"The Confusion"

Scripture: John 6:60-69

This is our third week of looking at Jesus’ teaching regarding his flesh and blood. It was both, the most difficult to receive, and the most important to claim. And today is no different. People have always had a problem with our call to “eat his flesh” and “drink his blood”! (John 6:53) But the basic problem that has always plagued humanity is that we hear the words, and want to take them literally. But Jesus never meant them in that way. Even if it was God’s body that we were to consume, He never taught that cannibalism would ever gain us a single thing.
The Lord was speaking in a spiritual sense. He had taught that he is “the Bread of Life”, that he is “the Living Water”, and that these two basic necessities of life are replicated in him. While physical bread and water provide the basic needs of nourishment for this life, His offering provides the sustenance for eternal life.
And when we hear that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood, this, too, cannot be taken literally, and it cannot be taken out of context. We need to relate these words to the ones he would speak at the Last Supper, when he used the same analogy, but in relation to the bread and wine that were such an integral part of the Seder meal. Seder was the central focus of the Passover celebration – when the angel of death passed over Israel, but claimed only the first born males of Egypt. The blood of the Passover lamb symbolized the Blood that the Lord would, one day, shed for all.

Jesus is not the angel of death – he is the Angel of Life. And he has given us a new way to celebrate his gift of life – through the Eucharist, or service of Thanksgiving, or as we know it, Holy Communion.

But people still struggle with this concept, and even his own followers of that day found the teaching to be nearly impossible.

Read John 6:60-63

And even his followers begin “grumbling” about the teaching. Jesus makes reference to his future ascension, and asks if that would make any more sense to them, or if that would make his teaching any more palatable! The point he was making, I believe, is that there is little about Jesus that will ever make any sense to us, and even less that can help to make sense of it. But sense and reason and intellect isn’t what the Lord is all about - faith, acceptance of his overriding message, that is all that is required.

But many who heard the Lord’s words that day just couldn’t accept them. So he takes the message up a step. He actually tells them that this is all about spiritual life, and that human life, or human flesh, has nothing to do with eternity! So let’s think about this for a minute. In John 14:1-4, Jesus tells us that he is preparing a place for us, and when all is ready, he will return and will take us to be with him. He doesn’t say that we have to help build that place, or that we are to meet him there – Jesus is doing it all.
The flesh, as we understand it, has nothing to do with it – it counts for nothing – it is worthless when it comes to salvation! This is about spiritual food, and the people, then and now and every age in between, haven’t gotten it.

Read John 6:64-65

I suspect that you are wondering why Jesus had to make this so hard to comprehend. He knew that many would be confused and would be unable to make the connection between his words and the concept that he was presenting to them. He knew that, but God wants us to believe without a complete understanding. He wants us to study his word; he wants us to delve into the entirety of scripture; he wants us meditate and ponder and accept the truth of all that he teaches and preaches without it being a simple matter of fact for us.
He wants us to be “all in” for him - and half-heartedness, and fence straddling, and waiting until we have a good grasp of all that God is, will not work.

He also tell us that no one will understand unless the Father clears the way first. Once again, human wisdom just won’t cut it! And God wants each and every person to be open to his ways before we are exposed to his ways. Now this also may not make much sense – after all, don’t we spend our entire life in the study and learning of various concepts so that we can comprehend the larger issues of life? God, on the other hand, wants us to be accepting of him and his ways, regardless of whether we understand them of not! In Isaiah 55:8-9, we read “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In other words, we will never come to understand God without his help, and that help can only come after we express our commitment to him.

Read John 6:66-69

And many disciples could not, or would not, open their hearts and minds to this teaching, and they turned their backs on Christ. It wasn’t only Judas who would betray the Lord - those who turn away from Jesus are also betraying his offer of eternal life. And many leave the presence of Glory and Life.

And as the ranks of the faithful begin to thin out, Jesus doesn’t give those who remain any slack. He looks right at them and puts them on the spot – “How about you – don’t you want to leave, too?” In essence, he is asking them if they still believe in him! And Peter responds for them all with words that are reminiscent of the accounts from Caesarea Philippi. (Matthew 16:13-20) Jesus had asked them “Who do you say I am?”, and Peter replied “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”
In John’s gospel, which doesn’t have an account of Philippi, Peter takes another powerful stand, beginning with “Where else could we possibly go?” He is saying that there is no one else who can truly offer the promises that Jesus holds out. Jesus offers eternal life for all who will claim him as the Bread of Heaven and the Living Water for their life. He is confident that Jesus is who he says he is – the Holy One of God!

Were the 12 scratching their head over the teaching on flesh and blood? Very possibly! Our human nature wants to understand what is being taught, and Peter and John and the others were no exception. But the difference was that they believed and trusted, whether they understood or not! Understanding can always come later, but faith can never wait! Understanding can fill us after Jesus returns to claim his Church, but faith must be in place before that time arrives.

Of course, the greatest question of all is why would God do this? Why would Jesus willingly leave his glory to come to a place that he knew was filled with sin? Why would he spend, not a day or two, but thirty three years of experiencing our lives, and seeing our brokenness, and loving us in spite of all that we do? Why would the Father allow his Son to be treated so badly – to be denied; to be ridiculed; to be served, not by the angels in heaven, but by sinful humans; to be betrayed by the very ones he loved so much; to be beaten unjustly; and to be executed as a common criminal? Why would God take on our sin and subject himself to our death and darkness because of it?
I’m not sure that there is any good answer to this, except that the Lord loves us so much that he would never leave us in our own condemnation without giving us a chance to escape from it and live with him in eternity! We stand condemned – there is no question of that! But by the blood of Jesus we are made worthy, and by his broken flesh we are healed.

Are you still waiting to understand all of this before you believe? Before you give your life to Christ? Jesus tells us that it doesn’t work that way! In his Great Commission to the Church, we are told to first, make disciples – to encourage others to begin following Christ, and only then to begin to teach and grow them in the ways of God.

First follow, and only later, begin to understand. Are you a follower of Jesus? Are you one of his committed disciples? If not, why not today?