“Entirely missing the point?”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, January 2, 2023
John 6:35-42,48-51 (Forward, p. 65) CEV p. 1108
I am continually amazed at how many people, people who should know better, miss one of the ‘established’ tenants of modern Biblical scholarship, and that tenant is that no matter what the speaker or author said, even if it had a later fulfilment or application, it still had a meaning or an application to his or her present audience. For instance, when the prophet Isaiah promised King Ahaz a sign, a son who would be called Emmanuel, it meant something to Ahaz—yes, even if we Christians later on would attach still another, different meaning to it.
So, when Jesus spoke to the Jewish crowds about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, it must have meant something to them different from partaking of the bread and wine in the Eucharist, Holy Communion. That meaning would arise later on, after the Last Supper and after the Church came into being. However, that meaning was entirely foreign to His hearers on the original occasion. In fact, as verse 52 clearly indicates, those crowds interpreted His words literally, that is, as if Jesus was expecting them to act like cannibals and ‘chow down’ on His actual flesh and bones body.
But if we examine the overall context of this passage, we will see that what Jesus was asking of them was that they come to Him, and trust in Him and have faith in Him. Those that did so (see verse 35) would neither hunger or thirst any longer—which obviously is not speaking of a physical hunger or thirst, but rather, a spiritual one.
Furthermore, seeing as the bread He gives—here He is using yet another analogy—is life-giving, such that they will never die but will live forever, it is obvious that it is spiritual food, not food of a more literal or physical type. Jesus is talking about them receiving Himself into their lives so that He can truly nourish them and such as to make Him part of their very being. Now, we believe that this is exactly what happens in the Eucharist, but the Eucharist had not yet been established when Jesus spoke to these crowds that day, so He must have meant something else. What, then, He was asking that they welcome Him, receive Him by faith and allow Him to be part of their lives and their very beings—which is something, Eucharist or not, that every single one of us can do. The more excellent, future possibility and promise was there, that of the Eucharist, but they could begin to incorporate its benefits right away, right in the here and now. And likewise, so it is with us: we can, by faith, receive those benefits even if not partaking of the Sacrament just then. Jesus can still feed us and nourish us even without it. Amen.
Forward notes: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (verse 39).
“After college, I spent a year as an intern with the Community of St. Mary, Southern Province in Sewanee, Tennessee. My daily duties were split between the chapel and the garden. Among them was helping Sister Elizabeth make the week’s communion bread. She taught me how to be patient with the dough during its rise. She used a glass to cut out the communion hosts and a butter knife to make the sign of the cross on each one. With the scraps, she’d make small buns for tomorrow’s breakfast. Nothing was wasted.
“In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that he is the bread of life. He feeds us in both spirit and body. For the nuns, their altar and dining room table were both places of nourishment and hospitality. Nothing taught me this lesson better than praying ‘give us this day our daily bread,’ while making and receiving daily bread—as spiritual and physical food. In every form, God seeks communion with us, seeks our healing. When we welcome Christ into our hearts and welcome the stranger as Christ himself, Jesus promises that we will never hunger and never thirst.”
Moving Forward: “Bake some bread to give to a friend in need.”