A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, March 22, 2009
II Chronicles 36: 14 – 23, Psalm 122, Ephesians 2: 4 – 10, John 6: 4 – 15
“We are what we eat.”
No doubt, you’ve heard that phrase somewhere.
(I will admit, for me and my Army buddies, if the saying holds true, we would be in real trouble, for our “five basic food groups” philosophy of eating was filled with all kinds of junk: things like salt, sugar, fat, chocolate, etc.)
Today’s gospel text is all about eating.
For today, we hear John’s account of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, a miracle that’s recorded in all four gospel accounts.[1] (Biblical scholars are quick to point out that this is the only miracle that all four gospel writers record.)
The facts of the feeding are clear enough. It’s interesting that John appends the comment that the crowd who’d been fed by Jesus wanted to “take him and make him king by force.”[2] No doubt, the recipients of this great miracle “knew a good thing when they saw it.” Perhaps they figured that Jesus, as king, could supply all of their wants. “Life would be a whole lot easier,” maybe they thought, “if we didn’t have to work so hard.”
But I digress.
The crafters of the Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary don’t make the task at all easy for the preacher on this, the Fourth Sunday in Lent. For, you see, they give us the actual miracle account itself as our reading, but they don’t include the conversation between Jesus and the crowd, which follows. Nor do they allow us to hear Jesus’ discourse on the entire matter of eating/bread that comes from heaven/manna in the wilderness/Jesus as the living bread/eternal life for those who eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood.
So, we ought to trace the pattern of chapter six as we have it in John’s gospel account, remembering that – in John – we often have a pattern which looks like this:
- Event – or miracle
- Conversation between Jesus and others (disciples, crowd, Pharisees and Scribes, e.g.)
- Discourse by Jesus, which reflects/instructs about the event or miracle.
Chapter six follows this pattern generally.
Now, we are ready to begin to trace the overall shape of chapter six. It is:
- vv. 1 – 4: Jesus goes to the other side of the Sea of Tiberius (Galilee), at Passover time,
- vv. 5 – 15: Jesus multiplies the five loaves and two fish, feeding 5,000 (men),
- vv. 16 – 21: Jesus walks on water, crossing the Sea of Tiberius,
- vv. 22 – 24: The crowd which had been fed follow Jesus around the sea, finding him at Capernahum,
- vv. 25 – 34: Discussion between the crowd and Jesus, centering on “Manna in the wilderness” and “working for food that does not perish”,
- vv. 35 – 40: Jesus’ discourse on “I am the bread of life”,
- vv. 41 – 59: Discussion between the crowd and Jesus, centering on “Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, who have no life in you,”
- vv. 60 – 65: Discussion between Jesus and his disciples, centering on “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
I commend to your further reading and study the entire event: miracle, discussion and discourse.
Jesus’ teaching, especially that part in which He says, “Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you will have no life in you,” is as close as we get in the Fourth Gospel to a description of Holy Communion.
Not that we actually get a description of the Last Supper, that time in which the Sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted by our Lord Jesus. (We have the description of the Last Supper itself in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Last Supper in John fails to record the institution of the Eucharist, though it informs us about the foot washing that Jesus did on that occasion.)
No, here in John, we learn about the effects of the Eucharist, and specifically, its life-giving properties.
This is typical of Johannine theology and John’s approach to our Lord’s work, teaching, and ministry. Oftentimes, the actual events themselves are not described, but the theological truth that is contained in them, is described.
Notice, then, that Jesus seems to be telling us, in His teaching, that we “are what we eat (and drink).”
Hear his words again: “Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink of His blood, you have no life in you.”
In other words, the clear Eucharistic implication is that receiving the elements of bread and wine are a source of life.
If so, then the Eucharist must not merely be memorial meal. No, it must be the means by which we feed on Christ’s body and blood. Notice again the directness of the language: “Unless you eat of the flesh, and drink of the blood.” John’s words are quite similar in their intent to those of the Synoptic Gospel writers, who tell us that Jesus said, “Take, eat, this is my body.”[3] [4]
Drawing from our life experience, we know that eating is necessary to life. So, Jesus must be drawing on that common experience to inform us about the nature of the life-giving sustenance that Holy Communion offers us.
But, go on with me to some further reflections – again from our life experience – about the nature of eating and drinking: what we eat and drink directly affects our physical welfare. Truly (as the dieticians and doctors will tell us) we “are what we eat (and drink).” So, receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist directly determines our spiritual strength, health and wellbeing.
If we, as Anglicans, share with other Christian believers the conviction that our Lord Jesus Christ is present in a real sense in the elements of bread and wine as they are offered and set aside (consecrated) in the celebration of the Eucharist, then we actually receive the Body and Blood of our Lord in the Sacrament.
What an awesome thought!
(I admit, I still struggle with the mystery of the Lord’s presence in the Sacrament. But, as my wife wisely said once-upon-a-time, a “mystery is something that we know that it works, we just don’t know exactly how.”)
So, in receiving the Holy Communion, we are changed, transformed into Christ’s likeness, strengthened to do His work in the world, and we are offered life itself.
If all of this is true, then we are called to receive this holy meal often. Again, we can see from our physical lives, if we do not eat regularly, we quickly become weak, we become easy prey for all sorts of maladies and diseases, and we will eventually lose our lives, if we go without food and drink long enough.
The same holds true of the heavenly banquet with is set before us on the Holy Table of the Altar Sunday by Sunday.
It is no wonder that the Christian believing community recognizes the centrality of the Eucharist, for regular celebrations of the Holy Communion, and regular receiving of it, is vital to our spiritual wellbeing.
Welcome to the feast!
AMEN.
[1] See Matthew 14: 13 – 21, Mark 6: 30 – 44; Luke 9: 10 – 17 for the other accounts.
[2] Verse 15
[3] Matthew 26: 26
[4] Our Eucharistic liturgy’s Words of Institution are more directly based on St. Paul’s description of the Holy Eucharist, as it is found in I Corinthians 11: 23 – 26.
