John 6:47-60 – Flesh & Blood, Power & Life
/Lectionary Readings for Aug. 15, 2021 12th Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 v9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong.
Psalm 111 ) v2 How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in him should ponder them.
Ephesians 5:15-20 v17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
John 6:47-60 v57-58 “I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven.” ~ Jesus
Peace through Leadership Quotes
“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” ~ James Beard
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” ~Jean A. Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)
“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.” ~ Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)
One of the best ways to create and nurture peace with someone else is to share a meal with them. This might start with a cup of coffee and weeks or months later move on to lunch. Shared meals give us a chance to talk about shared likes (such as food) and interests (like cooking or eating out). Bridges of peace are built one piece at a time – a piece of bread is a great start.
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading
According to John’s Gospel, the setting for chapter 6 is Jesus teaching in the synagogue (v6:59). Jesus is essentially hosting an open theological discussion/debate with the Jewish leaders while the faithful townspeople are gathered to listen and learn.
This discussion occurs during the Passover season (v6:4) which means the ideas and emotions surrounding ritual sacrifice and deliverance from the Israelite’s abuse in Egypt are on everyone’s mind – as much as the elements and concepts of Christmas or Easter are on our minds during those seasons.
Today’s reading is a selection from a much longer exchange between Jesus and His listeners. We join the story when Jesus transitions – with just a few words, “eat my flesh and drink my blood” – from being interesting and thought provoking to being blasphemous, disgusting, and a threat to the integrity of the Jewish faith community.
For us, Jesus’ language is only problematic if we attempt to understand it literally in the English translation – which is neither the language Jesus used nor the meaning Jesus intended. Yes, once again, we are betrayed by translations that try to make John’s original Greek words more... palatable. As someone in our Tuesday night Bible Study said, “It seems like this is where John gets in our faces with his storytelling. He wants to grab our attention like a painter using bold colors and even bolder strokes.” That’s a pretty fair description of what we believe is Jesus’ over-the-top, metaphorical language.
In chapter 15, Jesus will say, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Nobody thinks He was being literal then which forces us to now ponder, “If He’s not being literal, that means we have to do the work to figure out what He means.” Exactly. As we read today’s text, start asking yourself, “What did Jesus mean? And how does this impact what I believe about communion?”
Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts so that God can help each of us gain a deeper understanding of these ancient, graphic words.
Read John 6:47-60 and the rest of Chapter 6 this week.
“Eat my flesh... drink my blood.” Well, that language will grab anyone’s attention in even the most challenging environment! I love the crowd’s question in the last verse we just heard, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” How indeed! Let’s talk about the flesh first and then the blood.
In the original Greek text, John uses a specific word that means flesh; not body. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all use the Greek word meaning body. But not John; he typically chooses the most graphically captivating words possible. John’s original Greek would be better translated, “Gnaw on my flesh.” I can’t help but imagine Jews sitting around an evening campfire gnawing the meat off of a bone for their dinner during the Passover season.
First of all, what does Jesus mean by flesh? When creative people are developing an idea, they may explain that they have the basic structure of their concept in mind – the bones, and now it’s time to “flesh it out,” i.e., add some meat, add some body to the skeleton to give it strength. The skeleton gives structure; the flesh gives power.
When asked for the most important commandment, Jesus gave us the Great Commandments – love God, love yourself, love others – and said ALL the other laws are summarized within those... bones. If His short reply were enough, the rest of His ministry would have been unnecessary. But Jesus had to put some flesh on those bones. Through the parables He told, the wisdom He shared, and the miracles He performed, He added flesh, power, to those bones.
I believe His stories, wisdom, and miracles are the flesh Jesus wants us to consume, to gnaw on. When we gnaw, we spend time with the meat, we feel its texture, our teeth process it, grinding it into something our body can more easily absorb. I’ve heard people poetically reminisce about eating their favorite steak; their memories often include stories of sharing the steak with friends over a meal that may take hours. Nobody reminisces about drinking a protein shake or sharing it with friends.
And then there’s the blood. As a devout Jew, Jesus certainly knew the ancient law forbidding any Jew from consuming the blood of an animal (Leviticus 17:10-16). Blood was sacred, the very life of every creature, and was returned to God through ritual sacrifices. What is the blood Jesus wants us to drink?
Our lives depend on blood flowing through us. Jesus’ ministry depended on the Holy Spirit flowing through Him. In verse 63, Jesus says “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
If our sacred texts – the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament – provide the bones of our faith, and Jesus’ ministry of words and deeds provide the flesh, the Holy Spirit that ran through Jesus and runs through us today is the life-giving blood we all depend upon to live from one moment to the next. The skeleton gives structure; the flesh gives power; the blood give life.
Getting back to the steak dinners, those stories of prolonged meals often include a bottle of wine shared among friends – fine wine meant to be savored, not guzzled. If Jesus wanted us to gnaw on the flesh of His words and deeds, I think we can safely infer that He’s also asking us to savor the Spirit running through us.
Our Sunday worship services are a spiritual meal shared among friends, a time together meant to be savored and shared, like the steak and wine meal. A quick morning prayer or speed reading a daily devotion can be like knocking down a protein drink as we dash from one meeting to the next. Yes, it is certainly better than nothing and perhaps what we need to keep going in the moment, but it’s not as nutritious, not as filling as a meal shared.
Tying all of this together, I want you to spend the next three weeks thinking about our monthly celebration of communion. Think about the words we say over the bread and juice, “This is My body, given for you. This is the blood of the New Covenant, shed for you.”
How are you consuming that spiritual nutrition?
How can you gnaw on the powerful flesh of our faith?
How can you drink the life-giving Spirit?
And what will you do with all of that power and life? How will they animate your bones?
As Jesus followed the leading of the Spirit, we too can and should follow that leading. With so many evacuees in Susanville right now (and weary travelers elsewhere), we have more opportunities than ever to share the power and life of God’s love with people who need to hear and see it. This afternoon and throughout your week, please actively look for opportunities to generously share your smiles, your words of compassion, your time, and your love with the people you encounter.
This is how we can help people see and experience the Kingdom of God right here, right now. What better place to take refuge from life’s storms than God’s Kingdom, God’s presence?
Amen? Amen!