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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaertner After Jesus explains that he is the bread of life having come from heaven and that the bread that he gives for the life of the world is his flesh the crowd fights among themselves trying to sort out this question, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" This is a question that maybe you have not considered much after years of receiving faithfully the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. But it is the kind of question that pushes us to examine ourselves and what Jesus gives to us. In verse 48 Jesus said, "I am the bread of life," and in v. 51 he said, "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." Okay the image of Jesus offering himself as the bread of life is not too confrontational. But even in v. 51 Jesus adds, "And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." It is with this language of flesh that the crowds argued with each other, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Maybe they expected Jesus to give them an explanation that took away the scandal of the flesh. But we know that later Jesus established with his followers the meal of Holy Communion. Luke chapter 22 records, "And Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body, which is given for you.' In the same way he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.'" We cannot just take Jesus' talk of bread, flesh, and eating as language that makes us uncomfortable and so dismiss it. As Jesus talks with the crowd I am confronted with how essential it is that I feed my spiritual life with healthy food. The image of bread that Jesus gave to the crowd is an important image for us to study. The metaphor of bread helps us sharpen our understanding of what kind of gift Jesus offers to us. God has given us two kinds of life. The most obvious one is the gift of bodily life. I breathe. I think. I move. To do all these things I must eat. God gives to the good and bad alike whether we remember to thank and praise him or not for the gift of daily bread. But there is another kind of life that we are hungry to feed. People are seeking to satisfy their spiritual hunger and unfortunately often chasing down junk food with its quick satisfaction instead of the eternal life offered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We need to feed not only our bodies but most importantly our relationship with God. Jesus resisted the temptations of Satan to turn rocks into loaves of bread by saying, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Jesus told a Pharisee named Nicodemus, "Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the It is the desire of God to not only give us bodily life but also spiritual life. Jesus did feed the five thousand that were hungry with the loaves and fishes, but more importantly he desired that they would feed their spiritual lives. Your bodily life was born through the birth pangs of your mother. You were born again into your spiritual life through Baptism and the preaching of the gospel. Your bodily life is measured by blood pressure, pulse, oxygen rate, and brain activity. Your spiritual life is not measured by anything that can be found in a hospital emergency room vital signs monitor. The measurement of your spiritual life is found in John Jesus uses the language of bread to describe the nourishment that our spiritual lives need, it is a reminder to me that without the bread of life we are hungry. We are so hungry in our spiritual lives without Jesus that in fact we starve. Your spiritual life needs the bread of life, Jesus Christ, to not only thrive but in fact to simply survive. Spiritual survival is made difficult when we digest temptation and allow sinful thoughts and words to spread to our hearts. Salvation, the being rescued from death, is found in more than receiving information, ideas, concepts, principles, advice, rules and so forth from the Bible. More than a transfer of knowledge the means of grace give to you life. That is why the image of bread is such a physical image for feeding our spiritual lives. We do not find life in Christ through knowledge of facts and logic, but by faith in his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. You receive bodily nourishment through the food you eat. You receive spiritual nourishment through specific means. God has promised to work in your spiritual life for your benefit through Scripture, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. In baptism as the water and the name of God covers you, you are covered with the grace of God. Your sins are washed away, the old sinful self is drowned and a new creation emerges. In the Lord's Supper you do not simply receive information about Jesus' last night before he was betrayed. In the Lord's Supper we receive that sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection. In the body and blood of Christ received in, with, and under the bread and wine we feast upon the life-giving, sin-forgiving, life death resurrection of Jesus Christ. Consider the Scriptures. They are the most intellectual of the means of grace. We read, learn, and study the Holy Scriptures. The scriptures feed life-changing gift of Jesus Christ to the sin-sick soul. The Word of God is often described in the pages of the bible with image of food and life. The prophet Jeremiah recounted how the Word of the Lord fed him with joy and delight, Jeremiah 15:16 "Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart." The prophet Amos warned the people that on account of their disobedience they were going to experience a drought in the spiritual lives, Amos 8:11 "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the LORD God, 'When I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD." Jesus resisted the temptations of Satan to feed his body but starve his spirit, Matthew 4:4 "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." The Apostle Peter wrote about the importance of feeding our spiritual lives, 1 Peter 2:2 "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation." And the Evangelist John recorded in the book of Revelation of taking the scroll from the hand of the angel, Revelation 10:10 "And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings." The words bread, flesh, eat, and life work in our Gospel lesson today to bring us to focus on the needs of our spiritual lives. Jesus promises that whoever feeds on his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life, and that he will raise him up on the last day. It is not a statement of cannibalism, but of spiritual need. To be sure Christian faith involves teaching and learning, information and knowledge, understanding and agreement. But Christian faith is most importantly an issue of life. Jesus promises that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. This language is very physical. It may make some uncomfortable. But consider that Jesus is offering himself as the gift of salvation. In v. 47-48 Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life." In encourage you to feed your spiritual lives in the life-giving, sin-forgiving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus' gift of eternal life is eaten by faith. Come and be glad the feast is ready. Soli Deo Gloria -->> Home |