Accepting The Bread

Good Morning. It is always a good day to be in the house of the lord.

This morning we will be wrapping up this series that we have been going through in John Chapter 6. Next week we will begin a new series on Revelation.

This morning lets dig back into this passage of scripture.

John 6:51–52 NIV

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” 52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Accepting Truth

It can be hard for us to accept truth when we hear it. It is hard when we are faced with information or reality that we struggle to accept.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you heard something that you know is true but you don’t want to accept it?

That struggle of hearing hard truth that leads us to a place where we just can’t accept it.

There are a lot of reasons people don’t want to hear the truth when it is shared.

Overthinking

We can get to a point that when we hear the truth we can sit back and over think about a situation. We sit there and analyze things all day long and we see things that aren’t actually there.

We want to understand but we just can’t accept things at times for face value.

Let’s be clear it isn’t always a bad thing to think things through carefully but when we let it consume us we can often blind ourselves to the truth.

Manipulation

We also love to manipulate situations so that we can change the truth before we have even accepted it. We work to find the loopholes in what has been shared. This can even lead us to the point of fabricating and creating the escape from reality that we want. That denial.

Denial

Then there is just the truth that we can be in just complete and utter denial about something. We refuse to see the truth even when it is smacking us right in the face. This is a hard place to be and this is also a hard person to get to move beyond their view because it will only happen on their terms.

Missed Metaphor

The Jewish people were in this state of having a hard time accepting the truth that was being shared with them that day.

Jesus who they knew personally as Joseph and Mary’s Son from Nazareth. They also heard the message Jesus was sharing and they missed the truth that Jesus was speaking in metaphor and not in literal senses.

They were deeply offended by what Jesus had said because the very idea of consuming flesh was highly offensive.

Think about this for a moment. Jewish culture and law prevented them from even consuming blood in any form.

In the Old testament the idea of eating flesh was to bring down a curse on ones self and that is not a place that anyone wanted to be.

Then there is the obvious reasons that cannibalism is just an abhorrent practice.

They didn’t want to accept the truth in front of them.

Jesus’ Metaphor

Jesus speaking about his body and his blood was not speaking in literal terms but he was referencing deeper ideas.

Now the easy out here for most preachers and teachers is to draw on the elements of communion and point us to the table and how powerful this moment is.

There are definitive elements that we can connect to the Lord’s Supper and we should keep that in mind but there is a more powerful metaphor and imagery that Jesus is pointing us to.

John 6:53–58 NIV

53 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. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Remaining In Him

The first important truth that we can take from Jesus message is the importance and the value of remaining in him.

We can’t escape the reality that we are to be connected to him and we are to allow him to fill our whole lives.

Christianity is not a passive hobby or something that is just done at our convenience it is something that we are supposed to be committed to in all aspects of our lives.

To do this to truly be a Christ follower we must remain in him. We participate in the consumption of the flesh and the blood we are taking in Christ and letting him fill us.

It is his holiness that fills us and transforms us. It is only when we recognize that we see we need to take in the bread daily to be nourished.

The second important images is that of the cross.

The Cross

Jesus is beginning to share with them that the time is coming of the cross. That there is going to be a cost and it is not a light one.

I shared earlier that it was a curse to consume flesh. It was this idea that also drew me back to the cross.

Galatians 3:13 NIV

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

The Cross

Paul Reminds us of this that Jesus was hung on this pole so that we could be redeemed. The metaphor of consuming the bread and blood of life that instead of cursing us gives us eternal life.

Jesus is sharing the truth and the redemptive story of what is to come in the cross and is preparing the hearts of the people to see that he has more in store that they haven’t yet learned about.

We will be bound in his death and we will find life in his ressurection.

Romans 6:4–7 NIV

4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

The Tension

The tension after all this was said had to be think. The disciples.

We should be clear when we say disciples this isn’t the 12 we are talking about.

Yes they are there but at that moment Jesus had many people who were following who would claim that they were his disciples.

They were struggling because what Jesus shared was not an easy teaching.

How are we supposed to believe in something that is just against everything that we have learned. In fact they ask that question.

John 6:60 NIV

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?

This is a legitimate question that they were asking not only of Jesus but of themselves.

Do i really want this?

Do I want to accept this truth?

or do I want to run from it, deny it, find a way out of it?

Then Jesus hears their question and he does something even bolder.

John 6:61 NIV

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?

Did I offend you?

the actual translation of this is closer to “does this scandalize you?”

What a Rhetorical question of Jesus.

Ultimately it is this question that leads to the desertion of Jesus by man disciples.

They couldn’t handle the harsh reality that Jesus’ teaching was not an easy one.

I think there lies the truth that we have to accept today.

The Christian Life

The other day I was talking with Isaac about creation and different views on it. There were several points that the questions got deep and we could have easily gotten in the weeds.

We could have chased every rabbit trail that came up when you talk about creation.

Yet, the bigger question remains when you talk about things about God.

You have to start with being willing to accept and have faith in God.

You have to begin that we might not understand everything.

Many of the disciples couldn’t accept or understand that there are things that we have to hold in paradox.

They had to accept that Jesus was both from heaven and the son of Joseph and mary.

That he was both man and God.

That he is human but is also the bread of life.

That he would die for their sins and turn the curse of the cross into a blessing.

To follow Jesus is to accept and to see that we have to trust in him.

There are truths that are right in front of us about him. There are things we won’t understand. Yet, our faith must remain.

This means that in order to be a follower of Christ you must give up yourself daily and follow after him.

We are to remain in him. To participate in the body and the blood. To see the sacrifice of the cross and see that it leads us to the table where we are reminded of what Jesus did for us.

This is why we can draw to the table. It is because of what he did for us.

This isn’t easy though. It is hard work. We must always be reminded of this.

Mark 8:34–35 (NIV)

34 “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.