Eating and Drinking the Son of Man: The Eucharist Meal

John 6:41-59 Eating and Drinking the Son of Man (The Eucharistic Meal) Introduction: Last week we talked about the common journey of all human beings to seek true life and true fulfillment. Most of us have an idea of what will truly satisfy us, what the missing ingredient to our happiness is…But the Scriptures tell us over and again that we are most likely wrong. We do not know. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death.” Jesus Bread Sermon is all about LifeIt’s all about true satisfaction. It is an invitation to stop working towards things that will not, that cannot satisfy and to do the one thing that will satisfy - which is coming to Jesus in simple faith. We ended our study talking about the need to continually go to Jesus - to go to him again, and again, and again - to have life, to be satiated by him. This morning I want to talk more about what that means to Go to Jesus 1. “So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” 2. What is the Meaning of Jesus’ Words: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” 1. Jesus Sacrificial Death 1. In order to really understand the significance of what Jesus is saying we have to look back a particular passage in the O.T. 2. “And three of the thirty chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the cave of Adullam, when a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. 15 And David said longingly, “Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” 16 Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord 17 and said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it.” -2 Samuel 23:17 3. “God forbid, he said, that I should drink the blood of these men, who went at risk of their lives.” David didn’t want to be seen to profit from their readiness to put their lives on the line for him. He poured the water on the ground. 4. Jews weren’t supposed to eat drink blood or eat meat that still had the blood in it. - (Leviticus17:10-14) This is probably why David used this phrasing. You see to drink this water would be the equivalent of drinking blood. He wouldn’t, he shouldn’t, he couldn’t. 5. But the fact that Jesus speaks of "drinking his blood” in this setting gives us an all important clue to what he means in this extraordinary passage. If you want to profit from what I’m doing - you must eat my flesh and drink my blood; if you do this you’ll live forever. 1. "What Jesus means is what David meant. David refused to “drink the blood of his comrades- that is, to profit from the risk of their lives. Jesus, as the true Messiah, is going one better again. He will put his own life at risk - indeed, he will actually lose it; and his comrades will profit from that death. They will "drink his blood”. They will have their thirst quenched by his death and all that it means. -N.T. Wright 2. Martin Luther, commenting on this passage, said, “Wherever the message is proclaimed that Christ gave his body into death and shed his blood for our sins, and wherever that is taken to heart, believed and retained, there Christ’s body is eaten and His blood is drunk. This is the true meaning of eating and drinking. To eat is synonymous here with believe.” -Luther 3. This is the first meaning. If we want Life, we must go to Jesus believing/trusting in his atoning work for our sins. 4. This is the work that God requires “that we believe on him who he has sent.” This is how we come to Jesus 2. The Eucharist 1. Coming to Jesus for salvation is the initial way in which we come. But as we discussed last week, we are to continually come to him. 1. “All the grandeur and the greatness belong to the heaven sent, cosmos coming one. He does all the work. Is there any simpler way, then, to describe our responsibility? "Just come” - The simplest prayer “comes”. The simplest personal presence in his Church, where is people, Word, and sacraments are present, “comes.” The simplest Godward thought “comes” A personal time of Prayer, a family time of prayer, a small group meeting in his name “comes.” The simplest personal obedience to the will and spirit of God, whom we have learned and received from Jesus in various personal and public situations "comes.” of course Jesus does not list these out for us. He simply invites us to be “comers”, and thats all. And to all such comers he promises no real hunger ever again.” -F.D. Bruner 2. But I believe that here in this latter half of John 6 there is a specific way in which Christ is inviting us to continually come to him. 1. “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.” 2. It would be hard for any Christian reader to miss the blatant references to Eucharist/Communion here in this passage. 3. The interesting thing about the Gospel of John is that it is the only Gospel that does not record the institution of the Eucharist .-and at the same time it is the only Gospel account that explains what the Eucharist does for the Christian. John is the one who lays out it’s significance. And since this is a sacrament of the Church and a weekly practice of Refuge it would do all of us good to know and understand and receive benefit from it’s significance. 4. There are only two sacraments (religious ceremonies) that the Lord Jesus gave to his Church: Baptism and Communion or Eucharist. Unfortunately they have been often misinterpreted and half understood by the Church, often seen as another way of salvation or as a kind of Jesus + baptism = Salvation. 5. “The sacraments are not a second way of salvation; they are simply Jesus’ one way of salvation scaled down, physicalized, individualized, simplified, and concretized, from hearts to hands, from soul to body, from group to individual. He knew that we need not only spiritual things but also physical things in order to grasp him more easily, to “come” to him more specifically.” -Bruner 1. And this is what Communion or Eucharist is really about: it is the word becoming flesh again and again. It is the most earthy way that the heavenly Lord wants to be with us. 2. Baptism and Eucharist (Communion) are, at least, helpful physical human ways to physicalize spiritual trust. 3. The Eucharist helps the church remain Christocentric…every week we are reminded, “This is my body, given for you; take, eat, and be grateful! This is my blood, shed for you and for all human beings for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me, etc.” 1. But what does it mean to remember? Does it simply mean we shouldn't let thoughts slip out of our minds? Does it mean we reminisce on the sufferings of Jesus so we feel really thankful or really awful? For many Christians, to remember is an ambiguous mental activity. But in the Bible, a call to remember—especially when tied to a covenant sign or ceremony—is a vibrant, powerful, and participatory concept where we recalibrate our lives according to what's being remembered. 2. But Jesus takes it further now and he says, it isn’t just coming or even recalibrating ourselves, but something more permanent -“Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” -He is offering us permanence, permanent ongoing association and identity with him - making our home with him and he with us. Home is a huge piece of our identity…. 3. We are told here by Christ that there is a way to settle into our home with him; it is by regularly dining at his table. Our weekly gatherings around God’s word and the table of the Lord should be like weekly homecomings. 4. The Lord’s table is a weekly offer to reorient our lives around the person and mission of Jesus. We join him in that by faith in his death for us, and also by continuing his mission- displaying the kingdom life through our lives….Communion is the opportunity or invitation to trust/ believe (in a physical way) by weekly reorienting our lives around him, making him the center of our universe, making him our home, making him our sole identity. 1. “The Lord’s Supper is a repeated Altar Call to ongoing conversion, to fresh recommitments and entrustments of oneself to the Lord Jesus Christ, The Bread of Life.” -Bruner 2. Faithful Eucharist, then, should always be nudging the Church closer and closer to her center, who is the crucified and Risen Jesus Christ, who gave himself and now gives himself to the repentant faithful for the continuing assurance of their forgiveness of sins and for their continuing power, through the Holy Spirit, for Mission to the World.” -Bruner