The Offense of the Gospel
John 6:51-58
Jesus had started the 6th chapter of John on a roll. Everyone wanted to follow Jesus. Whether by land or by boat they flocked around Him on the other side of the lake. There Jesus fed the 5000 males which prompted the crowd to believe that Jesus was the political Messiah they were looking for. They were eager to get at the Romans. This can be seen in 6:15 when they wanted to seize Jesus and make Him king. They wanted to be His soldiers in the Holy War. This was their work they were willing to do for God. They understood the danger that such an uprising would cause, but the risk was on their terms.
But the next day, Jesus says that the work of His followers was simply to believe on Him. He did not ask them to fight. Indeed, at Jesus’ trial, He tells Pilate that if He were seeking such an earthly kingdom that He had willing soldiers to go and fight for Him. So Jesus was already well on the way to bursting their bubble.
Jesus got downright offensive to the crowd which gathered around Him at Capernaum. He accused them of being false followers. Their motives were for their own gain and food rather than their free and loving service of God -- free stuff but not free grace. Dale Carnegie would definitely have failed Jesus’ sermon. This was no way to “Win Friends and Influence People.” But Jesus got even more offensive. His use of the “I AM”, the sacred name of the God of Israel was applied to His own person. This would amount to utter blasphemy, unless Jesus was indeed Yahweh, which He was.
Jesus again calls Him by the “I AM” in 6:51 and applying the attribute “the Bread of Life.” He amplifies this statement by saying if anyone eats of this bread shall live for ever. This was offensive enough, but someone could allegorize it by equating His teaching to bread. They could say that the word of God feeds the soul. But Jesus now makes a more extreme statement. He does not equate his teaching with spiritual food. Instead He emphatically exclaims: “The bread which I myself shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Nothing is more offensive to humankind in general, and the Jews in particular than cannibalism. This was a shocking statement. Indeed, it should thoroughly shock us as well. In the direst of circumstances, people have resorted to it to stay alive. Even so, it was shameful and repugnant. Many chose to die of starvation rather than eat human flesh. And Jesus gets even more extreme by changing the Greek word for “eating” to devouring like an animal. One must not just nibble at the bread, but gorge upon it like a raven. It is those who ravenously eat his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life. These are the terms that God has given that we might have life.
The result of Jesus’ hard sermon is that many of His “disciples” abandoned Him. They were grossly offended. “Eat my flesh, indeed! And everyone knows that the drinking of blood is strictly forbidden by the Torah. How could this man claim to be from God? And worse yet, how could He make divine claims about Himself? the audacity of it all! But Jesus knew they were not true disciples at all. He did not try to beg them to return. He had affirmed what was necessary. He had also said that they could not come unless they were called by the Father. He told them they were following Him with the wrong motives. Yet instead of repenting and turning to Jesus, they turned away. Jesus knew from the very beginning. Yet, they had made their own decision. They had been informed of the conditions and the consequences of unbelief just as they Children of Israel in the wilderness had been. And like their ancestors, their response to God’s wonderful grace was to murmur and reject it. And just as the murmurers and unbelievers had died in the wilderness and not attained to the Promised Land, neither would these false disciples.
But not all of them left. The twelve remained with Him. Jesus asked them if they would go away also. He knew they would not, but wanted to get the affirmation of the disciples for their sake, not His. Peter answers for them all, except for Judas, who would betray Jesus. “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know for certain that YOU are the Holy One of God.” They had the right idea. For them, the flesh did not matter. They wanted the eternal bread more than the earthly bread of which everyone having eaten and sustained by for a while would die.
Jesus makes a strange reply: “Did I not personally choose you? Yet one of you is a (the) Devil.” The reason they believed was because God had chosen them and drawn them. Yet there would be one more who was offended by Jesus’ teaching. That is Judas who would betray Him. Later on, it would be said that Satan himself entered Judas. It was not enough for Satan to send a demon, or even a whole legion of devils. This was a job for Satan himself! To think that instead of doing great exploits through the power of the Holy Spirit, Judas’ act of betrayal led to the greatest act of infamy.
Jesus knew this from the beginning. He knew that Judas was a thief who stole from the common fund. He was in ministry for the money and prestige. When things were going well, he was pleased to be part of the ministry. When Judas saw he could profit more by betraying Jesus, he gladly traded him for the money. In fact, that is the root meaning of “traitor.” Why Jesus allowed Judas to do this is a mystery, but rest assured it was the free act of Judas as far as human freedom is concerned. Ultimately, one is either a servant of God or the slave of the devil. But no one made him do it.
Judas remained after the vast crowds turned their back on Jesus. The crowds had also made their decision. Although their apostacy was not as spectacular as Judas’s, they had in a similar manner sealed their fate. One has to face up to the idea that being a disciple of Jesus Christ is as repugnant as cannibalism and drinking blood in the sight of the world. The early Christians were accused of this very thing by the Romans.
These verses are used by Lutherans and Catholics to support the idea that the blessing of the Eucharistic elements changes bread into the body of Christ and the wine into His blood. It seemed necessary that the priests in the church had to offer a sacrifice; therefore, it is necessary that the elements be changed into sacrificial flesh and blood. But this need not be taken literally. The sacrifice the priests (all believer) offer is the sacrifice of praise according to the Book of Hebrews. And if the early believers were truly charged when it says they ate the flesh and blood of their God, then is it equally true they committed incest in this love feasts as the Romans also charged them with? The latter charge is totally untrue, so we should not see the first charge as being literally true either. But the body of Christ is truly present at the Passover as well as the blood. But we need tp look at the believers as being the body of Christ as Scripture teaches. And the blood is the blood which makes us brethren. So when Jesus says that when two or three are gathered together in His name, He also says I will be in their midst.
In the church today, there are all sorts of people who say that they are believers in Jesus. But in what way are they believers? Are they believers who carry the cross of Christ and follow Jesus regardless of public opinion of them, religious or otherwise. A lot of people who claim to be Christians mock such believers. They have labeled them “Enthusiasts,” “Methodists,” “Holy Rollers” and such. At times, they were subjected to violence by people within the church itself. It is bad enough to be called terrible things and cursed by the heathen. But to be mocked by those who are supposed to be brethren in the church is another thing. There are those, including ministers who castigate anyone who actually believes in the virgin birth, resurrection of Jesus and the second coming of Christ as fundementalists, the same term used of ISIS. But this is the cross of discipleship.
Jesus was blunt in confronting the false motives of so-called followers. His speech drove them away from the church. Yet in the church today, it seems we want to welcome everybody into the church which is supposed to be a Holy Place. They can come as they are and stay as they are. This is not the approach of Jesus and neither should it be ours. People need to be confronted with the Gospel which needs to cut straight to the heart. People will be offended of course, yet it seems like this kind of preaching actually produces results. Those who hear and like Peter realize there is nowhere else to go, that Jesus is “the” hope will then follow Jesus truly, regardless of the cost. Like Peter, we can waver badly at times, but in the end we shall emerge victorious, not because we are perfect, but because He keeps His own. So even if the numbers in your church are small, this does not mean that your church is a success. And if your church is large, it does not mean necessarily that it is on fire for God. The true church bears fruit through identifying wit the suffering and cross of Jesus.
