Jesus, The Bread of Life
Up to this point, it has been made pretty clear to us that Jesus is talking about faith in him as the Christ that is the bread of life, the nourishment that brings us to heaven. But there is still some confusion sometimes about whether or not Jesus could be talking about the Lord’s Supper. Yesterday I said that he is not talking about the Lord’s Supper, but I want to make it clear that this isn’t just a casual comment, and it’s not just my spin or interpretation of what’s been said.
In verse 52, the Jews began to argue: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus’ reply tells us that he is certainly not talking about the Lord’s Supper.
53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, 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 him 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 him. 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 forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. (NIV)
Notice that the Lord says whoever eats and drinks this food has eternal life. But not everyone who partakes of the body and blood at the Supper will automatically enter into heaven. Paul tells us to be very careful about recognizing the Lord’s actual body and blood when we receive communion, “for anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:29, the reason we don’t permit just anyone to take communion). Jesus also calls to our attention the characteristic of someone eating: Here in John 6:56 he says “whoever munches” (NIV “eats”); in 1 Corinthians 11:29 Paul says “whoever eats.”
So why isn’t it the Lord’s Supper?
I would have to assume that the misunderstanding about this “meal” in John 6 is due primarily to faulty Christology. When a person would insist that the risen and ascended Christ is now enclosed in heaven, then his actual presence in the Lord’s Supper becomes impossible. But when Jesus sat down “at the right hand of the Father,” we must realize what a “right hand man” is. He is someone who has authority and power and honor. Jesus has these things and more. He is still God, and continues to be present everywhere (omnipresence is a characteristic of God the Son) as he always has been.
Point 5 above is intentionally vulgar because the error involved is so crass and outrageous. This is of course something I would probably never say from the pulpit, but it is the truth. Ezekiel spoke in vulgar terms as well, when the people became so sinfully stubborn that polite (even sane) language could no longer avail.
The “Bread of Life” discourse refers entirely to faith in Jesus Christ, who died to obliterate the debt of our sins. The body of Jesus Christ, given for the forgiveness of our sins a year after he spoke about the Bread of Life, is the object of our faith, and not the bread of which John speaks in chapter 6 of his gospel.
Something Extra:
Ecclesiastes 2:7
7 I bought male and female slaves
and had other slaves who were born in my house.
I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. (NIV)
The Hebrew words here are ‘ebed (male slave, or simply slave) and shiphchah, “female slave.” Solomon also says that other slaves were born in his house, a fair translation of the Hebrew phrase “and there were sons of the house for me,” meaning that some of his slaves were not captured, bought or given, but born into slavery under his roof. I want it to be clear that Solomon isn’t using terms that could be misunderstood, as if he is misquoted while talking about paid employees. Solomon was a slaveholder, and a slave owner. He also mentions vast herds and flocks because Solomon had to feed his thousand wives and his many, many slaves.
What does the Bible say about slavery? God acknowledges that slavery exists; he does not command it, but he does regulate the rights of slaves in the Law of Moses. When that law was given on Mount Sinai, God’s people had only just been freed from slavery in Egypt a few months before. Abraham moved in a culture of slavery (Genesis 20:17) and himself owned one slave, who was freed when she became his concubine (Genesis 21:10). Some of King David’s subjects were slave owners (2 Samuel 6:20).
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul makes a specific point to slaves who become Christians that their new faith does not necessarily mean that they can demand their freedom (1 Corinthians 7:21), “although,” he adds, “if you can gain your freedom, do so.” It is sometimes argued that Jesus or Paul should have condemned slavery. But Christianity doesn’t change governments or regulate nations. It changes hearts and in fact makes all of us willing servants (the New Testament writers even said “slaves”) of Christ. The point of the Bible is not to make the world a better place. The point is to bring us to faith so that we trust in our saving God with the ultimate goal of eternal life in heaven.
Perhaps the most compelling commentary the Bible has about slavery is Paul’s letter to a slave owner about a runaway slave. This letter, Paul’s Epistle to Philemon, will be the basis for our “Something Extra” devotions beginning tomorrow.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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