May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord.
Jesus speaks to you today, saying:
“ Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he
distributed them to those who were seated.”
John 6 has been very divisive in recent Church history and
by recent I mean the last 500 years or so. This is because Jesus appears to be
divisive here in talking about the Lord’s Supper. Where we want gray lines or
blurred lines in order to appear more tolerant and inclusive, Jesus smacks the
sinner in the face saying, “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 you” (v. 53).
Here God draws a line, not in the sand, but in the Rock, Who
is Christ. It is the line between belief and unbelief. Heaven and hell. Saved
and unsaved. And, as I already mentioned, the line is drawn upon the flesh of
the Son of man, Jesus Christ.
There are only two religions in the world, one that says
“Do” and the true one that says “Done”, and the border between them lies at
Christ. Not just the idea of Jesus, it lies on exactly Who He is and what He
came to do. And He tells us this in this title He gives us today, saying He is
the Bread of Life, or the Bread of heaven. In other words, He has come to give
Himself as a true food for many.
Why all this is interesting is because Jesus puts the entire
discussion of His flesh and blood immediately after physically feeding 5000+
people. Not only will that food be on everyone’s mind, and face and stomach,
but as God’s creatures we can not help but think about actual food and get
hungry when the subject is brought up.
However, some say that this is just a spiritual eating, all
in your mind, because Jesus says things in John 6 like, “Do not work for the
food that perishes” (v. 27), which would be the bread and the wine we use
in Service. No matter how many zip-locks or BHT we throw on it, it rots away.
And, “Truly, truly, I say to you”, says(v. 32), “it
was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven”, suggesting that men can
not hand this Bread out.
Also, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall
not hunger” (v. 35). Of course we can’t get to Jesus. He has ascended to
the Right Hand of God, wherever that is. How does a body get there? Must be a
metaphor.
And finally, verse 63 in which He says, “It is the Spirit
who gives life; the flesh is no help at all”. Couple that with the Old
Testament prohibition on eating blood in Genesis 9:4, “you shall not eat flesh
with its life, that is, its blood” and Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of
the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make
atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life”
we may have a shut case on this prohibition from God.
Here now, the Christian engages in battle. Not with guns and
knives and not even with loaves and fish, but with God and His Word. For, now
it appears that God is at odds with Himself. He says don’t eat blood but now we
are to eat it.
First, Your “go to”, should you ever find yourself in a
discussion involving John 6 and the Lord’s Supper, is simply to continue to go
back to the institution of the Lord’s Supper in Matthew 26. Jesus’s words there
is why the Supper is even on our radar in the first place.
Second, do you know why you are not supposed to eat the
flesh with its blood? Because it is corrupted, having come from this world of
sin and death. But notice that Leviticus 17 passage again. Even though the
blood is corrupted, God still commands that it be used to make atonement. One
more time, we run into a wall, concerning God’s Word. How can corrupted blood
make atonement?
The beginning of our answer lies in Ezekiel 16:19 where the
Lord says that He has fed us bread and will feed us bread and yet we offer it
to our idols instead. What I mean is that if you were to eat the flesh with its
blood now, you would remain forever in your sin and die eternally. This is the
same reason that Adam and Eve could not eat of the fruit of the tree of Life,
after the Fall.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it
labor in vain” (Ps 127:1). Unless the Lord sanctifies the Altar and the
sacrifice on it, those who worship, worship in vain. Unless the Lord gives the
bread…you get it.
Jesus was able to be crucified by His own followers, because
the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel was seen as an earthly kingdom, not
the suffering and dying of God. The revelation that took place upon the cross
turned everything on its head and we see this in Jesus’ constant clashes with
the Pharisees and even His own disciples.
Yet, in God’s Word, you find the crucifixion; the betrayal,
suffering, dying, and rising of the Messiah on behalf of His people, as Jesus
says in multiple places, including Matthew 20:17-19. It was simply a case of
revelation to show that true victory (Easter) comes in the form of apparent
defeat (Good Friday) and not in military conquest.
So it is that when we approach the spirituality of the Bread
of heaven, our two religions only give us two choices. Either we disagree with
Jesus or we agree with Him. Either we say that this Bread is only spiritual and
that as long as you believe and feel it in your heart that you have eaten and
drunk the Body and Blood, you have.
Or we can agree with Jesus and not only feel it and believe
it, but actually do it.
Yes, do not eat of the flesh with its blood, for that is the
blood of beasts. Not only are they corrupt, but they are less than you and
cannot give you life from their life. Their blood is incompatible with yours
and will only result in death.
The Blood you need is the Blood that leads to eternal life.
Remember when John 6:27 said “Do not work for the food that perishes, but
for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to
you”? Well, now the Body and Blood of Jesus, Who is both God and man, does
not perish. In fact Jesus says, “Take. Eat. This is my Body”. God just
gave you bread.
Remember when v. 32 said, “it was not Moses who gave you
the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven”?
Well, now the Father gives His Son and says, “This is my Son, my Chosen One;
listen to him” (Lk 9:35). And the Son says, “Take. Drink. This is my
Blood”. God just gave you blood.
Jesus’s blood is better than sacrificial blood and even
better than your blood (Heb 12:24). Such that, now united with God, the Body
and Blood of Jesus, which is the same as our flesh and blood, now gives life
instead of death. Corrupted blood can only make atonement at God’s say-so and
must be done over and over again. The incorruptible Blood of God makes
atonement for all people of all time, once, and it is true forever.
John 6:63 is true then saying, “It is the Spirit who
gives life; the flesh is no help at all”, because flesh alone is no good.
Flesh and Spirit is double-plus good. For now the Spirit and the flesh are
united in one Christ and man ascends to the throne of God in the true religion.
The religion of “Done”, as in the Lord Jesus has Done His work for you and you
sit at the reception feast.
So it is that when we approach the Holy Altar with the Holy
Supper on it, we approach both Spirit and Body. It is not one against another
or one over another, but one with the other. It is the Word AND the water, the
bread, the wine. It is the Promises of holiness AND the physical signs that
follow them.
In Christ, there is no more separation between the spiritual
and the physical. The line between the two religions are scourge marks and nail
scars, proving that God is sacramental, that He works with the Spirit and what
He has created. In one religion, the spirit and the invisible are king. In the
other, are the sacraments.
The physical presence of God makes the religion and the
physical presence of God proves the presence of the Bread of Heaven. Since that
is so, we can now come to Jesus and never hunger, as He said, for we can
literally lay hands upon the Bread of Heaven.
And if we can lay hands upon Jesus, we can lay hands upon
the forgiveness of sins. And if it is true that the living Christ comes among
His gathered people to teach them and feed them in public worship, and if it is
true that the life of the church flows to her from Christ Himself, then what is
more important than weekly gathering together to receive His gifts and respond
to Him with our prayers and praise and offerings?
This is the reason Jesus says “as often as you eat and
drink”, because not only do you receive your Lord whenever you eat and drink,
but He is there, offering the same things, as many times as you are hungry and
thirsty.
Which of course should be all the time. Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled”.
The man desiring to commune with His Lord is blessed and finds righteousness on
his lips and tongue.
For John chapter 6 is about the Lord’s Supper and it is
about Jesus taking the time to plant this hunger and thirst inside of you. Such
that you find Him. Such that you are not starving yourself or dehydrating
yourself, intentionally or unintentionally. He is here for you, in His Supper
any and every time you wish it and the only reaction to more often communion is
thankfulness.
That is what Jesus gives thanks for today, in verse 11. Not
only does He gives thanks for hungry and thirsty believers, but also that He is
there to feed them. It gives Him no end of pleasure to offer Himself for the
forgiveness of your sins. In fact, I would say, Communion with God is the only
reason we come to Church and it is the only thing that let’s us truly step
outside our dark world and taste an eternity in His Light.
