A Difficult Teaching? —Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 14B (John 6)

 John 6:56-69 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁵⁶ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said these things while he was teaching in a synagogue at Capernaum.

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray him. ⁶⁵ And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

⁶⁶ Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

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                The story that began with Jesus feeding the 5000 with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish comes to a close. John 6 is one of the most controversial and yet intriguing chapters of the New Testament. The focus throughout is on bread, with the one exception being Jesus’ stroll across the Sea of Galilee on the night after he fed the crowd. A conversation struck up between Jesus and the crowd that regathered in Capernaum about whether he would provide them with daily bread, like Moses. He offered them a different kind of bread, the bread of life that comes from heaven. He tells the crowd that he is the Bread of Life that has come down from heaven.  He goes further by telling them that if they wanted to experience eternal life, they needed to eat his flesh and drink his blood. That demand caused quite a stir, as you can imagine. It sure sounded like an invitation to cannibalism, a charge often made against early Christians by their critics. The question that has been debated ever since is what Jesus meant by this statement. How literally should we take it?

                Our reading for the week offers a brief overlap with the previous reading (Jn. 6:56-58). The lectionary creators offer these two verses as a connector, even as they had earlier in previous readings. We are reminded in verse 56 that if we eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood we abide in him, and he abides in us. The word abide is important for us to keep in mind as we move forward. “So whoever eats me will live because of me” (Jn. 6:57). This bread is unlike the manna God provided in the wilderness because those who eat Jesus will live forever (Jn 6:58). He said all of this while speaking in the synagogue at Capernaum.

                Now, we move on to the response to these words of Jesus. According to John, many of Jesus’ disciples found this teaching that Jesus shared too difficult to accept. By referencing Jesus’ disciples, John has in mind a larger group than the twelve, but probably smaller than the larger crowd that had followed him from the place he fed the 5000. This marks a point at which Jesus’ larger group of followers is having second thoughts. It appears that Jesus had offended them with this word about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. When Jesus hears them complain, he ups the ante. After he asks if what he has said offended (skandalizō) them, he asks them how they will respond if they “were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (Jn. 6:61-62). Marianne Meye Thompson writes: “If people struggle to understand how Jesus can be the bread of God that has come down (katabainō) from heaven, how will they possibly understand that he will return (ascend, anabainō) to the Father? Jesus’ return presupposes the events of his death (13: 1) and his resurrection (20: 17), after which he “ascends” to his Father” [Thompson, John (New Testament Library) (Kindle p. 161)]. Then Jesus tells the disciples that it’s the Spirit, not the flesh that gives life, because “the flesh is useless.” As is often the case in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ audience has missed the point. He’s not talking about eating his physical body as if he’s recommending cannibalism. He’s talking about something spiritual. Jesus said something similar to Nicodemus in John 3 when Nicodemus couldn’t understand what Jesus meant when he spoke of being born from above.  

                In John 6:64, Jesus comments about the nature of belief, suggesting that some in this group of disciples didn’t believe; that is, they didn’t trust him. He knew who would betray him. For John belief is key and belief is not simply assent to some creedal statement. To believe is to abide in Christ, which means abiding in the Father, who abides in Christ, who abides in us. Jesus adds that those who come to him do so because the Father has granted this to them. The question is, how do we abide in Christ? How do we experience this spiritual union? The church has traditionally read John 6 through a eucharistic lens. Bread and wine serve as symbols/signs of Christ’s body and blood, which are ingested as a sign that one abides in Christ. It is a spiritual experience. So, we can think of eating bread and drinking wine, to use sacramental language, serving as “outward signs of an inward act of grace.” While the manna that the people ate in the wilderness provided physical sustenance, that didn’t keep the people from eventually dying, which is a human reality. Therefore, to eat the body of Christ (Eucharistic bread) and drink his blood (Eucharistic Wine), you abide in Christ, as you do, you won’t die spiritually. Ultimately, for John, this is what is most important.

                Getting back to the conversation with his disciples, with at least some of them walking away and no longer continuing with him, Jesus asks those who remain “Do you also wish to go away?” Are you going to leave as well?  Peter answers Jesus’ question, as he often did in the Gospels: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn. 6:68-69).  Whether Peter fully understood what Jesus had been saying is not clear, but he knew enough to know that he needed to stay connected to Jesus. He needs to abide with him. It’s possible he was tempted to leave but, in the end, he knew that he had to stay. Where else would he go? Who else offered him eternal life? He knew, and the others knew, that Jesus was the “Holy One of God.”

                Amy Howe writes a helpful word when it comes to understanding this somewhat scandalous message offered by Jesus and what it means for us, a message imbibed as we partake of the Eucharist.

In the moment that we choose to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink Jesus’ blood—and we truly abide in him and he in us—we choose life. We give up the notion that we are in control. Fear truly no longer has the upper hand. We understand that we are no better than any other child of God because of our denomination, our skin color, our gender, our job. We turn over to God that which we fear most, trusting that we are loved. When we can accept the love of God that is pure grace, love flows from us and we love others. We do forgive our pew mate for his addiction. We stop in real conversation with the homeless woman on the street corner. We value the baby fussing during worship. We suddenly prefer God to religion. [Feasting on the Word, p. 384].

                When Peter made this confession at the end of John 6, the crowd that had gathered first to be fed had been winnowed down to the point that a small group, maybe just the twelve, stood with Jesus. Only they were ready to abide in Christ. As Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm puts it:

It is not any particular creed, mission statement, style of worship, or service program that unites them as the body of Christ. It is their professed willingness to follow Jesus Christ that renders them a community of faith. What a blessed word to remember as we agonize over mission statements, budget priorities, worship attendance, or other preoccupations of churchly life. It is our commitment to follow Christ alongside others that makes us the people of God. [Feasting on the Word,p. 385.]

So, as we ponder Jesus’ scandalous words when we gather at the Table, we do so as the body of Christ that is enlivened by our participation in his life, for Jesus abides in us and we abide in him.