"More Feasting on the Bread of Life"
John 6:51-58
9/3/06
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My dog, Puddleglum, gets the same food every day,
twice a day, and yet he never complains. In fact, each time he
eats, he's just as excited as he was the last time. Every meal
for him is his favorite. I, on the other hand, have to have
variety. If I were to eat the same thing every meal, I'd get
tired of it very quickly.
But what about our spiritual food? If you've
noticed, for the last three Sundays our Gospel lessons have all come
from the same chapter in the Gospel according to St. John, and they've
all had to do with Jesus as the Bread of Life. You might be
sitting there saying to yourself, "Not again! Not another sermon
on Jesus as the Bread of Life! Couldn't we hear something
else?" Is that the way we respond when our Lord gives us the same
food over and over again? I have to confess that that's what I
said to myself when I looked at the Gospel lesson for today. I
was frustrated with the fact that I was again given a text from the
same chapter of John on the same subject - Jesus, the Bread of
Life. How would I preach yet another sermon on it? Could I
spice it up or season it, as it were, so that this food might not taste
so bland and be more acceptable to you, the hearers?
Sometimes that's what we like to do with the Word of
God - spice it up or season it a bit so that it's more tolerable.
We add this or that to it so that it's more exciting and acceptable to
us. The Scriptures themselves add seasonings to the Gospel; it's
served in a variety of ways, but the meat remains the same - Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We must be careful that when we add
seasonings to the Gospel they don't compromise the message or take away
from it; otherwise, we'll end up feeding on the seasonings rather than
the meat. Seasonings are to compliment the meat. The Gospel
must be served in such a way that it always gives glory to Christ and
His work of salvation. The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian
Christians, "And when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with
superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of
God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified." Paul was determined that nothing
interfere with the meat of the Gospel - Christ crucified for our
salvation. However he served the Gospel, he served it in such a
way that Jesus was glorified, because it is only by the eating of His
flesh given for the life of the world and the drinking of His blood
shed for our sins that we have eternal life.
And so, this is the food that Jesus, the Bread of
Life, has again prepared for you to feast on today. Like the
manna from heaven on which God fed His people in the wilderness day
after day for forty years, God gives you this true Bread from heaven
daily through His Word and here at the Lord's Table, so that you may
eat of it and not die. We must confess that like the Israelites
who grew tired of eating the manna and complained, we too often grow
tired of eating the same food that the Lord gives us day after
day. This can lead to going after other food, food that tastes
better, is more exciting and more to our liking. But rather than
giving us life it works death. The only food that gives us
eternal life is the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. Let us, then,
gives thanks to our heavenly Father for graciously providing us with
this daily Bread and joyfully come to the feast to which He has invited
us.
Now, the food itself is Jesus Christ, His flesh and
His blood. Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life
in yourselves." For us Christians who have been taught about the
eating and drinking of Christ's body and blood in His Holy Supper these
words don't sound so foreign to us. But look how the Jews
responded who were hearing these words for the first time. Jesus
had been calling Himself the Bread of Life. Just as the
Israelites had eaten of the manna in the wilderness, so they were to
eat of Him and not die. And the Jews here understood Jesus as
saying that He really was going to feed them on His flesh and
blood. So they began to argue among each other, "How can this man
give us His flesh to eat?" It sounded to them like Jesus was
instituting some kind of cannibalism. This couldn't possibly be
the Messiah, could it? God wouldn't command such a thing, would
He? And yet, God had given them pictures and previews of this
eating throughout the O.T. From the Tree of Life in the Garden of
Eden, to the Passover Lamb, to the manna in the desert, to the Bread of
the Presence in the temple, to the eating of the animals that had been
sacrificed, God was teaching His people that He was going to feed them
on His Son, the Bread of Life. And this Bread was not just going
to be given to the Jews, but it was going to be given to the
world. Jesus would give His flesh for the life of the world on
the cross, so that all who eat of this Bread might have eternal life.
So the question, "How can this man give us His flesh
to eat," is easily answered: He can do it, because He is God in
the flesh. He's not just a man, but the God-Man. Just as He
multiplied bread and fish to feed 5,000, so He can multiply His body
andblood to feed the world. Nothing is impossible for Him.
The question is not whether He can give us His flesh
to eat or not, but how does He give us His flesh to eat. There
are two kinds of eating when it comes to feeding on Jesus: the
spiritual eating by faith, and the oral eating by mouth. The
spiritual eating is done not with the mouth but with the ears.
You eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood spiritually when you take
His Word into your ears, either by reading the Bible yourself or by
hearing it proclaimed to you, and as a result you trust in Jesus.
This is not the kind of hearing where the words just go into one ear
and then come right out the other. This kind of hearing chews on
the words, meditates on them, and digests them, so that they can be
called to mind when you are going through trials, when you are being
attacked by the devil, or when your conscience feels guilty on account
of sin. When you feed on the Lord in this way, you can use His
words to sing His praises, to help you when you pray, to strengthen you
in the faith, to assure you of your salvation, and to tell others about
Jesus crucified for the sins of the world.
The second kind of eating is the oral eating of
Christ's flesh and blood with your mouth. This eating occurs at
the Lord's Table. The Jews were offended especially by this kind
of eating. Many Christians today are offended by this kind of
eating. They don't believe Jesus seriously meant that we are to
actually eat and drink His true body and blood. And yet, His
words here are very clear and very sacramental even though He had not
yet instituted His Holy Supper. He had, though, by the time John
had written this Gospel. Jesus says, "He who eats my flesh and
drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." Now, the word for
"to eat" here is a very graphic word; it means "to gnaw, munch, or
crunch." For those who would spiritualize Jesus' words in order
to try to escape the fact that Jesus feeds you on His true body and
blood in the Holy Supper, this word is hard to get around. It's
not very "spiritual" at all; rather, it's very earthy, vulgar, and even
revolting. And many of His disciples stopped following Him as a
result of these words. But Jesus chooses His words very
carefully. When the Jews asked how He could give them His flesh
to eat, He didn't make it any easier for them by saying, "Oh, you
misunderstood me; I didn't really mean you should literally eat my
flesh and drink my blood. I was only speaking figuratively.
I meant eating me by faith." No, Jesus makes it even harder for
them instead by saying that it's only those who eat His flesh and drink
His blood who abide in Him and He in them. So there is both the
spiritual eating of Jesus by faith and the oral eating of Jesus done
with our mouths.
Now, these two kinds of eating go together; neither
one excludes the other. You eat of Jesus spiritually with your
ears as you hear His Word and believe in Him, and you eat of Him orally
with your mouth at His Holy Supper. The Lord's Supper is not an
optional thing for Christians. He mandates it with His words, "Do
this in remembrance of me." But Jesus does not allow anyone to
eat of His body and blood at His Supper who does not also eat of Him by
faith. Apart from the eating of Jesus by faith (which includes
eating His Words), His body and blood in the Lord's Supper are eaten
unto judgment, as the Apostle Paul declares. That's why you are
taught what you are eating at the Lord's Table and why you are eating
it before you participate.
Now, Jesus here also mentions the benefits of eating
His flesh and drinking His blood. Those who eat Him by faith and
with their mouths have eternal life, they abide in Jesus and Jesus
abides in them, and they will be raised from the dead on the Last Day
and live because of Jesus. What great benefits these are!
Who wouldn't give all they had to purchase these gifts if they
could. And yet, they are given out freely through God's Word and
His Sacraments. But the thing about these benefits is that they
aren't seen with our eyes. You can't see the eternal life that
you now have in Jesus. You can't see your sins forgiven or the
righteousness with which you have been clothed in your Baptism.
You can't see Jesus living in you. And obviously the
resurrection from the dead hasn't occurred yet. We continue to
watch ourselves grow old, get sick, and die. Not seeing these
benefits with our eyes might cause us to doubt and disbelieve that we
in fact have these benefits through the eating and drinking of
Jesus. That's when it's time to eat some more. The more you
eat, the more your faith in Jesus and His promises will be
strengthened, the more you will grow and mature in the faith.
Your body grows and matures when you eat your earthly food. That
kind of food keeps you alive physically. The Bread of Life keeps
you alive spiritually. It strengthens you in the faith, so that
you will trust in Jesus all the more and cling to His promises.
He will keep His Word. Even now you have eternal life, Jesus
abides in you and you abide in Him, and He will raise you from the dead
on the Last Day and you will live and reign with Him, the Father, and
the Holy Spirit in His kingdom of glory in the new heavens and the new
earth for all eternity.
So, enjoy the food that He has prepared for you to
feast on again today through His Word and His Sacrament. Here, as
Isaiah has written, the LORD of hosts has prepared a rich banquet for
all peoples, a banquet of refined and aged wine, and choice pieces with
marrow. Here, as David writes, the LORD has prepared His table
before you in the presence of your enemies, where He fills your cup
until it overflows. All is ready; all is prepared. Jesus
has done all the work for you. Come to His feast. Taste and
see that the Lord is good. Amen.