EAT AND LIVE
Have you ever been accused of cannibalism? The Romans despised Christians in the early days of the Christian Church for a whole lot of reasons. One of their accusations was that they would gather to eat the body and blood of Jesus. They misconstrued the Lord’s Supper for cannibalism.
I am the living bread...eat this bread...Moses gave you manna, but the bread I give is my flesh. Jesus said these things well before he instituted the Lord’s Supper. So you wonder if some of the people who asked, How can this man give us his flesh to eat, may have wondered if he was talking about cannibalism? To make them even more confused, Jesus answered their question by saying, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood... That may have really grossed them out. One of the laws of Moses said that they were to drain the blood of an animal before they ate its meat, for the life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus, you are telling us to do something so radical that it goes against our very nature.
Jesus, of course, wasn’t telling them to cut of his arm and gnaw on it for a snack, but he was telling them to do something against their inborn nature. And today he invites the same from us: EAT AND LIVE.
Jesus’ words aren’t that complicated. What bread is to the body, Jesus is to the soul. What does the body need to stay alive? Food! Bread! What does the soul need to stay alive...in fact, stay alive forever? Jesus. Deprive the body of food and the body will die. Deprive the soul of Jesus and it will die. It’s simple as that.
What did Jesus mean when he had that life-changing conversation with the unsuspecting Samaritan woman? Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life - John 4:13-14. He was inviting her to believe that he was the living water.
To eat his body means to believe in him. He just changed the picture from water to bread for his audience. When you read this entire conversation (vs. 26-58), he keeps repeating this same theme over and over again: I am bread...I give life...eat this bread. But so many in his audience just couldn’t grasp his invitation: believe in me and you will live forever. They were content with the bread made of things like barley and wheat. They forgot that their forefathers received a daily portion of that kind of bread, but they died. Jesus wanted them - as he wants us - to eat a bread that will allow us to live forever.
In fact, he says that he is the only source, the only food, that offers eternal life. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. It led the disciples to later teach us to confess with them “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
We are invited to believe, to stake our whole eternal future, on this man who wears our flesh and blood. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? It runs counter to reason, and to our very nature which says that a relationship with God is something I have to do, or at least have a part in doing, even if it is the teeniest, tiniest part.
Jesus confronts me with so many truths that run counter to my thinking. How can water dripped on me when I was a tiny little heathen create a living faith and seal me for eternal life? Does that really make sense? How can I receive the very body and blood that was sacrificed once and for all on the cross for my sins? How can Jesus’ body and blood be in the sacrament and in heaven? When I’m feeling defeated by the sins that I repeat over and over again, or the promises I make to God and break them about as fast as I make them...I know I’m supposed to return to the Word and take comfort in the promise that I have been fully and freely forgiven; and I know I’m suppose to return to my baptism and be reminded that I have been given a New Man who empowers me to say no to temptation. But can water poured on me years ago, or reading and meditating on the pages of a book, or eating that bread and drinking that little bit of wine really give me strength to stand victorious over all that vexes me?
Jesus says so many radical things in his Word that contradict my reason. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t true. When reason fails to understand, lay it aside and look to Christ...and believe him. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh...The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Everything Jesus did in his human nature he did for the world - and that means for you and me. We are the ones do no good. We sin daily. He didn’t. Yet, his Father accused him and counted him guilty of our sins. He punished him for our sins. His flesh and blood was beaten and punished and condemned because we had sinned. And he rose from the dead because we are considered forgiven and declared innocent in God’s eyes because of him.
Now by his grace he lives inside of you. Is it hard to believe that Jesus lives inside of you, that he remains in you? Do you think, “Why would he want to live inside of me? I’m not worthy.” Put reason aside. Believe what Jesus says to you.
Do you believe that you will live forever? I remember a well known TV preacher who once asked his congregation, “Raise your hands if you are 100% certain that you are going to heaven?” He felt a little sheepish when the camera panned his congregation and not many people had their hands in the air. The one who eats this bread will live forever. Put away your uncertainties and fears. Turn to Jesus. He isn’t lying to you when he says you will live forever.
I’ve heard people jokingly say (and I’ve said it too) that when you eat Chinese food, you are hungry 15 minutes after you finish your meal. Eat at a fast food joint and the food sits in your stomach like a rock for hours. The fact of the matter is that you have to eat to live. A meal can last for minutes or hours, but you know you have to eat again.
The prayer that I used to begin the sermon is part of our liturgy. Some of you may remember the words of the old hymnal: Grant that we may in such wise hear, learn, mark, and inwardly digest them. When Jesus says, For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, he uses an interesting word for eating which means munch on or nibble. Science says that within 72 hours you will forget 90% of what this sermon is about. That doesn’t mean the word is powerful and effective. It just means that we need to keep munching on the word of life. By looking to Jesus, remaining in Jesus, you will grow in joy as you leave behind your own reason and delight in his saving and conquering wisdom.
Sometimes when Jesus spoke to the crowds - and when he speaks to us - he teaches us how to apply his teachings to our daily lives: showing love and compassion to our family and to people we don’t even know, learning to trust him during the storms of life, learning how to live with a more thankful attitude, learning how to talk to others. Today he’s not so much teaching us about application of his words, but appropriating his message. Today he repeats over and over again what it means to be a Christian. It’s about believing in him and him alone. It’s about finding comfort in the fact that he lives inside of each of us. It’s about the certainty that we will live for all eternity. It’s about the fact that the Holy Spirit has overcome our own reason and worked a saving and trusting faith in the One who stands as our Savior and gives us complete joy because we are connected to him. Chew on that in the days to come. Eat and live. The one who eats this bread will live forever. Amen.