Judi Sato

Judi Sato<= /span>

12^th Sunda= y after Pentecost, Year B

John 6:56-69

I want to do a differ= ent kind of sermon today. I want to do= a little Bible Study with you for a couple of reasons:

1) &n= bsp; First of al= l I admit it’s a shameless plug to encourage you to sign up for our Fall Bible Study. I’m going = to be looking at today’s Gospel lesson in a similar way we will be studying= one of the Gospels this fall.

2) &n= bsp; Second. This type of sermon fits very well= with today’s lesson because we need some biblical background to really und= erstand John’s point here.

I’ve given you = another copy of the Gospel with the verses enumerated and some of the words I have = put into bold print.

First of all it is im= portant to know a bit about why John wrote this gospel, and he tells us at the end = of his gospel – “But these are written so that you may come to bel= ieve that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you m= ay have life in his name.” [John 20:31 NRSV]

Secondly, this is the= end of five weeks of hearing about those who eat my flesh and drink my blood and we may be getting a little full of this message. Today it says if we do this we will abide in Jesus. This isn̵= 7;t about cannibalism.

Let me give you some background on this - The prophets of the Old Testament are often told to write down what God tells them and then to eat the scroll. T= his means they have to live with what God is telling them before they can procl= aim it; it has to be a part of their life.&nbs= p; So this means that to eat his flesh means to abide in Jesus – = let Jesus be a part of your life.

So today, John is win= ding up this discourse and we finally get a summary from him.

Looking at the insert= , the first word I highlighted is Capern= aum.

59 He said these things while he was teaching in= the synagogue at Capernaum. <= /o:p>

The front of the bull= etin has a picture of an artists rendition of the synagogue at Capernaum during Jesus’ time, based on the ruins found there.

This whole conversati= on about the bread of life was taking place in the synagogue at Capernaum. Syngogue teaching follows a readin= g from the Hebrew Scriptures. So if Jesus is talking about being the Bread of Life= , which scripture do you think he was he responding to?

It really can’t= be Passover and communion, because that has not happened yet.

John doesn’t te= ll us, but looking at some of the words in today’s gospel, it appears to have been the story of the journey in the wilderness when the Israelites received the manna from each morning. = [Exodus 16]

We see in today’s gospel Jesus pointed out that manna was temporary R= 11; but that He is the bread of life come down from Heaven. Jesus is eternal an= d if we abide in him we will have eternal life.=

Note the next word I = highlighted in verse 60 – difficult.

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they sai= d, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?"

Difficult – is it hard to understand? Or hard to accept= ? Both, but I lean more to the hard = to accept side.

The world of the disciples is Pre-enlightenment and they = are use to metaphors & symbols. T= he book of Hosea is the story of the prophet who married a prostitute. Hosea’s life is a symbol of God’s love for the Israelites even though they have prostituted themselves with the gods of those around them.

It is difficult because it’s a teaching that is dif= ferent than they have had before – Jesus is saying abide with him – not the ancestors – his words are eternal, not like the manna they receiv= ed in the wilderness. Accepting = Jesus, abiding in Jesus would make them different. This is creating some tension and = this leads us to the next highlighted word:

61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples wer= e complaining about it …=

Complaining: His disciples were complaining = 211; not the Jews. It is natural to complain when tension is building.

        &= nbsp;   If he just read from the scroll about the exodus in the wilderness – they would know about the complaining by the Israelites. They had complained about water, f= ood, meat, water, as well as the “giants” that lived in their promise land. Those in the synagogue = would also know that did not work out for them.

Jesu= s is aware of their complaining and asks:

61…"Does this offend you?” =

Offend: Offend here means “scandal&#= 8221; or “stumbling block.”

        &= nbsp;   His whole teaching of being the one that leads to eternal life is a stumbling b= lock because it is so different from what they have heard from the Pharisees and priests.
        &= nbsp;   Being offended and complaining is a natural response – notice Jesus does not condemn them for it.

        &= nbsp;   We too can be offended. Many tod= ay feel the divinity of Christ – His Incarnation, Resurrection, are stumbling blocks. The questio= n for us is – do we stay offended, or do we begin to trust – to reach= out in faith?

Jesu= s decides to give them a break and help reduce the tension by explaining:<= /span>

63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I ha= ve spoken to you are spirit and life<= /b>.

Ah &= #8211; this whole teaching on the bread of life has been a spiritual one. That means it’s from God; som= ething else to be offended about. There are two realms – physic= al – dealing with flesh, emotions, people, etc. And there is the spiritual realm.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It is hard to translate between the two.

Even Paul brings up the flesh and spirit in the reading i= n Ephesians.

So we are left with a choice – accept that of the s= pirit – or not. Picking up at= verse 66:

66 Because of this many of his disciples = turned back and no longer went about with him.

Some chose to leave – to not accept this new teachi= ng – to continue to live in the past by remembering their journey in the wilderness.

Many today choose to not believe – it happens a lot. Because the teachings an= d ways of God are difficult many cann= ot accept them. It is hard to live in that tension between flesh and spirit. Som= e give up too quickly and try to find or form a god that fits better with their own image of what God should be. = Modern theologians have focused on a Jesus that is only human because they cannot handle the stumbling blocks of Christianity – the Incarnation and Resurrection specifically. But Isaiah tells us that God is different from us    [Isa 55:8-9]=

Fo= r my thoughts are not your thoughts,

no= r are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

Fo= r as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so= are my ways higher than your ways

an= d my thoughts than your thoughts. NRSV

Finally,

67 So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"&n= bsp; 68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We ha= ve come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." NRSV =

To whom. Notice they did not say where shou= ld would we go but to whom.

Now there is preceden= ce for the disciples to ask to whom s= hall we go. Remember are taking the position that they had read from their wilderness experience before this wh= ole teaching. At the very end of = all the 40 years of wandering in the desert, after the years of conquering the = land in battle after battle, they renewed their covenant with God at Shechem. Joshua, one of the two who survive= d the wilderness experience, gathered the people and said “Choose this day = whom you will serve, the God of y= our forefathers, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But for me and my household we will serve the Lord.” [Joshua 24:15]

The = choices of whom to serve that the disciples had were:

·= ;      = One of the many Roman gods. =

·= ;      = Back to the synagogue and the rabbis who interpreted the texts and looked back to the better days of the ancestors, or

·= ;      = Back to the Pharisees and the laws of the temple – all 613 of them. Now this is an interesting choice = because the Israelites when they returned to Israel after their exile in Babylon we= re told by the prophets to expect the Messiah to come any time. And they believed they could haste= n his coming by obeying those commandments.

Jesu= s was saying he was the source of eternal life, not the commandments.<= /span>

Somehow the disciples understood this and accepted Jesus = with faith, they recognized the words of eternal life. They chose him as Lord.<= /span>

John wrote this chapt= er of the Bread of Life discourse to help others see that Jesus was the Messiah.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I used the idea of Jesus respondin= g to reading the wilderness story from the Hebrew scriptures in the synagogue as= a possible inspiration for this teaching.&nb= sp;



There could be other interpretations. In our Bible= Study we could explore some of those. We could explore other issues as well – like if our post-enlightenment tendencies make this teaching too complicated. We could also explore our choices = of who we could serve.

I think John did a gr= eat job of showing me that Jesus is the Holy One of God, the Messiah. Working on th= is sermon and looking at this discourse as an inspiration from reading scriptu= re helped me see the spirit at work in John’s writing even more than bef= ore – that was a gift. The Bible, although stories from thousands of years ago, is spirit and life. I encourage you to come explore it= with us this fall and see what gifts the Spirit has for you.