Eat ME!

John 6:24-70

Need

Dylan loves his Pokemon. Loves them. Whenever he is reminded of them, that is. For weeks he can go without Pokemon, and then he will come across his deck… and suddenly they are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They must come on every trip, they must come to church.

It is an addiction. He doesn’t play the game. He trades… and then gets upset about any cards he traded away.

I suspect that they dust the cards with cocaine and it is the physical contact creating the addiction.

Which raises the question: what is your obsession?

That may be a complicated question; it may change over time. Last week Civilization VI came out, and this game is famous for being one of the most addictive game franchises of all time. I bought it… downloaded it… and installed it… only to discover that my computer graphics card wasn’t up to the challenge.

I believe this is a miracle of God, reaching down his hand, and his holy voice saying “NO!” Don’t do it!

No addiction for you!

But you may have a tv show at the moment, a favorite activity, a game, a person, and you find yourself thinking over that throughout the day. And you know when it is really, really bad when you start prioritizing that thing over everything else in life.

This happens with drug abuse, right? Meth users, Heroine users, some of these really addictive drugs, the addiction becomes more important than food and drink, than sleep, than anything else going on. Feed the addiction first, everything else second.

What is your addiction?

I ask this because Jesus has just done this amazing miracle, feeding somewhere between 5 and 20 thousand people. Meeting their absolute most basic needs. And they love him for it, they want to make him King, give him power so that he can, in turn, continue to meet their most basic need.

And Jesus runs away. Running across the lake, on water, meeting the disciples in the night, and he gets to the other side of the lake… and the people chase him down.

And then he is going to make this claim. The people love him, are following him, because they think he is meeting their most basic need: food.

But he believes they have a deeper need, a more basic need, an addiction even.

Better than Bread

John 6:25-?

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

So the people have tracked him down, on the other side of the lake. Coming by boats, maybe some hiking around the sea, and we find out later they find him in Capernaum in the synagogue. Jesus is probably in the teaching position. They ask him, naturally, how or when did you get here. Jesus doesn’t answer that question, but speaks right to their need.

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

You are hungry, it is natural, but Jesus has something better in store for them.

27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

Jesus hints at something deeper, and this is the most natural response, the forever response of mankind “What must we do?”

29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Belief; not work.

30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

This of course is the story so near and dear to the current Passover season. When the people needed food in the desert, God provided by the mysterious mana. It was bread that didn’t last, it dissolved if you tried to store it, but was provided every day. It is very possible, given the readings in the Synagogue at the time of Passover, that this story was the very text being read in the Synagogue as this encounter happens. Super cool.

32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Here is one of the great “I AM” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John. There are 7 of this form. I am… something. Here is the first: I am the bread of life. It is setup in marked distinction from the miraculous bread he fed them, or the heavenly bread of manna… those things were a shadow pointing to this: Jesus, the bread of life. He is hinting at a deeper need of the human person.

36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Unpacking the metaphor, this verse is critical. What is God’s will? How do we do the “works of God?” How do we please God? And we will see, how do we take part in this bread of life? “look on the Son, believe in him.”

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The Jews of course completely understood and believed all of this. Or not.

41 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’?”

Who does this guy think he is? Again, Jesus is making it all about himself. His person. Not the content of his teaching, not the action of his miracles, not the pedigree of his family… it is about him and his self, his person, his being, who he is. Jesus says “Do you know who I am!” and they think they do… because they know his Mom, they know (or knew) his apparent father.

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.

There is the drawing of the Father to the Son. We call this prevenient grace, no one can comprehend or draw near or believe in the Son unless the Father has prepared the soul, given them opportunity, drawn them near. It isn’t a definitive statement of predestination, but it certainly says that there is no clawing your way to Jesus on your own. The Father draws one there first.

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.

How good was that bread? Okay. But they are dead now. I have better bread. I am better bread.

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.”

52 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. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Note the parallelism back to verse 40. Feeds on my flesh – Looks to the Son. Drinks my blood – Believes in Him. Raised up on the last day. The metaphor is powerful… but it is very clearly metaphor.

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.

Now this is a gross metaphor. As gross as it may sound to us, it is even grosser to a Jewish person, practicing Kosher, you can’t drink blood. You want to avoid rare steak even. You also don’t eat human, that’s not Kosher.

So Jesus is offensive because he is claiming to be greater than Moses.

He is offensive because he is making “I AM” claims, making it all about himself even in his own town with people who know his family.

He is offensive because he is saying “EAT ME!” Drink my BLOOD! It’s gross. It’s creepy.

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

The acknowledgment of addiction.

67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

To See and Believe

Not the Lord’s Supper

Note that John does not include any direct reference to the Lord’s Supper. There is a lot of debate around this… but I think it works like this. John was certainly aware of the institution of communion. He was there when Jesus commanded it. He knows the church’s developing practice of it. But he doesn’t here say something like “and this is why we partake of the body and blood… in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice”. He doesn’t even use the same word “body” he says “flesh.”

I think the reason he doesn’t is also a major Baptist distinctive. The theology developed over the century, drawing on verses like this, that the so-called “sacraments” were themselves kind of magical. Using the language of verse 54, feeding on the flesh and drinking the flood leads directly to eternal life.

So one must practice communion to receive eternal life.

But… that’s not what Jesus said. That is a rerouting of Jesus’ metaphor… and I think John is very careful to present Jesus’ teaching exactly as it was with no connection to communion. Because how do we eat the flesh of Jesus and drink the blood of Jesus?

By looking to and believing in him. By doing what the disciples who didn’t leave Jesus did. By remaining with him. Continuing to follow.

Jesus has revealed himself as the deepest need of mankind.

Pyramid Needs

Abraham Maslow

Jesus has introduced a new bottom tier. Normally “religious” needs might fit into “love and belonging” and above.

But Jesus makes the radical claim that it is more important than food or water. A new addiction.

The deepest need of the human being is to look to and believe in Jesus.

That is a radical claim. And I don’t get it all. I don’t understand all the things. I don’t know all the Jesus. And that is why this I love Peter’s response to Jesus.

What Jesus says is hard to understand… and I don’t get it all.

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

I don’t get it all… but I know this. He has the words of eternal life.