John 6:51-69
J. J.
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
“Miracle Bread”
Today we reach the conclusion of Jesus discourse that He is the Bread of Life. We have seen how the Jews asked Jesus for a sign, before them would believe, even though he had just turned the five loaves into a meal for five thousand, and that the sign He has given us is His death and resurrection. We have heard from Jesus Himself that the Father has drawn us to Him and given us to Him, and that Jesus will never cast us aside. And throughout all of this Jesus was been telling them that He is the bread of life.
Earlier, you will recall, He had told them that He was the bread come down from heaven, and that they started grumbling against him, that he was not from heaven, he was from Nazareth. But He persists, I am the living bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever. Now He adds, the bread that He will give is His flesh for the life of the world.
This is more than they can take, more than they can understand. How can that be? They ask. Now, they are not saying that to find out, how it can be. Rather, what they are saying is No Way. Im-possible. How can THAT be? They are thinking that Jesus is talking about eating his flesh. Are we to tear Him limb from limb?
But Jesus does not stop and try to explain. He does not back up or back off. Instead, Jesus takes it one step farther. Talking about bread isn’t enough. Now it is, “Unless you eat of flesh of the Son of Man and drink of His blood you will not have life within you.”
Now it is not just the crowd, but the disciple who do not understand. “This is a hard saying,” meaning not just that they don’t get it, but that it is offensive to them. That is why they say, “Who can listen to this?”
This is nothing new, and it is still going on today. We expect that the world does not understand. We expect that the world does not “get it” about God, Christ, sin, grace, salvation, none of it. But even the disciples today do not understand. They say this is a hard saying, who can listen to this?
What do you mean, vicar? Jesus says in the His Last Testament, Take, Eat, this is My body. Take, Drink, this is my blood. But that is too hard to listen to. It can’t be his body and blood, can it? I mean, that would be cannibalistic, and icky. And it would be “icky” if He gave us meaty flesh and bloody blood. But He comes to us as the living bread come down from heaven. The miracle bread. So that we receive his flesh and blood in forms of bread and wine. Just as He said, “The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Remember how we said that the crowd should have asked a question here, because Jesus did not say, "the bread of God is that WHICH comes down," but "HE who comes down", meaning the bread of God is a person, namely, Jesus? The question they could have asked, but didn’t, was “How can bread be a person, or a person bread?”
That question was not asked then, but it is asked by many today, “How can bread be a person?” That is, “How can this bread, be the body of Jesus?” That is a hard saying. How can it be? It can, and it is, because Christ says so. He created the world and spoke it into existence. And He is the one who says, “Go your way, your sins are forgiven you.” Now, if He has the power, and He does, to create the world, and if He has the power, and He does, to forgive our sins, and we believe Him; why then, would we not believe His words when He says, This is My body? This is My blood?
Could it be that this is just representational or just spiritual? Jesus says, “My flesh is real food indeed, and my blood is real drink.” Now there is an abundance of meaning there. Yes, Jesus is saying that his flesh and blood which died on the cross is the source of life. Think about it. That’s what food is. The source of life. You may eat because you enjoy it, but fundamentally you eat because if you don’t you die. So Jesus’s sacrifice is the source of eternal life. But that is not the only meaning. St Paul explains the nature of the temple sacrifices while speaking to the Corinthians about the Lord’s Supper. He writes, “Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?” 1 Cor 10. So they who eat the sacrifice, those who partake of the sacrifice, participate in the sacrifice and its blessing. Which is why he also wrote, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”
If this bread were bread only, and a memorial only, then Paul would have written, is it not a participation in the memory of Christ? Or if the bread was some spiritual connection to Christ, but not his body, then he could have written, is it not a connection to the spirit of Christ. But no, Paul writes that the bread and the wine are participations in the body and blood of Christ.
And so it is that the Eucharistic is – in its own miraculous way – cannabilistic, That is, He IS the food that sustains us, and we must receive it, receive Him, eat of Him, partake of Him. As He says, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and blood abides in Me, and I in him.” Oh, but I don’t want to. Jesus said, “Does this offend you? Then what if you saw Me ascend into heaven?” He is saying, if you do not believe in Me having come down from heaven, then you will not believe in Me even if you see Me go back to heaven. Coming or going, you will not believe that I am from heaven, that I am from the Father. But it is the Spirit who gives you life, that you might believe, So I said, no one comes unless the Father draws Him.
We do not tear Him limb from limb and nor do we eat a fleshy flesh, like the crowd was thinking. But He was torn limb from limb. He did give His body for the life of the world. And his body is the bread by which He feeds the world that life. And thus, we can eat of his body and drink of His blood. And this bread forgives sins and gives life. So it is miracle bread, He is miracle bread, because He who came from heaven comes down from heaven anew, as did the manna in the wilderness.
Secondly, it is miracle bread because it is bread and wine and body and blood in a miracle way we do not understand. It is one thing to not understand. It is another thing not to believe. To not believe His words is to not believe Him. As we sing, “How this can be I leave to Thee, Thy word alone suffices me.”
And in the third place, it is miracle bread, because it works miracles – forgiving sin and giving life. Life sufficient, yes, but Life abundant. Not just eternal life. Later in the new creation. But Life. L-I-F-E. Life. Life here. Life now. That is what the manna did in the wilderness. The people did not save it up, waiting until they reached Canaan to eat it. No, they ate it daily. Over and over and over for forty years. It carried them all the way through the wilderness to the entrance to the Promised Land.
Life can be stale. Life can be dry. But we do not have mere bread, which dries out and grows stale. Does God provide for us in this body and life? Yes. Yes He does. But He gives us so much more. Christ has given us Himself. The bread of life which gives life. Christ is the life giving bread. We receive this bread in faith, and we receive this bread in our hands and in our mouths. He is the bread which is life itself. We have eaten of this bread, and we live in Him and He lives in us. We have believed and know that He is the Holy One of God, and that on the Last Day He will raise us up. For Christ has died. Christ is risen. And Christ will come again. Amen.
S. D. G.
