Jesus’s Worst Sermon…
John 6: 56-69
Jesus’s Worst Sermon
Have you ever had the experience of a loved one talking to someone and you know what they mean and meant to say but it comes out all wrong? You cringe. You are torn between putting your hand over the loved one’s mouth and giving the loved one a hug. Now, if the loved one happens to do this whilst speaking to an audience, it is so much worse. The embarrassment is so much greater and your feeling of compassion but also helplessness is also so much greater. Ask the spouse of any preacher about this. I can sometimes see Isabel cringe if I say something wrong (you will notice I avoid looking at her much whilst I am preaching. My kids are even worse and now also corrects me blatantly).
To be fair there were numerous times where I utterly deserved a cringe. I once married the couple. I had the bride’s name wrong and the wrong name I used happened to be her groom’s ex’s name. I still contemplate suicide when I think about that wedding! In this church for some mysterious reason, I decided that the plural of fish is fishes and went on and on about fishes whilst my poor wife was dying inside. But this is not even the worst. The worst is when you read or listen to your older sermons and cannot believe that you would say that or put it like that. Sometimes you read an old sermon and think to yourself: “I wish Jesus could have preached that day in stead of me! People must have left after that sermon!”
John 6 tells us of a day where Jesus preached and his disciples must have cringed. They probably wished somebody else would have preached that day in the synagogue. People literally left. We read that MANY of Jesus’s followers stop following Him after that day. It was Jesus’s worst sermon. Or was it? Jesus basically said: “Eat me!”. He went graphic. He said people must eat his flesh and drink his blood. In those days blood was seen as sacred, a symbol and literally a container of life. If you broke an egg and there was a speck of blood in it, you could not eat it because it was said that the life is still in it. To draw blood from somebody meant that you attempted to murder that person. And Jesus dared to say people should drink his blood! That was highly offensive. Partly because of this utterance, the enemies of the church in the Roman empire accused Christians of being cannibals.
Was Jesus tired? Did He not prepare too well? Was He just off His game? No. Jesus meant what he said and I think He knew how offensive these words was going to be to some. Jesus wasn’t interested in how many people he could draw; He was more interested in how deep He could take the right people. (By “right people” I meant the people who were chosen to belong to Him and followed Him for the right reasons.)
So, what did Jesus mean when he said we should eat his flesh and drink his blood? Why is it worthwhile to follow a man that demands this?
Maybe the first mistake the people hearing these words made and the first mistake we make, is to relate it only to what we should do and what is expected of us. “eat my flesh and drink my blood” is at least as much a statement about who Jesus is than it is a statement about how we should follow Him. There is this pattern in the gospel of John where Jesus does and says things that reveals his identity. It gets misunderstood and then gets clarified by Jesus. It is definitely the case here. So maybe it is better to first ask what Jesus says about Himself than to ask what he expects of us with these words…
Jesus is Someone who wants to go deep with you
The Roman empire demanded much of people. Taxes, compliance and sacrifices. Their focus was on the outer appearances. They were not interested in how you felt about the empire in your heart as long as you could put up the appearance of being a submissive and obedient subject of the emperor. You had to look and play the part and keep your distance and keep your concerns to yourself. You had to give your pound of flesh and carry on. Personal engagement and authenticity with the emperor was unthinkable and uncalled for.
Jesus turns this on its head. Where the empire said: “Stay out of the Cesar’s way and bow down!”, Jesus says: “Come closer and engage”. Where the empire said: “Offer up your body!”, Jesus says: “I offer mine for your well being”. Where the empire’s message was: “Keep your distance and obey!”, Jesus said: “Come closer and enter into a relationship with me”. To obey and keep your distance in the empire gave you a chance to survive. To come closer and enter into relationship with Jesus meant that you get a chance to thrive.
Eating Jesus’s flesh and drinking his blood means to accept the invitation to enter relationship and go deeper with Him. Jesus doesn’t want people just to impersonate him or represent him. He wants us to personalize him. He doesn’t want people to mimic Him but to manifest him.
You can look about you this morning and think you are not as close to Jesus as this or that person. But you cannot say you can not go deeper with Him. That He doesn’t want you to or is unwilling to. Someone like that does not say: “eat my flesh and drink my blood”.
A good question to take home today, would be to ask yourself where and how can you go deeper with Jesus. Maybe there is an aspect of your life that still feels disconnected from who Jesus is and what He does and going deeper could simply mean to ask yourself in what ways what Jesus taught is relevant to your body image, your struggles at work or your joy about my grandkids. Or maybe going deeper means to deepen your relationships with other Christians. To get to know someone better. To invite someone over or show up at places where other Christians gather. It could be to acquire more knowledge or to express your faith through art. It could be to do something to be a better neighbour. There really is a thousand different and exciting ways to go deeper with Jesus.
By relating going deeper with Him with bread and wine, core elements of the staple diet at the time, Jesus actually points out that this going deeper is not a nice add on to life but essential to true life. Aren’t the people we admire most the ones that went deep? People that put in the extra hours, went beyond the call of duty and tested the limits. Doesn’t deep sea divers show us the most interesting things? Jesus is into going deep and those that follow Him are destined to not stay shallow and safe.
Jesus is about life
As I have said, Bread and wine were entities that sustained daily life. They were life giving. By describing Himself as entities that gives and sustains life, Jesus showed what He was about. He was not about power or religion or popularity but about life. He was drawn to what gives, sustains and enhances life. He still is. When we loose Jesus and feel far from Him, a good way to find our way back is to ask how and where are people doing things that promotes, enhance, save and nourish life. When you go to such places and join such people, you are almost guaranteed to bump into Jesus once more.
There is this temptation to make life about one thing. About work, or money or children. The trick is to make many things serve life. We go through seasons. Things that used to give us life in one season might need to be replaced or supplemented by other things as you enter a new season. For over a year preparing food for the homeless gave us purpose and meaning and life to others. We just ended this chapter on Friday. If we do not replace it with other things there will be a huge void, so already we have plans about hosting community meals with the resources at our disposal. Because this or that feeding scheme might start and end but our calling to partake in enhancing and nourishing life never ends.
There is a lie rampant in our day and age, one the pop culture tries to sell to you every day. That is that comfort and easy is what makes life meaningful. The truth is that too much comfort and ease can actually rob your life of meaning. Enhancing other lives even when it comes at a cost is what fills life with infinitely more meaning than comfort and luxury.
Jesus is sacrificial
Something his listeners in the synagogue was familiar with was sacrificial language. That an animal had to be sacrificed for one’s sins so that one could receive forgiveness, wasn’t foreign to them. It was what the celebrated ritualistically at Passover. It was a sacrifice to trek up to Jerusalem, buy a sacrificial lamb and present it to the priests at the altar. The concept of sacrifices was also familiar among pagans in the Roman empire. In their religions but even in their politics people were required to sacrifice for the gods and empire. That is why so many Caesars declared themselves to be gods. But to have a God or a king that sacrifice for you…that was unheard of.
You wanted to hear from a king or a leader that they are strong and that they will conquer. That inspired confidence. Jesus alluded to Him laying down his life sacrificially by saying we should eat his flesh and drink His blood. That was truly a revolutionary thought.
Real lasting influence comes through sacrifice not through power, victory and strength. Jesus showed us that. To come to Jesus and become his follower implies two things. It implies that you accept that his sacrifice was for you and sufficient for you. It implies that you follow his example and sacrifice for things that matter to Him.
There is this wonderful thing where a sacrifice doesn’t feel like a sacrifice at all but like a your are giving a gift. It happens when the magic ingredient of love is added. A sacrifice given out of love does not feel like one. It brings joy even though it still takes much. You see it with parents. They will be able to look back on all the hours and money invested in their children and they would recognize it as a sacrifice. But because it was born out of and driven by love, it didn’t feel like a sacrifice for the most part.
If we want to make greater sacrifices for Jesus, we shouldn’t start by trying to make greater sacrifices. We should start by asking Him to help us love Him and our fellow man even more. And we should never think that Jesus thinks of his sacrifice to us begrudgingly. He did not say people should realize just how precious his blood and flesh was before they can come. He spoke of his sacrifice in terms of a feast that people are invited to, not as a sacrifice they should feel guilty about and reciprocate. A good parent isn’t one that makes you feel guilty about the sacrifices they made for you. A good parent is one that inspire you to gladly sacrifice for others. Jesus is such a parent.
Close
“Who am I and what shall I do?” is the question that occupy our angst ridden minds. And though it might be a worthwhile question to explore regularly, I’m afraid there is another more valuable one that we explore way too little. It is: “Who is Jesus and what does He do?”. Today Joh 6 gave you an answer to this question. It told you Jesus is a Lord of infinite depth that can take you deeper without overwhelming you. He is about life and for life not against it. He sacrifices his own so that you could have life.
When Jesus said: “Eat my flesh and drink my blood”, we read than many parted ways with Him. But we also read that people like Peter deepened in their understanding and commitment to Him. And at this tumultuous time in history Jesus still invites us, you, to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
How you are going to respond to this invitations determines everything that is important about your life.
“To whom then shall we go, he has the words that give life!”
Amen