Pentecost 13 John 6:51-58

Pentecost 13 John 6:51-58

August 23, 2015

In 1921, the Taggert Baking Company of Indianapolis developed a soft white bread that was much different in texture and flavor that other bread of its day. Elmer Cline, VP, was given the job of finding a name for the new 1.5 lb loaf. While visiting the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway he was awestruck by a sky filled with hundreds of colored balloons. It gave him a sense of “wonder”, and – you guessed it – Wonder Bread was born – and who hasn’t seen the packages with colored balloons? In the 30’s the automatic bread slicer was invented and Wonder Bread became more wonderful as the first sliced bread on the market. Unfortunately the process of making soft white bread eliminates key nutrients from the grain, so in the 40’s Wonder Bread developed “enriched” bread to make it more nutritious.

Nearly 100 years of soft white bread has conditioned us to think that this is how bread is supposed to be, but our health-conscious age has raised some criticisms. About 10 years ago a nutritionist (Marion Nestle) at New York University commented, "Bread is flour, water, yeast, salt. Period. This has something like 20 other ingredients. ... Why not buy your kids real bread?"

Soft white bread could be used as a symbol for our entire lives. Many things in life look so good, so wonderful, yet they are all missing the one key ingredient we need most. That key ingredient is life – life with God, life forever. Jesus is the key ingredient. He said, “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. (v.53). Jesus came to give WHOLE-LIFE BREAD FOR NO-LIFE SOULS.

1.  Eat it and live!

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Jesus says some shocking things when he teaches us truths from heaven. For example, “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out!” “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off!” “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” The image is startling. It sticks with you. Your mind raises objections, “Did I hear that right? Does God really want me to mutilate my body and hate my family? He wants us to take care of our bodies and love others!” But here’s the point. If some part of your body is truly putting you in danger of going to hell, by all means, get rid of it! It’s better to lose that evil body part than to end up suffering God’s wrath forever. The same is true if someone is taking God’s place in your heart. It’s better to hate that person than to end up separated from God in hell forever. But the problem isn’t our body or another person. The problem is in here, in the soul. Something needs to change in here. My sin is killing me. If it continues to rule my life, it will take me to hell.

So Jesus isn’t talking about bread from the bakery when he says, “I am the Bread of Life.” That kind of bread you can sink your teeth into and fuel the cells of your body with nutrients, but it can’t do what we need most. It can’t do what Jesus is talking about. When Jesus tells us to eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood - as shocking as that picture is- he’s talking about life that has come into this world in the real flesh and blood person of Jesus Christ. If no-life souls are going to live, the Bread of Life must come into them. A person must eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood. Eat it and live! This sounded so outrageous that many of the Jews “began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v.52)

The first time I read these words I thought, “Why, Jesus is talking about Holy Communion! How can anyone say that Jesus’ body and blood are not in the Lord’s Supper? Here it is, plain as day!” Now it’s true that Jesus’ body and blood are really present with the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, and the Holy Spirit has made that crystal clear in several verses in the Bible, but in these verses Jesus is telling us about believing in him. Just as God designed the way our body takes in food by creating us with mouths, teeth, throats and stomachs, he designed the way our soul takes in Jesus through his creation of faith. When Jesus says we are to “eat his body and drink his blood” he’s telling us that when we believe in him, his life enters in and fills our souls. As John said at the beginning of this gospel, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”

Jesus lives in us by faith and that’s how he fills us with his life. He compares himself to food because we can understand that. Food does us no good if we just smell it, touch it, and look at it. It can be the best food in the world, but if you don’t eat it and let your body draw the nutrients from it, you will eventually starve to death and die. In the same way, it does us no good to just know some facts about Jesus, nod in agreement about some of the things he says, admire him for dying so courageously, have a picture of him on our wall or a Bible on our bookshelf or our name on a church membership list. We need to take the blessings of his suffering, death and resurrection into our souls just like we take the blessings of food into our bodies. Jesus is whole-life bread for no-life souls.

2.  Eat it and keep on living!

Now imagine having this conversation in your home or with your friends. It’s getting close to dinner time and someone says, “I’m hungry. Let’s get something to eat.” They start talking about what they’d like to have and you say, “Well, I’m not really hungry. I ate a couple months ago and I’m good.” Ridiculous, right? There isn’t a body that doesn’t starve and begin to die without food for a week let alone months, and there isn’t a soul that can survive without constant spiritual food from heaven. Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 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.” (vv. 56,57) . Later in John’s gospel Jesus explains that he remains in his disciples as his “words remain in [them]” (15:7) So we “eat” Jesus’ life-giving flesh and blood by faith every time we hear his Word. Our soul cannot keep on living without it, but as long as we keep eating – hearing his Word and growing in our knowledge of Jesus – our soul will keep living.

We know when our bodies are hungry. An empty stomach begins to growl. We feel weak. We become restless. The only thing we can think about is eating. We can also know when our souls are hungry. We become restless and unsettled. Our faith feels hunger pangs as guilt gnaws away at our conscience. We become weak with doubts and worries.

Sometimes when babies are restless, moms or dad will put a pacifier in their mouth to distract them. When our souls are restless, the world offers all kinds of pacifiers to distract us. We can bury ourselves in our work, keep our calendars filled with things to do, fixate on our investment portfolios, spend our waking moments on Facebook, or just veg out for hours in front of the TV - anything to distract us from what our soul needs. But pacifiers don’t feed babies, and nothing in the world can feed the soul.

That’s why you are here today – to satisfy the ongoing hunger of your soul - to find rest for your soul in Jesus - to soothe that gnawing guilt with the good news that Jesus lived, died, and rose again to remove that guilt forever - to eat the body and drink the blood of your Savior in his Word and in a special way in his Sacrament so your souls can keep on living. Whole-life Bread for no-life souls.

3.  Eat it and live forever!

Today we’re told that when you choose breakfast cereals, you’re supposed to look for the boxes that say “whole grain”. because that’s what’s best for your body. But no matter how carefully you choose your breakfast food or any other food or how carefully you prepare your meals, they will not be able to keep you alive forever. “Whole-grain” cannot give you “whole-life”! Somewhere in the story of your life is the day of your death. Jesus is the only Bread that conquers death and keeps us alive forever. Only he can make this astounding claim: “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.” (v.51) Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (v.54) 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.” (v.58)

Everything that is on this planet – as amazing and wonderful as it may be, as much as we enjoy it, and as much as it declares the glory of God – every particle of this sin-stained world, including every tear and heartache, will be soon be gone forever. All of our accomplishment, honors, successes and treasures will vanish. Not a single virtue will earn us a split second in heaven or shorten hell’s unending torments by a moment. Only Jesus – whole-life bread for no life souls – can give us a wonderful life in heaven that will never end and a full life worth living today.

“My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink”. (v.55) Why not give your kids and yourselves real bread? Eat it and live. Eat it and keep on living. Eat it and live forever. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed are they who take refuge in him.” Amen