Receiving Jesus in the Eucharist
I don't usually exegete my sermon text on the blog, but this week's text is full of interesting questions and possibilities. Reading John 6:51-58, we find a rather graphic text that suggests that eternal life comes as a result of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus. This is much more graphic than the Synoptic texts of the Last Supper or Paul's even earlier rendition in 1 Corinthians 11.
John, written quite a bit later and with a different audience and issue in mind, offers us this gripping statement that he is the Bread of Heaven and that he is the Bread of Life. Gail O'Day, in her commentary on this passage, notes that John 6 is a continuation of a longer Johannine conversation about Jesus being the source of life -- what's new here, however, "is the explicit linkage of participation in the Eucharist to this gift of life." This shift represents a shift in audience as well -- away from the crowd described in the text to John's community. By focusing on both the incarnation and the Eucharist, it's possible, she says, that John is trying to "counter docetic or gnostic tendencies within his community that wanted to deny the bodily aspects of Christ and of Christian experience."
But, ironically nothing is said in these verses about the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine. O'Day writes:
So, the question is: how do we receive Jesus in the Eucharist? And, if we do, how does this relate to the Word, for the verses prior to this one speak of being taught by God? Remember too that in John 1 -- Jesus is represented as the Word made flesh.
Should we see these early chapters of John making clear the connection between Word and Sacrament?
John, written quite a bit later and with a different audience and issue in mind, offers us this gripping statement that he is the Bread of Heaven and that he is the Bread of Life. Gail O'Day, in her commentary on this passage, notes that John 6 is a continuation of a longer Johannine conversation about Jesus being the source of life -- what's new here, however, "is the explicit linkage of participation in the Eucharist to this gift of life." This shift represents a shift in audience as well -- away from the crowd described in the text to John's community. By focusing on both the incarnation and the Eucharist, it's possible, she says, that John is trying to "counter docetic or gnostic tendencies within his community that wanted to deny the bodily aspects of Christ and of Christian experience."
But, ironically nothing is said in these verses about the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine. O'Day writes:
The Fourth Evangelist's focus remains on the flesh and blood of Jesus, not their sacramental representations, in order to underscore Jesus' gift of his whole self, which is enacted in the eucharist. (Gail O'Day, ""The Gospel of John," New Interpreter's Bible, Abingdon Press, 9:608).
So, the question is: how do we receive Jesus in the Eucharist? And, if we do, how does this relate to the Word, for the verses prior to this one speak of being taught by God? Remember too that in John 1 -- Jesus is represented as the Word made flesh.
Should we see these early chapters of John making clear the connection between Word and Sacrament?
Comments
I do not understand the statement that there is no reference to the Eucharistic Elements. John 6:48-56 says in part:
"I am the bread of life...I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." ... Jesus said to them, "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. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
Jesus clearly links: bread of heaven - this bread - his flesh - true food - eat my flesh. This was written in the context of a Christian world that had access to the Synoptic Gospels, or at least one of them, as well as the letters of Paul, and routinely practiced sharing in the Eucharist - (as instructed by Paul in the establishment of his new churches, and as further institutionalized in the Didache). It is hard to accept the proposition that the mention of bread in these passages is non-Eucharistic in intent.
John
There is no mention here of the elements themselves.
As for John having access to the Synoptics and Paul, scholars are divided on that. Yes, he's later than they are, but the way he tells the story differs greatly.
I'm not saying that John 6 doesn't have eucharistic intent, it's just that the only elements he speaks of is his own body. And in this context flesh and blood does have a meaning of the whole person.
Actually, there is a clear Eucharistic reference:
The fact that in John 6.51c-58 traditional eucharistic material has been used is confirmed by an observation made by J. H. Bernard in 1928. He recognized that we have in John 6.51c an independent version of Jesus’ word of interpretation over the bread. One needs only to set John 6.51c and 1 Cor. 11.24b side by side to be convinced of the correctness of this insight:
John 6.51c
the bread which I give is my flesh
for the life of the world
1 Cor. 11.24b
this is my body
which is for you
It can be seen that the structure and content of the sentence is the same in both cases.
From http://dawningrealm.org/papers/living.pdf p5 by David R. Bickel.
John
You may be correct, however, as lurking in the background of the Gospel of John is the eucharistic setting, unspoken, yet present throughout. We "representational" Protestants need this corrective of a closer association with the mystical in the elements.