Where Else Would We Go? -- A Sermon for Pentecost 13B (John 6)
Has a preacher ever said something that offended you? Did you decide never to go back to that church? I expect we’ve all been there at least once in our lives. Since I’m the guest preacher this morning, I’ll do my best not to offend you. I don’t want to get Pastor Alex in trouble for inviting me here to preach this morning.
While I’ll do my best not to offend you, could Jesus say something that might offend you? Have you ever run into something that Jesus is recorded as saying that shocked you?
As we read the Gospels, it quickly becomes clear that Jesus had a tendency to step on toes and push people’s buttons. On one occasion, according to Luke, Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth. Since they had heard he was something of a preacher and healer, they invited him to say a few words in their synagogue. That didn’t go well. By the end of the service, the home folks tried to throw him off a cliff. Fortunately, Jesus escaped and headed off to a friendlier venue (Luke 4:16-30).
This morning we’ve heard another story about a time when Jesus said something that offended people. Our story comes at the end of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. This chapter begins with the feeding of the 5000. When we pick up the passage, the crowd has followed Jesus to the other side of the lake, hoping he would feed them once again. Instead of offering them earthly bread that would sustain them for a moment, he offered them the bread of heaven that would sustain them for eternity. That sounded okay to them because what they heard was that Jesus, like Moses, would give them manna from heaven. But, Jesus had something else in mind.
This is when the crowd got offended and began to walk away. You see, Jesus not only promised to give them the bread of heaven, but he offered himself as the bread of heaven. He told them that whoever ate this bread would live forever. Not only that but he got really explicit. He told them that “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.” (Jn. 6:55-56). That’s when the crowd walked away, which is understandable!
When Jesus saw that the people were leaving, he turned to the twelve and asked them: “Do you also wish to go away?” Is what I said too much for you as well? Peter answered Jesus with a question of his own: “to whom would we go?” After all, “you have the words of eternal life.” You are the “holy one of God.” You’re the one we’ve been waiting for.
The reading from John 6 asks an important question of us. That question is this: Who is Jesus for you? In most Disciples churches, we ask people who want to join the congregation or be baptized to make the Good Confession, the one Peter made: Is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God? We usually add, Is he your Lord and Savior? In other words, do you believe in Jesus enough to trust him with your life?
The Gospel of John talks a lot about abiding in Christ. Here in John 6, Jesus tells the crowd: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them.” Later on, after his final meal with the disciples, Jesus tells the disciples to:
“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:4-5)
When Peter answered Jesus after the crowd disappeared, I’m not sure he fully understood what he was saying. But somehow he understood that Jesus held the key to life, not just after we die, but now.
In a moment we will gather at the Table. Many scholars believe that John 6 offers us is John’s theology of the Eucharist. It is through our participation in the Lord’s Supper that we abide in Christ and therefore receive the bread of life and the cup of our salvation. Paul talks about putting on Christ through baptism, so perhaps for John, it is the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, where we put on Christ and become one with God through the Spirit.
This morning as you hear the Words of Institution consider the words we’ve heard this morning from John 6 as an extension of those traditional words: “This is my body broken for you.” “This is my blood shed for you.” Might these words from John 6 be his version of the Words of Institution? “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” So, as we take the bread and cup, symbols of Jesus’ body and blood, might we abide in him so that as we continue with him we might experience eternal life. That starts now!
While many in the crowd couldn’t receive this word, Peter and his companions seemed to understand that Jesus had the “words of eternal life” and that he was “God’s Holy One.” (Jn. 6:68-69 CEB). So, even if they didn’t fully understand what Jesus was saying, they continued to pledge their allegiance to him. We might not fully understand what it means to abide in Christ, but we know deep down that this is the path on which we should walk.
John’s Gospel begins with the declaration: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God?” And this “Word became flesh and lived among us.” He is “the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth?” (John 1:1, 14 NRSV). It is this Word of God become flesh who offers himself to us as the Bread of Heaven. By sharing in this bread we participate more fully in the life of God. So, with Peter, we can also respond to Jesus’ question by answering: Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. Or as St. Augustine put it: “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” Augustine, like many of us, had a restless heart, but he seemed to find peace in Jesus. May that be true of us as well, especially during these challenging times.
As you gather at the Table, having heard this word from the Gospel of John, I invite you to consider these words from the Eucharistic liturgy of my Episcopal youth. With John 6 as the foundation, the priest would say to us: “Feed on him in your hearts with thanksgiving.” May we feed on him so that he might penetrate more fully our lives so we too can experience the peace of God in its abundance.
As we do this, we can sing:
Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of Heaven, feed me ‘til I want no more,
fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.
[Richard Blanchard, Chalice Hymnal, 351]
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