John 6:51-58
Year B
The Gospel text for August 18 continues the lectionary’s journey through John 6, the culmination of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. This chapter weaves together statements about bread, life, eternity, flesh and relationship with God beginning with Jesus’ feeding of the large through the Eucharistic overtones in today’s text. It also contains one of John’s distinctive “I am” sayings, pointing to Jesus’ identity: “I am the Bread of Life” (v. 35).
At one level, John 6 is a conversation between Jesus and his followers about bread and eating. Or so it seems.
But in John, there are always multi-layered meanings and polyvalent symbols. If we settle too quickly on one understanding of the text, we are impoverished. The chapter is not just about eating but is a revelatory discourse by Jesus on faith and his identity. At the heart of the discourse is John’s reflection on what faith is, who Jesus is, and how we as believers participate in Christ’s life.
Our passage begins: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (v. 51).
This is not a simple proposition. How is Jesus living bread? What does it have to do with eternal life? How is this bread Jesus’ flesh, and are we indeed asked to eat it? It was clearly confusing to his hearers. They immediately dispute among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v. 52). And later in verse 60, they say, “This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?”
A preacher engaging this text might begin by acknowledging that there is mystery and depth in this text. It has no one singular understanding or meaning. There are themes and truths and hearkenings to other biblical texts, however, that offer rich direction for sermons. Here are some that I find evocative and applicable.
- John 6:51-58 contains overtones of the Eucharist. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, John does not include the moment of institution of the Lord’s Supper. In his upper room narrative, he focuses on foot washing. But clearly these verses in John 6 suggest the language of the sacrament. Jesus bids his followers to eat his flesh and adds “Drink my blood.” John’s laser focus is not only on Jesus giving the bread but also on him being the bread. The sacramental language here points to the believer’s participation in Jesus’ (The text does not, however, pit faith through preaching against faith through sacrament, as later Catholic and Reformed communions have been wont to do.)
- For John, participation in Jesus’ life is a relationship of depth and intimacy. Jesus is the believer’s food, the required nourishment for a life far surpassing what we might consider a regular human life. It is not just about trusting in Jesus or doing what Jesus would do. It is about living within Jesus, having life from God as Jesus came from God. The language suggests the intimacy of the relationship the church later named the Trinity. We participate in Jesus, who gives us his flesh to eat, as he participates in God. Jesus is the bread that comes from heaven. We draw life from Jesus as we feed on him.
- In this text, Jesus both gives the bread of life, and he is the bread of life. He is giver and gift. This is his deepest identity in John’s Gospel. We, as believers, receive this gift, and participate in Jesus’ Thus, we too become both gift and giver for others.
- The passage recalls the Exodus story of the gift of manna in the wilderness. In the giving of manna, God cared for the Jews. Now, this Bread of Life, Jesus, is a deeper more radical caring. It is “not like [the bread] your ancestors ate” (v. 58). Preachers might remind listeners that we are in wilderness times like the Jews of the Exodus, and participation in Jesus’s life is essential food for the journey.
- John’s understanding of faith in this text – participation in Jesus’ life – is not about correct belief but relationship. We do not have to believe correctly or understand precisely. We must participate. The eating and drinking of Jesus, metaphorically (or concretely in the bread and blood at the communion table), means we abide in Jesus. What does it mean to abide in? This is life-giving participation. But we must choose to eat and drink. To participate. Our action is required. Our will is involved.
- A key concept for John is eternal life. What is eternal life? For John, it begins as we eat the bread of life, as we participate in Jesus’ We participate in eternal life now, not in a future time after death. Eternal life is qualitatively different from what we might consider normal human life. We who believe in Jesus and eat his flesh belong to the divine, the eternal One who is God, as Jesus does.
- The text suggests that eating and drinking Jesus is scandalous to some, like the cross for Paul is a scandal (1 Corinthians 1:23). Unlike earlier in the chapter where we find the Greek word estrio for “to eat,” here John uses the word trogo, means to gnaw, to crunch with the teeth, conveying an urgent almost animal sound. We are to eat Christ almost desperately, as lions eat the prey that will keep them alive.
- Preachers could point out the importance of the metaphor of feeding and eating throughout the New Testament (meals with disciples, with crowds who come to listen, with friends, even with enemies or strangers; parables centered around feast tables, and who is invited to those tables). Even in other faiths, the idea of a person or teaching related to divine nourishment is found. The text that begins John’s Gospel (1:3-4) tells us that “All things came into being through him (the Word), and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” How is Jesus the bread of life for all people?
Here are three stories that shine a light on our text for me. You will surely have your own.
When I was in the Middle East years ago visiting Israel and Egypt, I had two encounters around the importance of food and relationship. I met a young Israeli soldier named Josi who showed me the old city of Jerusalem. He took me to his yeshiva; we wandered through the crowded bazaars; we climbed to the walls overlooking the city; and went to the western wall, where I placed a prayer. Then I asked him if he would walk the Via Dolorosa with me and go into the holy sepulcher. He stopped and asked me how he could do this when Christians believed that the Jews had killed Jesus. We sat together on the wall of the old city and shared lunch, and I talked about that being a misunderstanding of the New Testament texts and not at all true for most Christians. We as the church had to repent for that message. He shared his faith and questions, and then decided to walk the way of Jesus’s last journey through the city with me, which he had never walked before. At day’s end, he invited me to his family’s home to share a meal.
Later in the city of Luxor along the Nile, three friends and I took a boat trip on the Nile in one of the ubiquitous feluccas, small sailboats that ply the river. It was during Ramadan and approaching sunset. Our captain Ali was a Muslim man, and as we sailed, the sun set and the muezzin sounded the call that the fast had ended for the day. Ali left the tiller to take out a packet of dates, honey cake, and milk from under the bow, his meal to break the fast. With a smile, he divided the dates, broke the cake in pieces, poured the milk into a few cups, and shared what he had with us.
One more story. I have a friend who loves to bake and bakes a loaf of challah almost every day. She learned this from her father, and kneading the dough and watching it rise, braiding it, then baking it, has become a spiritual practice for her.
During the pandemic, her small congregation was no longer able to worship in person or to share the sacrament around the common table. She had an idea. She prepared starter dough for the bread and took some of it, along with a simple recipe, to a congregant who lived nearby. That man baked a small loaf of challah and took some dough to another church member. This way the dough was distributed to all in the small congregation, bread was baked in each home, and on the sabbath, they gathered for worship on Zoom and shared the same bread of life.
Questions for reflection
- How does Jesus provide bread/sustenance for the world? Is that the church’s work?
- What meaning does this text have in considering the serious famine and hunger in Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia or other places in the world today?
- How does the church as a community receive life from Jesus?
- How does participation in Jesus’ life differ from belief in him? Describe the difference.
- How do we understand this text in an interfaith world?
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