St Oswald’s Rugby 23rd July 2023
John 6: 60-71
Dad Joke – why don’t cannibals eat comedians?
Because they taste funny!
Painted just after the
outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Salvador Dali’s ‘Autumnal
Cannibalism’ shows a couple locked in a cannibalistic embrace. They are
pictured on a table-top, which merges into the earthy tones of a Spanish landscape in the background landscape in the background.
Throughout history,
humans eating each other has been considered utterly repugnant.
There are cases of
cannibalism when people find themselves in extreme circumstances, and resort to
eating human flesh to survive.
We also know of tribes
who practised cannibalism, but most often this was a terror tactic against your
enemies. It also sometimes carried the idea that to physically consume part of
another person you might then acquire their attributes.
And as chillingly
portrayed in Silence of the Lambs, there are cases of the criminally insane
practising cannibalism.
Now layer onto this
universal repugnance and horror at the thought of eating human flesh the many
dietary laws of the Jewish people.
Add in for good
measure the drinking of human blood which for Jews was viewed as the sacred
life force with very strict taboos around blood.
Then with all of that
in mind hear Jesus say these words…
“I tell you the truth,
unless you can eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you.”
Suspend for a moment
all that you know about the Last Supper and the Eucharist and hear these words
as stark, as puzzling, and as disturbing as they would have been to the first
hearers.
And Jesus says this in
the synagogue – which only adds to the offensiveness.
As Margaret mentioned last week, this is one of those conversations like the Samaritan woman at the well. It begins on the peripheral level, the need for a drink and the need for food, but then as it continues it goes deeper and deeper.
Bring back to mind
also that last week we reflected on the initial response and the conversation
that arose after the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 - and very important for
the narrative that this was the time of Passover. Jesus is setting himself up
here as the sacrificial Passover lamb whose flesh was eaten and whose blood
served as a sign of salvation on the doors of the Israelites as the angel of
death passed over killing all the first born of both man and beast in Egypt.
Jesus reiterates and
expands upon his invitation ‘to eat his flesh and drink his blood’ set within
this framework of Israel’s defining foundational story, the Exodus celebrated
at Passover.
Consider how Jesus is
reframing that story around himself.
Remember the shed
blood of the sacrificial lamb.
Remember the freedom
from captivity and slavery.
Remember the
miraculous provision of manna in the dessert.
Remember the journey
towards the promised land, the giving of the law and the establishing of the
People of God.
Remember their call to
be a light to the Gentiles and to glorify God.
All of this is now
being reframed around Jesus.
‘He said this while
teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.’
On hearing it, many of
his disciples said, “this is a hard teaching. Who can accept it.?
Jesus responds, and
then we read, ‘From this time many of his disciples turned back and no
longer followed him.’
“You do not want to
leave too, do you,” Jesus asked the twelve disciples.’
We have no indication
of Jesus intonation in asking this question. How do you read it. Was he angry, in despair,
frustrated?
I see Jesus speaking
with a wistful sadness.
Think if you will of a party setting out to climb a mountain with a clear leader to follow.
Initially all goes
well as the group has exciting days and see some amazing things. They receive
warnings that it is going to get tough ahead, but if they stick close to the
leader, they will get through it.
But now higher up the
mountain the climb is beginning to get tougher and tougher.
Many give up and head
back down the mountain. They take offense against Jesus. This is not what they
signed up for.
They return to tending
to their business, to marry a wife, to bury their dead, to look after their
finances, to build bigger barns. To return to the well-worn, safe, secure, and
familiar paths marked out by previous generations.
We have met them as
the Gospel story unfolds. They are simply unwilling to make such a paradigmatic
shift in their thinking. Or they are unable to shift their mental furniture in
their understanding about God, Israel, the Messiah, and their place in the
world.
And Jesus is literally
going to climb a mountain.
He is going to climb
what was known as Mount Zion from of ancient times. A name that carried deep
undertones as the place where God had come to dwell, the place of the temple,
the footstool of God’s throne.
And then he was going to climb a smaller hill just outside the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem, sometimes itself called, Zion the City of God. And on the hill of Calvary, Jesus is going to become the sacrificial Passover lamb bringing freedom from captivity of death and slavery to sin and ushering in a new exodus.
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And it is Peter, the de
facto leader who responds to Jesus’ asking if they are going to head back
down the mountain.
“Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Remembering all that
David Long said regarding ‘eternal life.’
John 5.24
“I tell you the truth,
those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal
life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed
from death into life.”
On a memorable day on
the 30th July 1966, (World Cup) I set off from my home in Royton,
Lancashire, at the age of fifteen and travelled to Newmarket to sign on as an
Apprentice Jockey.
I had never been near
a horse and never watched horse racing.
It was because of my
small stature and a quip by a school friend that got me thinking that maybe I
could become a famous jockey.
So that when I died,
which I knew was inevitable, my name would live on.
“Don't you know who I
am?
Remember my name
Fame!
I'm gonna live forever
Baby, remember my name.”
I didn’t find fame but
found faith ten years later.
On the 1st
January 1975 I made a New Years Resolution to become a Christian. I passed from
death to life. Recognised that there was only one place I needed my name to
written and remembered, The Lambs Book of Life.
Within about six months my then wife said I had to give up this Christianity or she was going to begin divorce proceedings.
“Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Within eighteen months
of my becoming a Christian I was divorced, had left the family home and our
two-year-old daughter, and moved into a bed-sit a quarter of a mile away.
Fast forward eight
years and God brought Jane into my life. A couple of years later we married on
this day, 23rd July, forty-one years ago.
Then whilst working as
a Parish Evangelist in Prudhoe in the Newcastle Diocese the bishop told me that
he wasn’t going to renew my License, largely because the parish I was working
in had recently appointed a husband and wife as vicar and curate. They couldn’t
afford my post as well.
We had sixteen months
of unemployment with three very small children. It was tough, very tough, but…
“Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
I eventually secured a post in Cornwall.
Within a year of
moving, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
“Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
You can but imagine my
joy to complete the Plymouth half marathon the following year.
We had settled well
there but after ten years a bishop said that the diocese could no longer afford
to fund my post.
This time the move
came to the Chichester diocese and living in Hove, just outside of Brighton.
Nine years later a new
Diocesan Bishop was appointed and wanted to radically restructure the whole of
the diocesan staff. I was in the Mission & Evangelism department as the
Diocesan Evangelist. That department was going to close, and my post would not
exist, but…
“Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
I secured a post in
the Lichfield Diocese and finally concluded my active ministry with fabulous
support and had a marvellous time before moving into retirement.
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At our wedding we sang
‘Great is thy faithfulness’…
Great is Thy
faithfulness,
Morning by morning new
mercies I see
All I have needed Thy
hand hath provided
Great is Thy
faithfulness, Lord, unto me
“Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Now I have mentioned
some of these events not because I seek to boast and say look how faithful I
have been. These trials and tribulations are part of our common lot. You will
have your own stories to tell, and we will all probably face difficult times
ahead. Or you may be going through just such a challenging time right at this
moment.
And yes, God has been
faithful and provided for our needs – but not our wants. The Israelites longed
for the food they had back in Egypt, but God provided food that would sustain
them, not what they wanted, but what they needed.
A key that helps us
understand something of the difference between those who left and those who
remain is found in verse 62.
“What if you see the
Son of Man ascend to where he was before.”
And if we have been
paying attention we will be reflecting on the prologue to John’s Gospel and all
the wonderful language about Jesus as the Word of God, there at the beginning
of creation.
We would also be
remembering his words to Nathaniel linking back to the story of Jacob’s ladder
and ascending and descending from earth to heaven. Jesus is a heaven and earth
reality. We will be recalling Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus and with the
Samaritan woman.
Our faith in Jesus is
no real faith if it is based on his provision for our needs. That was the issue
with the feeding of the five thousand.
Our faith in Jesus is
as we see Him as part of the wonderful, glorious Trinity – see him seated at
the right hand of God – see him as the author and giver of life – see him as
the bread of life, the sustainer of life – the one through whom all things were
made, things in heaven and things on earth.
That’s the nub of the
issue here. The disciples who found his teaching hard could not accept that the
person in front of them was God incarnate – God come to dwell amongst us. Jesus
uses the extreme language of eating his flesh and drink his blood as a profound
metaphor. If you want to enter into eternal life, then you have to be willing
to be so identified with Jesus, that it is as if you were actually eating Jesus’
flesh and drinking His blood.
How do you see Jesus this
morning?
Are you seeking to
follow Jesus and why?
Are you following Him
because he provides for all your needs?
Or because you
acknowledge that Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.
This morning I want to
encourage you as you face your own trials and tribulations, not to head back
down the mountain.
I want to encourage
you to turn to Jesus, who alone has the words of eternal life.
Acts 4.12 declares, “There
is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which
we must be saved.”
I want to encourage
you to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood as we will do symbolically this
morning in the Eucharist.
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
I invite you now to
sit quietly, to close your eyes and hear Jesus’ question…
“Do you also want to
leave?”
What are you going to
decide to do, what choice are you going to make?
Are you going to head
off back down the mountain…
Or are you willing to
reach out to God the Father and declare…
I believe in Jesus,
I believe He rose
again.
I believe that Jesus
Christ is Lord.
I believe he has the
words of eternal life.
And for the sermon in context...
Worship and prayer - St Matthew and St Oswald's with Overslade (m2o.org.uk)
