August 8, 2021 – Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Fed by His Flesh

You know, Jesus wasn’t afraid to offend people. In some cases, I am sure, he did it on purpose. I think today’s gospel shows us one of those times.

            Our gospel today is taken out of the middle of a conversation Jesus is having with some of the five thousand people who were fed with the five loaves and two fishes. That was a pretty spectacular miracle, in fact after it people were ready to take him and declare him to be King. They followed him across the sea back to Capernaum. So now they are engaging Jesus in conversation again, trying to get him to prove to them that he is indeed the Messiah.

            Jesus can tell that they are fixated on worldly things, whereas he has come to draw people away from worldly affairs and into the realm of eternal life. Last week he cautioned them, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” Then they start going on about how great Moses was, who gave them bread from heaven, or manna. The implication is that if he is the Messiah, he will be like Moses, and produce manna, supernatural bread, for the people.

            “No, no,” says Jesus, you have it all wrong. God is the one who gives you bread from heaven: that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then we come to his statement at the beginning of our reading today: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Okay, that’s a metaphor.  He is “bread” because he has come down from heaven and gives life to the world.

            But all the same, some people are doubtful. What does he mean he came down from heaven? He’s Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth. They know his family. What he is saying just does not make any common sense.

            Then Jesus gets even wilder in his language. He starts claiming to have power to raise people up on the last day. They all believe that there will be a resurrection on the last day, but for him to claim that he will make it happen – what? Who does he think he is? He starts going on about the bread from heaven again. The people who ate the manna in the dessert all died, but those who eat “this bread” will live forever. And then he caps it all off by saying, “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

            Ewww. He was being metaphorical before, but now he is being graphically disgusting. You must remember that this was before the Last Supper, before he broke bread and said, “This is my body.” Nobody, not even his disciples, knew what he was talking about. It sounds like he is urging some sort of cannibalism. It’s enough to turn your stomach.

            And it did turn a lot of people’s stomachs. We will hear two weeks from now, how from that time, a lot of people, even some of his disciples, stopped following him. He just didn’t make any sense anymore. “Eat my flesh” indeed!

            You know, I think he did this on purpose. The people who stopped following him were the people who were completely focussed on this material world. The people who were following him for the bread. The people who wanted to make him King. The people who knew his mom and dad and knew that he came from Nazareth, not heaven, so who did he think he was?

            Jesus tells us who it was who continued to follow him: “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me… Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” God knows who Jesus needed to accomplish his mission. God still knows who Jesus needs to accomplish his mission. Jesus was weeding out the people who were not suitable to lead his mission. He knew the ones he wanted would stay, regardless of whether they understood what he was saying.

            In two weeks, we will hear who these people are. They are the ones who say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” Jesus needs the people who know that Jesus has the words of eternal life, even though they may not understand them very well. Jesus needs the people who understand that his mission is not about things of this world, but about doing the will of the Father who sent him, even when it is hard to understand. The disciples could only carry on Jesus’ mission after his resurrection if they knew it was radically different from anything that people had done before. They could not be people who thought in the same old categories people have always thought in: Who’s going to be the King? Where are we going to get bread? Where are we going to get the money? How are we going to preserve the Temple? How are we going to keep The Others out?

            Jesus still needs people who don’t think in these categories. The Church in the past has been seriously damaged by people with narrow minds and this-worldly attitudes. People paying too much attention to amassing power and money. People too concerned with the upkeep of buildings. People too concerned with building walls to keep people out. People too concerned with the maintenance of traditions. Perhaps you have known some of these people.

            The mission of Jesus is no less than the radical transformation of human life: of my life, of your life, of the life of the whole world. We can’t be radically transformed unless we are willing to give up the old life.

            But what about our buildings, our finances, our traditions? Well, we Lutherans have a word for that, it’s a Greek word, “Adiaphora”. It means things that don’t matter. Now some reformers of the sixteenth century, like Calvin, decided that anything that wasn’t in the Bible had to be thrown out. All the trappings of the Roman church had to go. No vestments, no statues, no organs, very little ceremony, and you could only sing psalms. But Luther was not so drastic as that. He said, the only thing that really matters is the proclaiming of the Gospel. Everything else is “Adiaphora” or things that don’t matter one way or another. If a ceremony or a song or vestments or pictures help people to understand the Gospel, then keep them. If they get in the way, turf them out.

            This is a time of drastic change for the church at large. The church of the twenty-first century is not going to look very much like the church of the twentieth century. And that’s all right. God is calling us to continue the mission of Jesus in a different kind of society. And God is equipping us to do it. It’s important to keep the main thing the main thing – the Good News of Jesus.  

            Jesus came to transform human life – your life and my life. He does this by feeding us himself. He comes to us in bread to change us from the inside through the Holy Spirit – into the people that can further his mission. And what about the people who are still fixated on the things of this world? Jesus loves them too. They may not be on board with his program – yet. But with God, nothing is impossible! Thanks be to God. Amen.