Meatloaf of life – Sunday 18th August – Pastor Adrian Kitson
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. 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?’
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 for ever.’
With four hungry kids and busy parents with not a lot of money, it used to be that we ate a fair bit of homemade meat loaf. We loved it. I still do. Meat loaf became a bit of a go-to staple of the family meal at times.
Today in this long intense conversation Jesus has been having with the everyday people and the religious elites, Jesus switches things up another notch and says that he is the Bread of life but the bread we must eat is not bread – but meat – his ‘flesh’. Eating this meat-bread of life is what gives a person God’s real and new life for living life.
This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Just like meat loaf used to be a bit of a go-to staple food upon which we fed, his ‘flesh’ is that for all humanity now.
This is shocking. To the Greeks around him who demand learning and wisdom and reason, this is none of those. To the Jews around him who demand miraculous proofs of his authority (that are never enough), this is none of that. Reason, human wisdom, shows of supernatural power or super-human strength are not where God is to be found. God is to be found in only one place, one person, one fleshly human and divine man. Jesus.
… ‘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.
This is terrible news to anyone in earshot and to many a person, full stop.
We all go about answering the big questions of life like “Why do I go to work, earn money, build up a career or a farm or a business? Why do I travel. Why to spend and save and plan and do what I do in life? What is the meaning of it all?”
Even deeper. “Where is God to be found in all of this? If there is a God who created life itself, then where is he to be found in the hurly-burly of life with all its work and money and kids and activity and health and living and dying?”
Jesus is saying that God and his life are found in ‘eating his flesh and drinking his blood’. Sounds weird!
For Jewish ears eating any blood of any animal, let alone a human being is strictly prohibited all throughout the Jewish Law in the Old Testament. As one example:
… because the life of every creature is its blood …, ‘You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.’ (Leviticus 17:13-14)
So, to the Jewish people present, and particularly the religious elites, this talk of Jesus’ flesh and blood having to be consumed by those who follow him in order to have this new life he promises is a real turnoff. They are deeply offended.
Even the Greek and Roman pagans present would not have been too keen on these words. This sounds like cannibalism – humans eating human flesh and blood. Indeed, this accusation of cannibalism would hang around Early Christian communities for some time.
We learn from the second-century Christian apologists Justin Martyr and Athenagoras that the three main accusations levied against Christians by Jews and pagans were atheism, incest, and cannibalism.
- Atheism: The Christians would not worship the One God or the Roman pantheon of gods.
- Incest: This charge originated from the Christian belief that all Christians are united as “one family in Christ”, which meant husbands and wives would refer to each other as “brothers and sisters in Christ.” To an outsider, this could easily come off the wrong way.
- Cannibalism: These Christians believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist; their belief that they actually ate the flesh of Christ and drank his blood. To Roman ears, this sounded like cannibalism. To Jews it was an abomination!
No wonder this talk of eating and drinking his flesh and blood caused this reaction:
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Sounds like so many these days. So many have left this Bread of Life on the shelf. Who knows all the reasons, but one thing is certain, Jesus calls all of us to single minded faith in him above all other, and that is a big sticking point for a Western culture turning to self-expression, self-truth and being either of ‘no-god’ faith or pagan many-gods faith.
Friends, here it is. God is to be found nowhere else than in the flesh; in the body of this human divine person, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God ... And lots of people then and plenty now, don’t like it.
To be clear, this is not about the necessity of taking Holy Communion. It has links of course, but he is not saying that you have to eat and drink his blood in the Lord’s Supper to guarantee your life in God’s new life.
No. When John uses that word ‘flesh’ – ‘eat my flesh’ he is saying ‘believe’; believe me and believe in me.
Luther, with many others, zeros in on that one little word, ‘My’:
“Eat MY flesh; drink MY blood”
… the word “My” it is invested with greater strength than plain flesh and blood. It is “My flesh.” You must take note of Him who speaks these words. Then it will not be the sort of flesh from which red sausages are made.[1]
… we must realize, as you heard before, that this chapter does not refer to the Sacrament but to spiritual nourishment and eating[2]
If you wish to be a Christian, you must believe in the flesh and blood of Christ. He will not tolerate another faith[3]
Jesus says, ‘Eat MY flesh’; Drink MY blood’ equals – put your faith in me, depend on me, listen to me, receive me – the human and divine man who will go to the cross, have his body broken and enter death and then rise from that dark destruction to rule in grace ‘for the life of the world I love’.
Luther reckons this is a ‘thunderbolt to the ‘fanatics’.
The ‘fanatics’ in his day were those on the extreme end who were all about experiencing the power of God via many spiritual means be they prophetic words, gifts of tongues, intense worship gatherings and fervent praying and the like. For them Christian faith was all about being guided by inner light and experiencing spiritual community, rather than trusting that the Holy Spirit could work through ordinary looking and feeling physical things like water and word, bread and wine or here; a simple prayer, a flawed preacher, and everyday things like parenting, studying, working, resting.
The thunderbolt still strikes.
[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 119.
[2] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 118.
[3] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 118.
He must disguise Himself in flesh and blood, in the Word, in the external ministry, in Baptism, in the Sacrament and Lord’s Supper, where He gives us His body in the bread and His blood in the wine, to eat and to drink. He must conceal Himself in forms to which He adds His Word, in order that we may recognize Him. Then the Word is not an empty sound; the bread is not plain bread; the wine not plain wine; Baptism not simple, common water. To be sure, it remains water, bread, and wine, but not only that; it is now called His bread, His Word, His water, His flesh, and His blood[1]
[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 123.
All the world wants to find God in many a place. You might find yourself being a bit of a fanatic, trying to find God somewhere else. It is easy to do.
But there is no doubt here. God is to be found in this man of flesh and blood now risen and ruling and pouring himself out ‘for the life of the world’ not the killing of it.
But I believe tightly when I pin my faith, my thoughts, and my heart on the flesh and blood sacrificed for me, consume that, and boldly declare: “I believe that His flesh and blood are there, given for me, and that the flesh and blood are poured, as it were, into my faith as wine or beer is poured into a glass.” This is my treasure: to eat, to drink, to think of, and to believe in, the flesh; to cleave by faith to the Man Christ and to His flesh, so that I may apprehend Christ.[1]
[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 128.
And the great value of sticking with this Bread of Life – consuming his Words and his gifts?
“The fact remains that I must die.” Oh, this makes no difference! Just go ahead and die in God’s name, submit to being burned or killed in a different manner. You are still assured of eternal life; it will surely be yours. To die, to be buried, to have people tread on your grave, to be consumed by worms—all this will not matter to you. It is certain that Christ will raise you up again. For here you have My promise: “I will raise you up.” Therefore your eyes will behold what your faith so confidently relied on.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8,
- Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 23
(Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 131.
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