Sermon preached by the Rector on 27 August 2006Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-20 (p.1177)
Gospel: John 6:56-69 (p.1071)
'From
this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed
him.' It's a striking reference, isn't it? Imagine the privilege of
getting to know someone as amazing as Jesus during the time of his
earthly ministry. It would take something big to make us want to leave
him, wouldn't it? So this is the issue before us this morning. What has
happened to make them change their minds? What is it about what Jesus
has said or done that leads them to turn back?
Now it's
important to realise that this isn't just of academic interest.
Because, as John writes, he clearly has us in mind as well. We are
being invited to put ourselves in the same position. To hear for
ourselves what Jesus said then. And to examine carefully how we
respond. Whether perhaps we will be among those who turn back and leave
him. Or whether we will follow the example of the Twelve, led by Simon
Peter, and say that Jesus is the only one worth following. That he is
the only one who has the words of eternal life.
What we'll do
then is to look a little more closely at what Jesus has been saying
earlier on in chapter 6. What is it that leads to this sad parting of
the ways in verse 66?
It all begins with the incident in which
Jesus miraculously feeds a great crowd of people. At least five
thousand hungry mouths are fed with just five small barley loaves and
two small fish. Naturally, everyone realises that they're on to a good
thing. They've hit the jackpot here! And so, verses 14-15: 'After the
people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say,
"Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." Jesus,
knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew
again to a mountain by himself.'
Had he wanted it, Jesus could
easily have been carried to power on a wave of public enthusiasm. His
popularity rating was off the scale! Here he is, with supernatural
resources to meet people's needs. Someone who could release them from
the drudgery of scraping around to earn a few crusts, only to have most
of them taken away by harsh taxation.
But Jesus will have none
of this. He slips away and goes off on his own. It isn't his intention
to become that sort of king at all. It's true for us too. If we want a
God who automatically responds to our requests like a slot machine
responds to pennies, this is not the place to find him. If we're
looking for a comfortable God who will, by and large, do what we want,
then we need to look elsewhere. A God who supplies what we want without
making too many demands on us may be what we would like. But it is not
what we need. And it is not what we shall get. Jesus has no intention
of becoming a king on their terms. Only on his.
It's clear from
their next encounter that they want him for the wrong reasons. Verse
26: 'Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not
because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had
your fill.' In other words, your reason for seeking me out is for what
you can get out of me in material terms. You think that, if you follow
me, then things will go better for you.
To which Jesus responds
in verse 27: 'Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that
endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you...' He
doesn't mean the sort of food that arrives on plates and dishes. He
uses 'food' as a picture of the things that satisfy us. The things in
our lives that meet our needs for fulfilment and happiness. His strong
advice is that they need to shift their focus. From things whose
ability to satisfy will not last. To the one thing whose ability to
satisfy will never diminish.
Such a shift of focus is one of the
most difficult and yet one of the most important things about
sustaining a living Christian faith. We're in a battle in which we're
under constant attack, under fire from the subtle pressure of so many
temptations to 'work for food that spoils'. To be just like everyone
else, spending our time, money and resources on things that aren't
going to last. This sort of 'food' may not look as if it is going to
spoil. But it is. It's deceptive. And it's as we concentrate on what
spoils that we're in danger of missing out on 'the food that endures to
eternal life'.
It's a good question to face up to from time to
time... What is it about us that is going to last for ever? The
possessions we acquire? The wealth we hoard? The good looks we
cultivate? The physique we work on? The achievements we boast about?
The social success we seek after?
No. According to Jesus, the
only thing about us that will last for ever is that which we receive
from him, the Son of Man: '...food that endures to eternal life, which
the Son of Man will give you...' It's a sobering thought. None of our
own achievements will last. Only what we receive from him.
This
is a principle which we find again and again in Scripture. Take the
quotation from Psalm 103:15-16 that comes towards the end of the
funeral service, for example: 'As for man, his days are like grass, he
flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is
gone, and its place remembers it no more.' The apostle Peter echoes
this in his first letter as he spells out what is so distinctive about
Christians believers: 'For you have been born again, not of perishable
seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
For "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of
the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the
Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you' (1
Peter 1:23-25).
For if we are Christians, this is the most
significant thing about us. The fact that God's eternal Word has taken
root in our lives. Which leads to the inevitable conclusion that what
really matters in this life is cultivating that within us which is of
God and spreading this seed further into the lives of others. It's
worth asking, isn't it, how much of our lives are we investing in this,
the only thing that really matters? And how much of our lives are we
frittering away?
Back in John 6 they haven't cottoned on. Verse
28: 'Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God
requires?"' Their emphasis is still on themselves and what they can do.
Rather than on the food of eternal life as a gift that they can only
receive. So Jesus replies in verse 29: '..."The work of God is this: to
believe in the one he has sent."' That is God's number one requirement.
This is where we begin. By believing in Jesus.
We hear this so
often - but what does it really mean? Let me illustrate by asking what
it means to, say, believe in electricity. To believe in electricity is
more than believing it exists. For us, belief in electricity affects
just about everything to do with the way we live. To believe in it is
to depend on it, to treat it with respect, to make use of it.
It's
the same with with believing in Jesus. To believe in him is to rely on
him, to depend on him, to treat him with respect, to let him make a
difference to every area of our lives. That's what it means. A
whole-hearted commitment to take him off the sidelines and put him
where he belongs: in the centre of our lives.
Now the response
of his listeners is to ask him to show them some miraculous sign to
enable them to believe like this. Like Moses did back in the wilderness
when he gave the people manna, bread from heaven. Give us a sign like
that! But Jesus refuses to let himself be manipulated like this.
Instead he speaks in such a way that his hearers are forced to decide
one way or the other about him. No more fiddling around. This is it.
And so he goes on to say a number of things which are difficult for his
hearers to accept.
First of all, the focus on himself. 'I am the
bread of life that came down from heaven,' he tells them. This they
find hard. Verse 42: 'They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from
heaven'?"' It's the same today, isn't it? People are happy to talk
about and even believe in 'God' in general. But not so happy when it
all gets a bit specific with this talk about Jesus. Focus on Jesus and
some are bound to turn back.
The second hard thing he says is to
emphasize human helplessness in approaching God. It comes several times
in this chapter, perhaps most clearly in verse 44: 'No one can come to
me unless the Father who sent me draws him...' And again in verse 65:
'...This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father
has enabled him.' It's the same today. People are proud. We like to
feel that we come to God because we decide we want to. That it depends
on us. Suggest that it's not like this at all and some are bound to
turn back.
The third hard thing is all this rather grisly talk
about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Verse 51: 'I am the
living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the
life of the world.' This really puts the cat among the pigeons. Verse
52: 'Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can
this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus underlines it in verse 53:
'...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'.
What does this mean?
First
of all, it clearly does not mean Holy Communion. Not yet anyway. Its
meaning might include Holy Communion for us now - but this can't be
what it meant to the Jews then. What it does mean is hinted at in verse
56: 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in
him'. In other words, we're back to what it means to believe in him.
Jesus is talking about the close relationship that exists between
himself and those who who believe in him. It's a relationship that is
so close that even an illustration as strong as this is not overstating
it. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood. The disciple's
relationship with Jesus is that close. The other point this
illustration makes is that the Jesus with whom we closely relate is a
Jesus who has died - more than that, a Jesus who has died for us. We
are nourished and fed by the effects of his death. It took his death to
enable us to live. The suggestion that Jesus needed to die for us is
not easy to accept. We prefer to think that we are able to earn a place
in God's good books by our own efforts. What Jesus says here is bound
to be off-putting. Little wonder, then, that 'From this time many of
his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.'
What
about us? In the light of this chapter, are we among those who turn
back and no longer follow him? Or are we able to say, along with Peter
and the others who did stay: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of
God.' May this be so for each one of us. For his eternal glory. And our
eternal good. Amen.
© 2006 David Stone
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