood sees God and also worships God…. Thus one eats the Godhead in the human nature. This resembles our experience with the sugar water."
It is this sugar water that Jesus tells us about - not just bread, but the bread of life, not just water, but the blood of life, living water. Jesus offers it to us, and tells us we must eat and drink to receive the life he offers. Actually, the word in Greek for 'eat' here more literally means 'gnaw' - we must gnaw on Christ, gnaw on his offering of flesh and blood. But before we start cringing, we have to think about what Jesus means by such an image. What would it mean to take Jesus up on his offer - on his command, and to receive this bread and water, to eat this bread and drink this wine? If we consume Jesus' flesh, take in his blood, so that his life is in us, within us, what happens to our own lives?
Jesus tells us the answer. "This is the bread that came down from heaven," says Jesus, "not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." This life that Jesus promises is not life that we have to wait for. The forever life, the eternal life that Jesus speaks of begins today, begins now, as soon as we feast on the bread of life. As soon as we fill ourselves with God, letting God abide within us, our real life can begin. With Christ-filled selves, our lives change. The catch is that we must live differently if we say that we have fed on Christ. If we say that God is inside us, it must change things for us. In the Beatitudes in the gospel of Matthew, we read, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled," or in Luke's version, "Blessed are those who hunger now, for they will be satisfied." These are tangible promises Jesus tells us about. If you are hungry, eat - Jesus offers his own self as bread to fill us. If you are thirsty, drink, for Christ offers his own blood to quench our thirst. But be warned, when you eat and drink, you will be filled, you will be satisfied. Your life will change. For if God dwells within you, fills you, how can you hate others? How can you be prejudiced against others, knowing that God dwells in them too? How can you turn away when you see injustice and pain, knowing that God came in human form to relieve our pain?
In the Psalms, one verse says, Taste and See the goodness of the Lord. That is what Jesus is calling us to do. Taste and see. I'll close with these words from a song by Christopher Conroy called In Eyes Not His. Listen. Taste. See. Be satisfied.
For Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs and eyes not his To the glory, to the glory of the Living God. Come see the Lord in all the faces of the poor In those who hunger and thirst for justice and peace. Come see the Lord in all the lowly and the meek Come see the Lord. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord, Give thanks to God in the labor of your hands In every tear you wipe, in every heart you mend You serve the Lord. And we shall come to see the face of God In those we serve And embody in our flesh and souls and hearts The Risen Christ.
We become living bread for each other. Taste, see. Eat, and drink. Amen.