Sermon for Ordinary 20, Sunday, 18th Aug 2024

MAY the words of my mouth and the meditations in our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. <Amen>

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”<LONG PAUSE>

Well it would be hard to imagine anything that was more problematic and if I can be blunt, more repulsive, for a first century Jew than those words. Throughout the OT there are prohibitions against the eating of an animal's flesh with blood.

Now, here's someone saying I want you to eat MY body and drink MY blood! When they protest, as they most certainly do, Jesus then had every opportunity to render his language more spiritual more metaphorical. To say well, look what I mean is …. something more symbolic - but He didn’t!

Indeed, when we look, in Greek, at the word Jesus uses it is “Trogain” for eating and not “Phagain” which is the usual word for human beings eating food. “Trogain” was the way of saying eat - ravenously, devouring, frantically - until nothing is left.

It’s as if, when the listeners object to the physical realism of His words, Jesus emphasises them. Jesus intensifies them! Jesus makes them even stronger! Jesus hammers the point home.

So yes, Jesus is saying that if we do not “devour” Him, take Him completely into ourselves then … we have no life!

This is Jesus taking us to the very heart of the issue of the gospel today and this is the HARD question Jesus is posing to us - do you want to have life?

Sure, these are difficult words, words that are difficult to hear, difficult to grasp and understand but, oh boy, they REALLY focus our attention!

Here we are in week four of this sixth chapter of John’s gospel. Making our way through John’s repetitions. Just how much more do we really need to hear this? How many more times must Jesus say, “I am the bread of life” “I am the true bread from heaven” and “feed on me”?

Apparently, John thinks we need to hear it again, and again, and again. Only this time, the message is getting more intense, more graphic, and - for some - more alarming.

Yet each week John’s narrative of Jesus has brought us closer to the unspoken question behind today’s gospel, “Is there real life within you?” <PAUSE>

It’s a hard question because it pushes us to discover the level of the yearning and hunger within us for the life that Jesus wants to feed us with.

That’s what Jesus has been getting us to focus on these last few weeks. <PAUSE>

Three weeks ago 5000 hungry people showed up. They were fed with five loaves and two fish. They didn’t understand. They thought it was just about loaves and fish. It was really about life and where life comes from. Two weeks ago Jesus challenged us to consider the bread we eat. Is it perishable bread or does it endure to eternal life? Last week Jesus declared himself to be the bread of life, the living bread that came down from heaven.

You see - this whole series of gospel passage is all about the TRUE LIFE that Jesus wants to feed us with! <PAUSE>

The Jews who have been listening to Jesus have been becoming more and more agitated. Last week, we heard them grumbling among themselves. This week, the grumbling has turned into an argument as they hear, once again, but find it difficult to understand and accept. They are repulsed by what they grasp as images of cannibalism.

Yet, today, and allow me to repeat myself because this is such a critical matter - this is where Jesus gets to the heart of His message … unless we URGENTLY take (”Trogain”) Him into ourselves, ingest and devour Him, gulping his life blood, we - are - dead! “Unless you do this,” Jesus says, “you have no life in you.”

Yes, it really is a matter of eternal, spiritual life or death when we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. Unless we devour Christ’s eternal life force into ourselves, we die. <PAUSE>

John gives us these passages that begin and end with life-giving “bread”.

You see, in John’s gospel, the words are all about taking Christ’s LIFE INTO OURSELVES.

Jesus says he is the living bread — catch that? The key word here is living, not dying. Jesus as the bread of life is all about the living Jesus, the living Word, not a dying or a dead Jesus.

In John’s gospel we see Jesus offering himself in the middle of his ministry, long before that final supper and His passion.

THIS IS ALL ABOUT - LIFE.

Throughout our recent journey through John’s gospel, Jesus’ concern is less about getting us to understand phrases and more about getting us to eat the LIVING bread, the LIVING Word. <PAUSE>

Jesus IS MAKING US A PROMISE.

This life we have through Christ is the promise of unity with God, abiding in God as God abides in us. This isn’t a memory of what Jesus did in the past, or our vision of what He will do in the future … rather this is a life to be lived fully in this moment, receiving as John puts it in 1:16 “grace upon grace.” <PAUSE>

In the symbolic eating and drinking of Christ’s “flesh and blood” He lives in us and we live in Him. We consume His life that He might consume and change ours. We eat and digest His life, His love, His mercy, His forgiveness, His way of being and seeing, His compassion, His presence, and His relationship with the Father. Brothers and sisters, we eat and drink our way to life. We live because of Him. We live because He lives in us.

So, when it comes to eating “The Living Word” … leave nothing behind; push nothing to the side. Eat your fill. Eat ravenously, Clean you plate … and to God will be the glory.

I runga e te Ingoa o te Atua, te Matua, te Tama me te Wairua Tapu. <AMINE>
In the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit <AMEN>