Sermon for John 6:51-58

Sermon for John 6:51-58 August 20, 2006

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Our Gospel reading for today continues the account of Jesus’ declaring himself to be “the bread of life.” If you’ve been paying attention, you might have realized by now that we’ve been in this chapter for four weeks. And you might be wondering why. There are plenty of other topics in the Bible. So, why spend so much time on this one chapter?

At Grace, we use what’s called the Revised Common Lectionary as the source of what Scriptures we’ll read each week. And the lectionary devotes a total of five Sundays in a row to the sixth chapter of John. I believe its editors do that because of how scholars usually interpret today’s eight verses.

In the other Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—the writers describe how Jesus celebrated the last meal he shared with his disciples just before his crucifixion. At that meal, he gave thanks for the bread and wine, blessed them and offered them to his disciples, telling them that the bread was his body and the wine his blood. Jesus did this a lot: He was using common things to explain profound truths (Matthew 26:17-29; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-23). Nearly all Christians believe that, in that meal and those words, Jesus established the ritual we call “communion.” Many Bible scholars believe that, as recounted in John 6:51-58, Jesus established the ritual of communion also on another occasion.

However and whenever Jesus first used bread and wine as a way of explaining the meaning of his death, in the years following his return to heaven. repeating those words and sharing that food became central to Christians worship. We know that because the ritual of “communion” is referred in other New Testament writings, such as 1 Corinthians 11), and in other, non-scriptural documents written by Christians within the first few years after Jesus’ went back to be with the Father.

The ritual we call “communion” was so important in the worship of early Christians that the Roman Emperor Nero accused Christians of cannibalism, because they insisted on eating and drinking what they referred to as their Lord’s body and blood. As a result, many Christians were killed and willingly died, protecting the ritual they believed their Lord had commanded them to do.

This ritual gradually became so important that the Church began teaching that taking part in “communion”—or what some Christians call “the mass”—is one of the two absolute requirements for salvation—of course, the other being baptism. In fact, that’s what the whole Church taught for a long time, beginning 500 years or so after Jesus had returned to heaven and continuing with some people even today: All that’s required to be saved is to get wet and be fed.

And what’s wrong with that, you might ask? Am I saying that we shouldn’t be baptized or celebrate communion. No, not at all. What I’m saying is baptism and communion are not the requirements for our salvation. I’m saying that neither those actions, nor anything else that humans beings can will save us.

As the Bible tells the story, every time someone asked Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?” or “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” –he gave a different answer. Have you ever noticed that?

If you have your Bible open to John 6, flip back a couple of pages to the fourth chapter of John, where Jesus is having a conversation with a woman at a well. They’ve been talking about the water from that well, and finally Jesus says to her (starting at verse 13): “‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. . . . Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.’”

In chapter 6, it’s bread; in chapter 4, it’s water. So, was Jesus, in these verses, instituting a requirement that we have to drink water to escape damnation and live forever? Of course not. Jesus didn’t come to earth to lay down rules so that you and I could escape “the fires of hell” by the skin of our teeth.

If that was all his life was about, we should really pay attention to John chapter 11, when Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and then tells them, “‘Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you . . . . Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.’” Again, is Jesus saying that if we just get down on all fours and wash someone’s feet, we’ll be spiritually okay. We’ll get into heaven that way?

In Luke 10, Jesus mandates love for God and our fellow human beings as the requirement for eternal life. In Luke 18, when a man asks him, “‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’” Jesus tells him to sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor. Does any of us want to adopt that as the bottom line for salvation?

No, I didn’t think so. I don’t, either.

Eating bread, drinking water, washing feet, showing mercy, being generous. What’s wrong with all that? Absolutely nothing! But—let’s be perfectly clear—nothing about those human actions, in and of themselves, will save anyone. Why do you suppose that Jesus answered the question differently every time?

Because Jesus knows the human heart. He knows that anytime you tell people the absolute requirements—“the bottom line”—they will have one of two responses: either they will run shrieking and screaming the other way (because we are, after all, essentially rebellious at heart), or they will do just what the law requires and nothing more. Because it is a characteristic of the sinful human heart to believe that we can save ourselves. Just tell us what to do, and we’ll make up our own minds about when, how, and whether we’ll do it.

And nothing could be more dangerous than to come to believe in your own wisdom and strength

When Jesus says, “‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you,’” he is not commanding that we participate in some ritual so that we can live forever. When he speaks those words, Jesus is saying that unless we allow Real Life to enter into us, we are dead already.

Look at verse 57 (chapter 6): “‘Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.’” God is The One who spoke life into existence. God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is life itself. If we keep resisting Jesus and trying to get by with as little “religion” as possible, we are starving ourselves of life. But when we accept Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf and allow him to make our hearts a home for his Holy Spirit, Life himself lives in us, forever. Spiritually speaking, it is absolutely true, “You are What you eat.”

I would not presume to tell you exactly how to “feed” on Jesus. Even that language is very mysterious. But I know this: God never issues an invitation without also providing a way to respond. If you are trying to “be good” enough so that you become acceptable, your life has already become stunted and twisted and ingrown. And you will alternate between being unbearably self-righteous (because you mistakenly believe you’ve done all that’s needed) or desperately miserable (because you know you never can).

So, here’s what I would tell you in closing: You are not doomed to spiritual starvation. Jesus says to you, “I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.”

Let us pray: “God is great. God is good. And, God, we thank You for this food. Amen.”

You may have heard people call “Communion” “The Eucharist.” “Eucharist” is a word that means “thanksgiving.” In fact, it is related to the word “grace.” So, I invite you to conclude this sermon with me by bowing your heads and praying with me the very same prayer of thanksgiving that Early Christians prayed when they fed on the body and blood of Christ:

“We thank You, holy Father, for Your holy name [and Your holy being] which You cause to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality that You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant. To You be the glory for ever, Master almighty. You created all things for Your name's sake; You gave food and drink to all people to enjoy, that they might give thanks to You; but to us You freely gave spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Your Servant. Before all things we thank You that You are mighty. To You be the glory for ever. Remember, Lord, Your Church, to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in Your love. Gather it from the four winds, sanctified for Your kingdom, which You have prepared for it; for Yours is the power and the glory for ever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God-Son of David! If any one is holy, let him [worship]; if any one is not so, let him repent. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen” (The Didache, chapter 10).
Source materials for this sermon:

The Didache (ca. A.D. 50-120) , one of very first existing documents of Early Church, highlights how important this ceremony was to Early Christian worship: “Chapter 9. The Eucharist. Now concerning the Eucharist, give thanks this way. First, concerning the cup: We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David Thy servant, which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. And concerning the broken bread: We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever. But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, unless they have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs."

In the writings of a man named Justin (Martyr), a Christian who was killed for his faith in A.D. 165, (as well as in other writings of the time—by Christians and those who opposed them, e.g., The Octavius of Minucius Felix, ca. A.D. 230), we learn of charges that Christians were cannibals. The most well-known persecutor of Christians was the ungodly Roman emperor Nero, who probably attacked them to deflect public criticism against himself. Nero (whose first edict against Christians was handed down in A.D. 64) fueled rumors about their private (seemingly secret) meetings, going so far as to say that the Lord's Supper was cannibalism.

(Roman Catholic source): “The word Mass (missa) first established itself as the general designation for the Eucharistic Sacrifice in the West after the time of Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604), the early Church having used the expression the "breaking of bread" (fractio panis) or "liturgy" (Acts 13:2, leitourgountes); the Greek Church has employed the latter name for almost sixteen centuries. There were current in the early days of Christianity other terms: "The Lord's Supper" (coena dominica), the "Sacrifice" (prosphora, oblatio), “the gathering together" (synaxis, congregatio), "the Mysteries", and (since Augustine), "the Sacrament of the Altar". With the name "Love Feast" (agape) the idea of the sacrifice of the Mass was not necessarily connected. Etymologically, the word missa is neither fom a Hebrew word, nor from the Greek mysis, but is simply derived from missio. The reference was however not to a Divine "mission", but simply to a "dismissal" (dimissio) as was also customary in the Greek rite, and as is still echoed in the phrase Ite missa est. This solemn form of leave-taking was not introduced by the Church as something new, but was adopted from the ordinary language of the day, as is shown by Bishop Avitus of Vienne as late as A.D. 500 (Ep. 1 in P.L., LIX, 199): In churches and in the emperor's or the prefect's courts, Missa est is said when the people are released from attendance. In the sense of "dismissal", or rather "close of prayer", missa is used in the celebrated "Peregrinatio Silvae" at least seventy times (Corpus scriptor. eccles. latinor., XXXVIII, 366 sq.) and Rule of St. Benedict places after Hours, Vespers, Compline, the regular formula: Et missae fiant (prayers are ended). Popular speech gradually applied the ritual of dismissal, as it was expressed in both the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful, by synecdoche to the entire Eucharistic Sacrifice, the whole being named after the part. The first certain trace of such an application is found in Ambrose (Ep. xx, 4, in P. L. XVI, 995) (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10006a.htm)