Pentecost 14               August 25th, 2024
John 6:51-69              Pastor Wolfe

Today We Dine at Jesus’ Table

This 6th chapter of John that we are reviewing in this series marks the biggest turning point in Jesus’ life. It began with him at the height of popularity, preaching to crowds of thousands after his disciples had gone out in his name to share the news of repentance and forgiveness. But by the end of the chapter the crowds disappear in desertion, with Jesus asking the twelve if even they would leave. Jesus’ fall from worldly favor was fast and brutal.

It wasn’t scandal that caused the people to abandon Jesus. It was a truth they couldn’t bear to hear. The truth of what Jesus means when he says we must consume him as the “Bread of Life.” Today we dine at Jesus’ table. What we find there is as shocking to us as it was for the crowd in Galilee.

Let’s review where we’ve been before we move ahead again. The day before these events Jesus had fed a crowd of 5000 men with five loaves and two fish. Perhaps you remember how they tracked him down across the lake again and found him in the city of Capernaum. Now they wanted more. Remember, they asked for manna, the miraculous food that God had provided for their forefathers in the desert? But Jesus told them he wouldn’t give them manna. Instead he would give them something better – bread that wouldn’t run out and leave them wanting for more. Jesus told them they would find the best bread in him.

Surely the people were disappointed when Jesus refused to dispense food on command, but it’s what he said that really caused a stir. Jesus says in verse 51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

That was too much. The Jews began to argue among themselves about what Jesus meant. Could he really mean that they were supposed to devour him like a group of cannibals? Cannibalism is one of the very few things that universally makes people go, “Blech!!” But if he didn’t mean that, what could he be talking about? And no matter what it meant, it sounded like he was saying that they had to rely on him to get to heaven. And that was the most offensive thing of all! Remember this whole conversation started with them asking, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

But Jesus knew their questions and their hearts. So he makes this truth even more vivid and shocking. Look at v. 53. “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

Eating flesh? Drinking blood? It sounds awful! But that’s what he says. And the shock value of it is intentional. Jesus is trying to wake up sleepy sinners who’ve become content with bite-sized religion. Jesus is telling us that unless we totally consume him there’s no life in us. Just what is he trying to say? As we unwrap what Jesus is saying here, let’s start with what it doesn’t mean.

Some commentators have taken Jesus’ words here in John 6 to refer to the Lord’s Supper. And indeed, in that holy meal Jesus gives us his actual body and blood. There we do eat his flesh and drink his blood, in a miraculous way. I can see why thinking of this as a reference to the Sacrament is attractive. But that’s not what this is and it’s not that difficult to see he’s not talking about communion. One reason has to do with timing. The feeding and words of John 6 happen months before Jesus celebrated the first Lord’s Supper with the twelve on the night he was betrayed. The people here had no idea what the Lord’s Supper was. Why would Jesus tell them they must do something he hadn’t even given or commanded yet?

But the clearer sign that this can’t refer to the Lord’s Supper is the way Jesus talks about the need to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus says here that only a person who eats his flesh and drinks his blood has life in him. Without it there’s no chance at eternal life. Well, yes, we know that God gives us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in the Lord’s Supper. But we also know it’s not the only way he gives us those blessings. In fact, we would never say someone has to take the Lord’s Supper at some point in their life in order to be saved. That would change the reason for our salvation from grace into good works. No, the Lord’s Supper adds to our comfort in knowing salvation, but there are many souls in heaven that never took communion. Every Old Testament believer. Every believing child who was called home to heaven before confirmation. The thief on the cross who was saved. No, Jesus isn’t talking about the Lord’s Supper.

So if it’s not the sacrament and he’s obviously not referring to some kind of cannibalism, what are we left with? A spiritual eating. Jesus is using a shocking figure of speech to get his point across. He is the living bread from heaven and unless we consume him – take him in completely in faith – there is no life in us.

So what does it mean to consume Jesus in faith? To totally absorb him and his teachings and recognize the fellowship we have with God through Christ alone. To center everything in our lives and our hearts and our families on him. And this is where Christian faith gets hard. So hard most in the crowd left him. It’s easy enough to figure out that Jesus is talking about an all-consuming faith here. To know that’s what he wants from us. But are we ready to follow that? To live that?

Remember how impossible our entry into heaven actually is. An impossible bar of perfect requirements. An unfailingly focused life dedicated to putting God first, others second, ourselves last. Only the perfect earn their way into a perfect heaven. No matter what excuses we might try to make for ourselves, we are not perfect. We’re petty and spiritually lazy. We’re distracted by all the shiny things the world has to offer. We look out for ourselves more than we look out for others. And the consequence of that sin is death. As Jesus said, apart from him there is no life in us.

But as soon as we’ve tasted the flesh and blood of Christ (and by that I mean as soon as the gift of faith begins to burn in our hearts) that changes. Jesus says in verse 54, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” You hear the present AND the future blessing in that verse don’t you? Already now, the death that was in us by sin is replaced by life in Jesus. You are one of the few children of life in this world. That means even after death takes our bodies, they will be returned to us on the last day. We live for the spirit, not the flesh. Ironically, consuming the flesh and blood of Jesus in faith turns away from flesh and blood concerns of the world.

But now we’re faced with Jesus’ challenge to the crowd too. Are we ready to move beyond a faith that sees Jesus to a faith that consumes him? Too often we don’t devote ourselves to our faith fully. We prefer just to take a bite out of Jesus. To have a nibble here and there when it makes us feel good or when we need to pull him out to get through a tough time. We’ll give him an hour Sunday morning when it’s not too big a burden. We’ll help out once in a while at church, but if we’re asked to do too much or to go outside our comfort zone and we feel like someone else should have a go instead. Do you see the crowd’s desertion in your heart? No wonder Jesus asked even the twelve if they too thought this was too hard. In a sense, it is!

I remember a high school professor whose favorite saying seemed to be, “You can’t leave your Christianity at the door.” While he maybe told us that a few too many times, he was right. Our faith is who we are. It must be who we are. We can’t choose to have faith and be believers for an hour or two on Sunday morning and then be somebody else the rest of the week. Eating at Jesus’ table and enjoying the living bread from heaven is an every-day, life-changing thing. It’s a total dedication to Christ. A complete reordering of what the world says our priorities should be. And the only thing keeping you from that freedom is a failure to see how free you are in Christ already.

Being filled with faith in Christ frees us from the emptiness of the world. From the listlessness and the lustfulness and the “lostness” of our hearts. Open your eyes, and see how the worries and concerns of life may grasp at your ankles but fail to bring down the one who stands on Jesus. As Peter says at the end of this account, those who eat at Jesus’ table have the words of eternal life. Where else would we go? What else would we do? So sit down and eat. Fill your heart with faith. Fill your life with Christ. Seek him and his kingdom first and let go of the world and its concerns and know that God has filled you with good things. Today we dine at Jesus’ table in the shadow of the world. One day we’ll dine with him in a heaven of pure light. God bless us as live for the one who lived and died for us. Amen.