John 6:51-59

05/10/09
John 6:51-59
Hudson UMC

Today we finish up the last section of Jesus’ conversation with the five thousand. This last section strongly emphasizes God’s mighty provision both through Jesus and also through His deliverance of the people of Israel out of Egypt. Today is also Mother’s Day. At first, there may not seem to be much of a connection between these two, but there really is. We remember how God guided and nurtured Israel in their infancy as a nation and how He has nurtured us. We also celebrate today the selfless giving of Christ to His people, much like our mothers have all done for us.

I want to draw your attention to an important statement that Jesus makes that might catch us off-guard and make us wonder what He is getting at. Verse 53 says, “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.” I have a friend who talked about this verse to a group of college students. He called his talk, “It got weird, didn’t it?” It is weird enough for us to hear Jesus say this kind of thing. Believe it or not, it would have been even more uncomfortable to the Jews at the time. After all, they had an elaborate moral code that was very clear about not drinking blood or even eating food with blood in it.

So, what in the world is Jesus talking about? Is He really supporting cannibalism? How do we feel about following a Lord that demands that we eat His flesh and drink His blood? I think that Jesus was making a reference that the Jews did not get at the time and that we do not always catch. Jesus is connecting Himself to the rituals of Passover.

Let us take a moment and remember what was going on when God instituted the Passover and why it mattered to the Jews and why it matters to us. Think back to your days in Sunday School. Israel had been enslaved by the Egyptians for four hundred years. Moses came onto the scene, speaking the word of the Lord to Pharaoh, accidentally making things worse for the people. Eventually, God brought a series of plagues on the land: He turned the water into blood, He covered the land with frogs, He sent a plague of gnats, and a plague of flies. He caused all of the Egyptian animals to become terribly diseased, sent boils on all the Egyptians, sent terrible hail to destroy the crops, sent a plague of locusts to eat the rest of the crops, and covered the whole land with darkness. In spite of all of this, Pharaoh still wouldn’t let the people go. He had shown just how stubborn human beings can be. After God had shown His glory to His people, He announced that there would be one more plague. He was going to kill every firstborn son in the land.

Though God was going to do this harsh thing, He wanted to protect His people. He had proven that He was trustworthy by protecting them from the other plagues. He wanted to give them a way to avoid the loss that was coming. This brings us to our reading from Exodus. The people were to take a lamb, slaughter it, spread the blood on the doorposts, cook the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and eat it. If the people did this, they would be saved from the plague. It is important to realize that the people had to do all of the things that God commanded them to do. They could not do things half way and still be saved. If they did not spread the blood on the doorposts, they could not be saved. If they did not eat the lamb, they could not be saved. It was only if they responded in obedience to all that God had said that they could be saved.

How does this fit in with Jesus talking with the crowd? Jesus is not really talking about eating his physical body. He is not talking about drinking His physical blood. If He is, we are all in trouble because none of us have done this; indeed, nobody has ever done this. He is making a point that the Jews should have understood. He was, like John the Baptist said he was, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was not a cannibal, He was a sacrifice. Jesus is using language that points us to the Passover story for a few reasons. First, it is because God is doing something in their midst that is every bit as important and significant as He did when He delivered the people from Egyptian oppression. Second, this thing that God was doing was, in a way, just like what He did back then; He was acting decisively and dramatically to free His people from bondage. The first time, it was from bondage in Egypt; this time, it was from bondage to sin and death. Third, He wants us to remember the Passover because the images of Passover were the best way to explain what was happening.

When God commanded the people to slaughter the lambs and spread the blood over the doorposts and to lock themselves inside their houses so that they could avoid the angel of death, the people did not know with empirical certainty that they could trust God because it hadn’t happened yet. But they had seen all kinds of signs and wonders so they could hope with a hope based on the promises of God that God was trustworthy. In order to do what God told them to do, they had to live their lives differently. If they were going to trust the Lord, they could not continue with business as usual. To obey God at that important moment was a costly, bloody, foolish looking thing. The people had to put all their trust that this would be their deliverance and not their destruction. If they didn’t, they would not be saved. The key symbol of the Passover was the blood of the lamb. “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

When God invites us to give our lives wholeheartedly into the hands of Jesus and to die to ourselves and live to God so that we might avoid the fear of condemnation and the power of evil, sin and death, we do not know with empirical certainty that we can trust God to save us, because it hasn’t happened yet. We have seen God move in our midst enough, though, to be able to hope with a divine hope that God will indeed bring His plans to fruition in our lives and save us. But in order to do what God has told us to do, we must live our lives differently. If we are going to trust in the Lord and in the promise that God has given us in Christ Jesus, we cannot continue with business as usual. To obey God at this moment, and indeed, every moment of our lives, is a costly, difficult, foolish looking thing. We have to put all our trust that this thing called faith in a crucified God is for our deliverance and not for our destruction. If we don’t, we can never be saved. The key ingredient of our salvation is the blood of the Lamb. God’s only Son, the firstborn Son of God, was killed as the scapegoat for our sins. “The blood shall be a sign for you on your souls by which you live; when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you.”

John Chrysostom, a bishop of the fourth century, talks about the blood of Christ, shed on the cross for you and for me, as the fulfillment, the true meaning of the blood in the Passover story. The Passover lamb is only a symbol; Christ is the reality. He says this. “If the symbol of [the blood] had such great power…in the midst of Egypt, when smeared on the door-posts, much more the reality. That blood sanctified the golden altar; without it the high priest dared not enter into the secret place. This blood consecrated priests, this, as a symbol, cleansed sins. But if it had such power as a symbol, if death so shuddered at the shadow, tell me how it would not have dreaded the very reality? This blood is the salvation of our souls, by this the soul is washed, by this the soul is beautiful, by this the soul is inflamed, this causes our understanding to be more bright than fire, and our soul more beaming than gold; this blood was poured forth, and made heaven accessible.”

We gather here to celebrate our deliverance by the grace, power, and mercy of God. The true Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world has been slaughtered on our behalf to bring us into right relationship with God. His body was broken for us and His blood was shed for us. The writer of Hebrews asks a difficult but important question? “How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” If we reject the gifts of God and spit in His face, how else can we be saved? Who else will save us? Brothers and sisters, let us rejoice because we do not ever need to find out. We do not need to neglect this great salvation. Even if you have rejected God in the past, God has prepared His table for you, too. Let us join together as one body and eat and drink Christ in the Spirit together.


AMEN