Eating Living Bread
Preaching
Preaching the Parables
Series II, Cycle B
Most Americans eat well. Three square meals a day is not uncommon. Indeed, many eat five or six times a day if coffee breaks, evening snacks, and other times of eating are counted in addition to breakfast, lunch, and supper.
Drive through a town of any consequence and count the number of fast food places and restaurants that are found. At some corners of major roads or along a block or two of a busy thoroughfare you may find five to ten feeding establishments. It is not uncommon to find in close proximity McDonald's, Burger King, Burger Chef, Arby's, Subway, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Dairy Queen, Long John Silver's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell as well as lesser known or local look-a-like fast food establishments.
Go into a major supermarket and count the variety of products that are similar. The only discernible difference often is in the trade name. Whole aisles will be filled with a vast array of cereals. Another aisle will be filled with competing brands of soft drinks: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Royal Crown, 7 Up, and lesser known or store brands.
Try to find in the same area a religious bookstore. Compare the size of the religious book and supply store with the supermarket. It does not appear that people are as eager to be fed spiritually as they are to be fed physically!
Or perhaps we should look at the churches. How do they compare with the feeding and drinking establishments? A person would have some variety of "brand names" to choose among.
John 6 takes the preoccupation of the crowds with food and drink as an occasion to move from physical eating and drinking to the more important needs of the spirit. Nourishment is needed for spiritual life and growth.
Context
Context of the Lectionary
Today's lesson from the Gospel continues, and even overlaps by one verse, last Sunday's reading. The general opinion is that the image of eating the bread in the previous lesson dealt more with the Old Testament imagery of bread as a symbol of divine wisdom. It suggests that Jesus is the source of divine wisdom. The reading today is more clearly using eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood as symbolic of the Eucharist.
The First Lesson. (1 Kings 2:1-12; 3:3-14) David gives his dying instructions to Solomon. He first admonishes him to walk with God and keep his instructions and commandments. Then he gives him instructions of how to deal with allies and enemies. Then the death of David is reported. The second passage tells how Solomon worships God and, when offered a blessing from God because of his faithfulness, he does not ask for riches, long life or the life of his enemies. Instead he asks for wisdom and understanding. God acknowledges the worthiness of the request and grants it.
The Second Lesson. (Ephesians 5:15-20) Paul advises the Ephesians how they should live wisely. As Solomon sought wisdom to serve God, Paul admonishes the Ephesians to show wisdom in the way they live.
Gospel. (John 6:51-58) John reports Jesus' discourse on eating his flesh as living bread and drinking his blood. He responds to a debate among the Jews about his statement and elaborates on the meaning of what he said.
Psalm. (Psalm 111) The psalmist expresses his praise to the Lord for his magnificent works. He ends with the admonition that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This condition is the same as the theme found in the first and second lessons.
Context of the Gospel according to John
John differs from the synoptic gospels in several respects. He does not include the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, though he treats the relationship of Jesus to John the Baptist. John the Baptist is presented as a forerunner of and subordinate to Jesus. At one point (John 4:1, 2) John reports that the Pharisees heard that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist, but that is immediately followed by the disclaimer that Jesus himself did not baptize. Only his disciples did. It is probably significant that this note is sandwiched between the account of the new birth in the conversation with Nicodemus and the conversation with the woman at the well. Jesus offers her the water that quenches all thirst.
John also has the extended account of the Last Supper as a feast of the Passover (John 13-17), but he does not have the words of institution for the Eucharist. The reading for today has echoes of the words of institution more clearly than anywhere else in John's gospel account.
Context of Related Scriptures
For accounts of the words of institution of the Lord's Supper in the synoptic gospels, see Mark 14:22-25; Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:17-21. See also 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Genesis 2:23-24 - The woman is flesh of the man's flesh and the two become one flesh.
Joel 2:28 - The Lord will pour his spirit on all flesh.
Psalm 78:25 - People ate the bread of angels and the Lord sent them food in abundance.
Romans 8:9-11 - Paul speaks of being in the Spirit of Christ rather than in the flesh and through being in the Spirit having life.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 - The Corinthians are people of the flesh as infants in Christ though fed with milk, not solid food.
2 Corinthians 2:15-17 - Paul says speaking in Christ as sent from God leads to life, not death.
Ephesians 2:13-14 - Paul speaks of being in Christ Jesus by his blood and being made one in his flesh.
Content
Precis (John 6:51-58)
Jesus uses the symbol of the living bread that gives eternal life and relates it to his sacrifice of life for the world. In response to a furious debate among the Jews who are horrified at the thought of cannibalism, Jesus uses words similar to those in the institution of the Eucharist. He proceeds to assert a unity between those who eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. He makes a further connection between himself and the living God who sent him and the life he bestows on those who partake of him. He contrasts those who ate the bread in the wilderness and died with those who eat the living bread of himself and have eternal life.
Thesis: Those who partake of the living bread in Christ have eternal life.
Theme: Eating means trusting Christ; drinking means obeying Christ.
Key Words in the Parable
1. "Living Bread." (v. 51) Living bread becomes an alternative for bread of life as found in John 6:35, 48.
2. "Came Down from Heaven." (v. 51) A repetition of the theme of incarnation that is basic to John's gospel account.
3. "Give ... my Flesh." (v. 51) An allusion to the self-sacrificial death of Jesus.
4. "The Jews ... Disputed." (v. 52) The term in Greek suggests a violent dispute among the Jews. They would be scandalized by the thought of cannibalism, a charge that was sometimes made against Christians because opponents misunderstood their celebration of the Eucharist.
5. "Eat my Flesh ... Drink my Blood." (v. 54) The Aramaic had no good word for body, as opposed to the Greek which had words that distinguished between the flesh and the body. Blood frequently is identified with the life of a person or an animal since when the blood is drained life is gone. The use of flesh and blood together would indicate the full humanity of Jesus. He was no disembodied spirit that inhabited a man, as some Gnostics proposed.
6. "Because of the Father." (v. 57) Scholars disagree as to whether the term translated "because" refers to the source of Jesus' life or whether it means he lives on behalf of the Father.
7. "Your Ancestors ... Died." (v. 58) Did the Israelites only die physically in the desert, or does Jesus suggest that in their rebellion and complaining they were already spiritually dead?
Contemplation
Issues and Insights
1. The Eucharistic Implications. The emphasis seems to shift from John 6:41-51 to John 6:53-58. It is no longer believing that leads to life. It is feeding and drinking. Jesus becomes the agent of salvation by giving his life for those who came to have a unity with him. A unity of fellowship with the living Lord, indicated by eating his flesh and drinking his blood, grants true living.
The passage raises the issue of how one celebrates the Lord's Supper. Is it some kind of magical act conferred by the elements themselves? Is it a memorial to the memory of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus until he comes again? Is the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the cup a reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus on behalf of the world? Is the act of feeding and drinking a commitment to take the substance of Jesus' life into our life so that we live the life he lived? Is it all of the above or none of the above?
2. To Whom Do We Owe Life? The concept of Jesus being sent by God and Jesus giving his life for the world raises the issue of the source and purpose of our life. Are we brought into the world for our own pleasures and purposes or are we brought into the world for a larger purpose which our lives are to serve? Jesus had a clear sense that his life was dedicated to doing the will of God. He was bound by the source of his being to show the meaning of God's character and nature. He in turn calls his followers to be bound to God through him in the same way as he was bound to God. By partaking of his nature through the action of the Holy Spirit, we are released to a larger purpose and activity.
3. Mutual Indwelling. To assimilate the Son of Man into our being means that we dwell in constant union with Christ. He becomes the motivating force that drives our life. Our entire life comes to depend on Christ. That becomes our reality of faith, worship, fellowship, obedience, and all our actions.
Our life no longer depends on our self-interest. We live on what Jesus has done for his people by his life, death and resurrection. We appropriate his virtues by absorbing his teachings, character, mind, and ways of relating to all people.
In this sense the passage is not only a reference to the celebration of the Eucharist. It is a statement of the entire life of those who are called to follow Christ. The unity with Christ is not some ethereal mystical event. It is a translation of his life into ours in a daily walk with him that becomes a life forever with him.
4. Is John Anti-Sacraments? As noted earlier, John does not have either the baptism of Jesus or the institution of the Eucharist in the Last Supper during the Passover meal. Does he deliberately omit these events? He surely must have known about them.
Perhaps John deliberately omits the record of these sacramental episodes because of abuses of them in the church of his time. In Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus talks about the worship of God in spirit and truth. Does John want people to get beyond the external forms of worship to the reality of relationships? He may want people to live in a real unity with Jesus as shown in their character and activities. It seems clear that the discourse found in John 6:51-58 is a discussion of the meaning of eating and drinking. The passage relates them to partaking of the flesh and blood of Jesus. Such eating and drinking becomes a sharing of the life of Jesus fully and forever.
5. To Whom Does Jesus Speak? The usual words of institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper are found in the synoptic gospels and were addressed only to the disciples. If John 6:51-58 is John's substitute for the establishment of the Eucharist, then the words are addressed to a crowd and not just to the disciples.
Does the different setting for the discourse on eating the living bread signal that the Eucharist is not just for the disciples? It is for the entire church. Certainly John's account shows that the partaking of the life of Jesus is meant for everyone and is not restricted to a select group of disciples.
Perhaps by setting the discourse in response to a common meal rather than a more ritual Passover meal John also wants to address the issue of how often the Eucharist is to be celebrated. The early church as reported in Acts 2:46 broke bread in their homes daily. That practice moves the memory from the worship in the temple and makes it part of daily life. Christians are meant to partake of the life of Jesus as regularly as they eat food for the physical body. The manna was given daily to the Israelites in the desert. Jesus offers himself daily to his followers.
Homily Hints
1. Partaking of Christ. (v. 53)
A. Believing. The initial step one must take is to accept the life and teachings of Jesus as having authority and salvific consequences.
B. Trusting. One relies on God's help to deal with the problems of living, both internally to one's person and externally to relations with others and the larger world.
C. Obeying. Believing and trusting in the God of Jesus Christ enables a person to live faithfully in following the teachings of Jesus even when they make demands that go contrary to conventional wisdom and human prudence.
2. Flesh or Spirit. (vv. 55, 58)
A. Doing What Comes Naturally. Do we simply follow our biological impulses?
B. Doing What Comes Spiritually. Living in Christ helps us overcome natural desires and to live according to the Spirit.
C. Being Fully Human. Jesus was truly human. If we partake of his nature and character we manifest what it means to be truly human.
3. True Food. (v. 55)
A. Malnourished. Living according to false desires.
B. Undernourished. Neglecting the activities which feed the life of the spirit in Christ.
C. Fully Nourished. The life that fully understands and is committed to following Christ in all of life.
4. Where Do You Abide? (v. 56)
A. Abiding in Christ.
B. Christ Abiding in Us.
C. Abiding Forever.
5. Living Forever. (v. 58)
A. Shedding the Past. Giving up the sin and guilt that lead to death.
B. Living in the Present. Trusting God to forgive and allow us to begin anew every day in faithfulness.
C. Hope for the Future. We live without fear of all the evil forces in the world because we have a living hope for eternal life.
6. Living to Eat or Eating to Live. (v. 58)
A. Living to Eat. Pursuing the pleasures of the flesh.
B. Eating to Live. Living according to the spirit.
C. Fed to Serve. We eat to serve purposes larger than self-interest and carnal desires.
Contact
Points of Contact
1. Cookbooks are among the best-sellers of publishers. For some publishers, including church publishing houses, cookbooks are their main money-makers. Nonprofit organizations raise money by collecting local or ethnic recipes, printing them in booklet form, and selling them.
Each year magazines run feature stories in their November and December issues on menus and recipes for the holiday seasons. Then in January and February they run diet plans and articles on how to lose weight. According to a report, Americans gain an average of six pounds over Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you multiply 250 billion times six pounds, you get 1,500 trillion pounds!
If we take John 6 seriously as Christians, we should replace our preoccupation with eating and dieting with feeding on Christ. It would lead us to concern for the hungry of the world. We should follow our occupation as disciples of Christ rather than our preoccupation with eating and trying to lose excess weight.
2. Recent articles raise questions about the obsession of the medical profession with prolonging life. Doctors go to extraordinary lengths to keep a person alive even though they know that the person is dying. Too often dying is not looked upon as a natural process. Sometimes expensive processes are ordered mainly to satisfy the family that doctors are doing everything imaginable to keep the person alive when they know that the processes avail little or nothing for the patient.
Persons who have confidence in the God of Jesus Christ and know the reality of eternal life should lose their fear of death. Indeed, at the end of a long life they should welcome the relief from the pain, suffering and limitations of life in the world. To be released as part of the natural order of human existence and to experience the timelessness of life beyond the passing of the flesh is a promise filled with hope for those who trust in the God of goodness and grace.
3. The American culture has gone through a social change since World War II. Increasingly, families either have both parents employed outside the home or they have only a single parent for support. In both instances the family fills up most of its time with paid employment.
One result is that little time is left to volunteer for the tasks of the church. Women earlier provided much of the volunteer time for teaching Sunday school, quilting and sewing for missions, preparing food for fellowship meals, and other such tasks. Now they work at paying jobs and continue to do most of the household chores. They now have more money than time in many instances.
A consequence for the church is that people have little time for the life of the spirit. The church has often moved to a kind of professionalism where services are by paid employees, where earlier much was done by volunteers.
The new situation often leaves people with a hunger for time and opportunity for spiritual renewal. They need occasions for engaging in activities in which they are more consciously feeding on Christ while they are serving larger purposes.
4. The celebration of the Eucharist is a group activity. The breaking of bread together should enhance the fellowship of the church along with the fellowship with Christ. It should be an occasion for developing a sense of unity as the body of Christ.
The celebration of the Eucharist can be more than a self-indulgent ritual of seeking one's own salvation if we pay attention to those with whom we are joined in the fellowship of the Lord's meal. The unity of the body of Christ becomes real if we observe the needs of those with whom we commune and ask how we can be servants to them. If we share in the body then any part of it that is hurting becomes our hurt. Relieving the suffering of any member of the body relieves our suffering and the sufferings of Christ, as he also suffers with his body.
Illustrative Materials
1. Hunger in the World. According to statistics from Oxfam, 2,500 people will die of hunger during the typical one-hour church worship service. Two-thirds of them will be children. A third of the children in the world are very underweight for their age. About one-fifth of the people in the world are so malnourished that they cannot engage in productive activity.
The problem is not a lack of food. Enough food is produced to provide an adequate diet for everyone. A part of the problem is a matter of distribution. The food is not equally available to those who are hungry. A part of the problem also is a lack of will and a sense of priority to feed the hungry.
2. False Diets. Much of what the media in America provides is a false diet. A recent advertisement for a series of comic books for young people touts the fact that they are extremely violent. They are filled with gory details of fighting among people. Heroes are those who can wreak the most destruction and death.
A result is that though violent crime went down in 1994, crime, especially murder, has increased sharply among adolescents. Symptoms of the false diet being fed are the legislation to lower the age at which teenagers may be tried as adults and the greater punishment given where guns are used by them in committing a crime.
3. Food Pyramids. New standards for diet were proposed recently. A new food pyramid was developed as a guide for healthy eating. It includes a base of bread, cereals, rice and pasta. The next level up the pyramid is vegetables and fruit. A still smaller next level is milk, yogurt, cheese, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and nuts. The smallest group at the top is fats, oils and sweets.
We can propose a food pyramid for those who want a healthy spiritual life. You may want to develop your own, but it might include a base of feeding on the word of God by study and meditation on the scriptures. Upon that base one is nourished by Christian fellowship. It should include servings of regular worship. To that a daily use of prayer and devotions could be added. On top of those elements should be time for Christian service to meet the needs of others.
Drive through a town of any consequence and count the number of fast food places and restaurants that are found. At some corners of major roads or along a block or two of a busy thoroughfare you may find five to ten feeding establishments. It is not uncommon to find in close proximity McDonald's, Burger King, Burger Chef, Arby's, Subway, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Dairy Queen, Long John Silver's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell as well as lesser known or local look-a-like fast food establishments.
Go into a major supermarket and count the variety of products that are similar. The only discernible difference often is in the trade name. Whole aisles will be filled with a vast array of cereals. Another aisle will be filled with competing brands of soft drinks: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Royal Crown, 7 Up, and lesser known or store brands.
Try to find in the same area a religious bookstore. Compare the size of the religious book and supply store with the supermarket. It does not appear that people are as eager to be fed spiritually as they are to be fed physically!
Or perhaps we should look at the churches. How do they compare with the feeding and drinking establishments? A person would have some variety of "brand names" to choose among.
John 6 takes the preoccupation of the crowds with food and drink as an occasion to move from physical eating and drinking to the more important needs of the spirit. Nourishment is needed for spiritual life and growth.
Context
Context of the Lectionary
Today's lesson from the Gospel continues, and even overlaps by one verse, last Sunday's reading. The general opinion is that the image of eating the bread in the previous lesson dealt more with the Old Testament imagery of bread as a symbol of divine wisdom. It suggests that Jesus is the source of divine wisdom. The reading today is more clearly using eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood as symbolic of the Eucharist.
The First Lesson. (1 Kings 2:1-12; 3:3-14) David gives his dying instructions to Solomon. He first admonishes him to walk with God and keep his instructions and commandments. Then he gives him instructions of how to deal with allies and enemies. Then the death of David is reported. The second passage tells how Solomon worships God and, when offered a blessing from God because of his faithfulness, he does not ask for riches, long life or the life of his enemies. Instead he asks for wisdom and understanding. God acknowledges the worthiness of the request and grants it.
The Second Lesson. (Ephesians 5:15-20) Paul advises the Ephesians how they should live wisely. As Solomon sought wisdom to serve God, Paul admonishes the Ephesians to show wisdom in the way they live.
Gospel. (John 6:51-58) John reports Jesus' discourse on eating his flesh as living bread and drinking his blood. He responds to a debate among the Jews about his statement and elaborates on the meaning of what he said.
Psalm. (Psalm 111) The psalmist expresses his praise to the Lord for his magnificent works. He ends with the admonition that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This condition is the same as the theme found in the first and second lessons.
Context of the Gospel according to John
John differs from the synoptic gospels in several respects. He does not include the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, though he treats the relationship of Jesus to John the Baptist. John the Baptist is presented as a forerunner of and subordinate to Jesus. At one point (John 4:1, 2) John reports that the Pharisees heard that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist, but that is immediately followed by the disclaimer that Jesus himself did not baptize. Only his disciples did. It is probably significant that this note is sandwiched between the account of the new birth in the conversation with Nicodemus and the conversation with the woman at the well. Jesus offers her the water that quenches all thirst.
John also has the extended account of the Last Supper as a feast of the Passover (John 13-17), but he does not have the words of institution for the Eucharist. The reading for today has echoes of the words of institution more clearly than anywhere else in John's gospel account.
Context of Related Scriptures
For accounts of the words of institution of the Lord's Supper in the synoptic gospels, see Mark 14:22-25; Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:17-21. See also 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Genesis 2:23-24 - The woman is flesh of the man's flesh and the two become one flesh.
Joel 2:28 - The Lord will pour his spirit on all flesh.
Psalm 78:25 - People ate the bread of angels and the Lord sent them food in abundance.
Romans 8:9-11 - Paul speaks of being in the Spirit of Christ rather than in the flesh and through being in the Spirit having life.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 - The Corinthians are people of the flesh as infants in Christ though fed with milk, not solid food.
2 Corinthians 2:15-17 - Paul says speaking in Christ as sent from God leads to life, not death.
Ephesians 2:13-14 - Paul speaks of being in Christ Jesus by his blood and being made one in his flesh.
Content
Precis (John 6:51-58)
Jesus uses the symbol of the living bread that gives eternal life and relates it to his sacrifice of life for the world. In response to a furious debate among the Jews who are horrified at the thought of cannibalism, Jesus uses words similar to those in the institution of the Eucharist. He proceeds to assert a unity between those who eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. He makes a further connection between himself and the living God who sent him and the life he bestows on those who partake of him. He contrasts those who ate the bread in the wilderness and died with those who eat the living bread of himself and have eternal life.
Thesis: Those who partake of the living bread in Christ have eternal life.
Theme: Eating means trusting Christ; drinking means obeying Christ.
Key Words in the Parable
1. "Living Bread." (v. 51) Living bread becomes an alternative for bread of life as found in John 6:35, 48.
2. "Came Down from Heaven." (v. 51) A repetition of the theme of incarnation that is basic to John's gospel account.
3. "Give ... my Flesh." (v. 51) An allusion to the self-sacrificial death of Jesus.
4. "The Jews ... Disputed." (v. 52) The term in Greek suggests a violent dispute among the Jews. They would be scandalized by the thought of cannibalism, a charge that was sometimes made against Christians because opponents misunderstood their celebration of the Eucharist.
5. "Eat my Flesh ... Drink my Blood." (v. 54) The Aramaic had no good word for body, as opposed to the Greek which had words that distinguished between the flesh and the body. Blood frequently is identified with the life of a person or an animal since when the blood is drained life is gone. The use of flesh and blood together would indicate the full humanity of Jesus. He was no disembodied spirit that inhabited a man, as some Gnostics proposed.
6. "Because of the Father." (v. 57) Scholars disagree as to whether the term translated "because" refers to the source of Jesus' life or whether it means he lives on behalf of the Father.
7. "Your Ancestors ... Died." (v. 58) Did the Israelites only die physically in the desert, or does Jesus suggest that in their rebellion and complaining they were already spiritually dead?
Contemplation
Issues and Insights
1. The Eucharistic Implications. The emphasis seems to shift from John 6:41-51 to John 6:53-58. It is no longer believing that leads to life. It is feeding and drinking. Jesus becomes the agent of salvation by giving his life for those who came to have a unity with him. A unity of fellowship with the living Lord, indicated by eating his flesh and drinking his blood, grants true living.
The passage raises the issue of how one celebrates the Lord's Supper. Is it some kind of magical act conferred by the elements themselves? Is it a memorial to the memory of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus until he comes again? Is the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the cup a reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus on behalf of the world? Is the act of feeding and drinking a commitment to take the substance of Jesus' life into our life so that we live the life he lived? Is it all of the above or none of the above?
2. To Whom Do We Owe Life? The concept of Jesus being sent by God and Jesus giving his life for the world raises the issue of the source and purpose of our life. Are we brought into the world for our own pleasures and purposes or are we brought into the world for a larger purpose which our lives are to serve? Jesus had a clear sense that his life was dedicated to doing the will of God. He was bound by the source of his being to show the meaning of God's character and nature. He in turn calls his followers to be bound to God through him in the same way as he was bound to God. By partaking of his nature through the action of the Holy Spirit, we are released to a larger purpose and activity.
3. Mutual Indwelling. To assimilate the Son of Man into our being means that we dwell in constant union with Christ. He becomes the motivating force that drives our life. Our entire life comes to depend on Christ. That becomes our reality of faith, worship, fellowship, obedience, and all our actions.
Our life no longer depends on our self-interest. We live on what Jesus has done for his people by his life, death and resurrection. We appropriate his virtues by absorbing his teachings, character, mind, and ways of relating to all people.
In this sense the passage is not only a reference to the celebration of the Eucharist. It is a statement of the entire life of those who are called to follow Christ. The unity with Christ is not some ethereal mystical event. It is a translation of his life into ours in a daily walk with him that becomes a life forever with him.
4. Is John Anti-Sacraments? As noted earlier, John does not have either the baptism of Jesus or the institution of the Eucharist in the Last Supper during the Passover meal. Does he deliberately omit these events? He surely must have known about them.
Perhaps John deliberately omits the record of these sacramental episodes because of abuses of them in the church of his time. In Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus talks about the worship of God in spirit and truth. Does John want people to get beyond the external forms of worship to the reality of relationships? He may want people to live in a real unity with Jesus as shown in their character and activities. It seems clear that the discourse found in John 6:51-58 is a discussion of the meaning of eating and drinking. The passage relates them to partaking of the flesh and blood of Jesus. Such eating and drinking becomes a sharing of the life of Jesus fully and forever.
5. To Whom Does Jesus Speak? The usual words of institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper are found in the synoptic gospels and were addressed only to the disciples. If John 6:51-58 is John's substitute for the establishment of the Eucharist, then the words are addressed to a crowd and not just to the disciples.
Does the different setting for the discourse on eating the living bread signal that the Eucharist is not just for the disciples? It is for the entire church. Certainly John's account shows that the partaking of the life of Jesus is meant for everyone and is not restricted to a select group of disciples.
Perhaps by setting the discourse in response to a common meal rather than a more ritual Passover meal John also wants to address the issue of how often the Eucharist is to be celebrated. The early church as reported in Acts 2:46 broke bread in their homes daily. That practice moves the memory from the worship in the temple and makes it part of daily life. Christians are meant to partake of the life of Jesus as regularly as they eat food for the physical body. The manna was given daily to the Israelites in the desert. Jesus offers himself daily to his followers.
Homily Hints
1. Partaking of Christ. (v. 53)
A. Believing. The initial step one must take is to accept the life and teachings of Jesus as having authority and salvific consequences.
B. Trusting. One relies on God's help to deal with the problems of living, both internally to one's person and externally to relations with others and the larger world.
C. Obeying. Believing and trusting in the God of Jesus Christ enables a person to live faithfully in following the teachings of Jesus even when they make demands that go contrary to conventional wisdom and human prudence.
2. Flesh or Spirit. (vv. 55, 58)
A. Doing What Comes Naturally. Do we simply follow our biological impulses?
B. Doing What Comes Spiritually. Living in Christ helps us overcome natural desires and to live according to the Spirit.
C. Being Fully Human. Jesus was truly human. If we partake of his nature and character we manifest what it means to be truly human.
3. True Food. (v. 55)
A. Malnourished. Living according to false desires.
B. Undernourished. Neglecting the activities which feed the life of the spirit in Christ.
C. Fully Nourished. The life that fully understands and is committed to following Christ in all of life.
4. Where Do You Abide? (v. 56)
A. Abiding in Christ.
B. Christ Abiding in Us.
C. Abiding Forever.
5. Living Forever. (v. 58)
A. Shedding the Past. Giving up the sin and guilt that lead to death.
B. Living in the Present. Trusting God to forgive and allow us to begin anew every day in faithfulness.
C. Hope for the Future. We live without fear of all the evil forces in the world because we have a living hope for eternal life.
6. Living to Eat or Eating to Live. (v. 58)
A. Living to Eat. Pursuing the pleasures of the flesh.
B. Eating to Live. Living according to the spirit.
C. Fed to Serve. We eat to serve purposes larger than self-interest and carnal desires.
Contact
Points of Contact
1. Cookbooks are among the best-sellers of publishers. For some publishers, including church publishing houses, cookbooks are their main money-makers. Nonprofit organizations raise money by collecting local or ethnic recipes, printing them in booklet form, and selling them.
Each year magazines run feature stories in their November and December issues on menus and recipes for the holiday seasons. Then in January and February they run diet plans and articles on how to lose weight. According to a report, Americans gain an average of six pounds over Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you multiply 250 billion times six pounds, you get 1,500 trillion pounds!
If we take John 6 seriously as Christians, we should replace our preoccupation with eating and dieting with feeding on Christ. It would lead us to concern for the hungry of the world. We should follow our occupation as disciples of Christ rather than our preoccupation with eating and trying to lose excess weight.
2. Recent articles raise questions about the obsession of the medical profession with prolonging life. Doctors go to extraordinary lengths to keep a person alive even though they know that the person is dying. Too often dying is not looked upon as a natural process. Sometimes expensive processes are ordered mainly to satisfy the family that doctors are doing everything imaginable to keep the person alive when they know that the processes avail little or nothing for the patient.
Persons who have confidence in the God of Jesus Christ and know the reality of eternal life should lose their fear of death. Indeed, at the end of a long life they should welcome the relief from the pain, suffering and limitations of life in the world. To be released as part of the natural order of human existence and to experience the timelessness of life beyond the passing of the flesh is a promise filled with hope for those who trust in the God of goodness and grace.
3. The American culture has gone through a social change since World War II. Increasingly, families either have both parents employed outside the home or they have only a single parent for support. In both instances the family fills up most of its time with paid employment.
One result is that little time is left to volunteer for the tasks of the church. Women earlier provided much of the volunteer time for teaching Sunday school, quilting and sewing for missions, preparing food for fellowship meals, and other such tasks. Now they work at paying jobs and continue to do most of the household chores. They now have more money than time in many instances.
A consequence for the church is that people have little time for the life of the spirit. The church has often moved to a kind of professionalism where services are by paid employees, where earlier much was done by volunteers.
The new situation often leaves people with a hunger for time and opportunity for spiritual renewal. They need occasions for engaging in activities in which they are more consciously feeding on Christ while they are serving larger purposes.
4. The celebration of the Eucharist is a group activity. The breaking of bread together should enhance the fellowship of the church along with the fellowship with Christ. It should be an occasion for developing a sense of unity as the body of Christ.
The celebration of the Eucharist can be more than a self-indulgent ritual of seeking one's own salvation if we pay attention to those with whom we are joined in the fellowship of the Lord's meal. The unity of the body of Christ becomes real if we observe the needs of those with whom we commune and ask how we can be servants to them. If we share in the body then any part of it that is hurting becomes our hurt. Relieving the suffering of any member of the body relieves our suffering and the sufferings of Christ, as he also suffers with his body.
Illustrative Materials
1. Hunger in the World. According to statistics from Oxfam, 2,500 people will die of hunger during the typical one-hour church worship service. Two-thirds of them will be children. A third of the children in the world are very underweight for their age. About one-fifth of the people in the world are so malnourished that they cannot engage in productive activity.
The problem is not a lack of food. Enough food is produced to provide an adequate diet for everyone. A part of the problem is a matter of distribution. The food is not equally available to those who are hungry. A part of the problem also is a lack of will and a sense of priority to feed the hungry.
2. False Diets. Much of what the media in America provides is a false diet. A recent advertisement for a series of comic books for young people touts the fact that they are extremely violent. They are filled with gory details of fighting among people. Heroes are those who can wreak the most destruction and death.
A result is that though violent crime went down in 1994, crime, especially murder, has increased sharply among adolescents. Symptoms of the false diet being fed are the legislation to lower the age at which teenagers may be tried as adults and the greater punishment given where guns are used by them in committing a crime.
3. Food Pyramids. New standards for diet were proposed recently. A new food pyramid was developed as a guide for healthy eating. It includes a base of bread, cereals, rice and pasta. The next level up the pyramid is vegetables and fruit. A still smaller next level is milk, yogurt, cheese, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and nuts. The smallest group at the top is fats, oils and sweets.
We can propose a food pyramid for those who want a healthy spiritual life. You may want to develop your own, but it might include a base of feeding on the word of God by study and meditation on the scriptures. Upon that base one is nourished by Christian fellowship. It should include servings of regular worship. To that a daily use of prayer and devotions could be added. On top of those elements should be time for Christian service to meet the needs of others.
