John 6:51-58 Feast on and Imbibe the Son of Man August 18 th /19 th, 2018 Grace and peace to you all from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Today we begin our 4 th of 5 weeks looking at John chapter 6. On the first week we focused on the significance of miracles and the dangers of a mercenary faith; the second week we focused on your labor and God s work, what God does in you, through your actions, to help you believe and stay believing; last week we focused on a choice given to us: Complain or be satisfied with Jesus, the Bread of Life. And this week we focus on the provocative words found in John 6:51-58 where we hear about Jesus invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Yes, you heard Jesus right, he said in 6:53...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. It is with those very provocative words in mind I gave this sermon the provocative title you can see in your bulletin; Feast on and Imbibe the Son of Man. Because when you feast on and imbibe the Son of Man you are eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And what does that even mean? Most basically, to eat Jesus flesh and to drink his blood is simply a metaphor for believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. It s not just a casual believing, a believing you do when it s convenient a couple times a year; a believing that happens once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away; a believing that is here one moment and when the wind blows off it goes. No the believing Jesus is trying to teach you about is a believing that fills every ounce of your body. It is a believing that oozes out of your pores, like sweating after eating garlic. It is a believing that saturates your soul with the love of Christ. It is a believing where you feast on all Christ is and all he has and imbibe his presence until your heart is content, until your heart is so content all you can do is speak of the goodness of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, until your heart is so content others smell Christ on your clothes. So, in the words of King David found in Psalm 34:8, it is my hope that by the end of this sermon you will be saying Oh, taste 1
and see that the Lord is good! Or in the words of Psalm 16:5, 11 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup... in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. If you think is a strange way to talk, eating flesh and drinking blood, I bet some of you have talked like this before. Your friend comes over with their new baby, your children come over with your grandchildren, the new year of Sunday School is about to begin and you hear someone or yourself say something like this: Oh those kids are so cute, they re so adorable! It is so lovely seeing these kids I just wanna eat em up! Now, of course you literally won t be eating any kids like the witch in the woods in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel but figuratively speaking, you eat em up by enjoying their presence, their faces, their voices, their laughter, even the messes they make. You re not physically eating them, but you are metaphorically eating them, eating them in the sense of enjoying everything about them. I think this is a part of what Jesus means when he says...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. When you feast on and imbibe the Son of Man, when you eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood you are enjoying, savoring every ounce of Jesus in every ounce of yourself. When you feast on and imbibe the Son of Man, when you eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood you are filling yourself with all Christ has to offer, with all Christ is, with all Christ has. And what is it Jesus has to offer, what is it that Jesus is, what is it that Jesus has? Life. He has life. In him there is found life and in no other. This is why you must eat and drink Him that you would have life, and not just ordinary life, biological life, but the very life of God coursing through your veins, flowing throughout your body. This life is a life you cannot have unless God gives it. This is life you cannot manufacture for yourself at home or in the beautiful outdoors of 2
the UP. This is life you cannot buy online or at the store. This is life you cannot earn and work for. This is life you can never hope to get unless the loving-kindness and over-abundant generosity of the Lord God almighty actually gives it to you. This is life you cannot have unless Jesus chooses to give it to you. In John 5:21, Jesus offensively says:...as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. Blessed are you people of God, the Son wants to give you this life here and now. As you feast on and imbibe the flesh and blood, the very life of Son of Man today and every Lord s day, hear what Jesus himself has to say in John s gospel about this life you are summoned to feast upon and drink the dregs. (1:4) In [Christ] was life and the life was the light of all men. (3:36) Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (6:47-8) Truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. (10:10)... I came that [my sheep] may have life and have it abundantly. (11:25) I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. (14:6) I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (17:3) This is eternal life, that [you know the Father], the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom [the Father] has sent. Again this life, the life of Christ, the life of the Son of Man, the life of the Son of God, the life of the Savior of the world is what you are invited to feast upon and imbibe as often as you can. To eat Jesus, to drink his blood, is simply to believe everything about him is true and through believing, through trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior, through faith in his holy name you have life. Not ordinary life, not biological life, but the very life of God, the very life of the Son of God coursing through your veins and flowing through your body. This life is the life you are invited to feast on and imbibe. This is the life you 3
are called to eat because you ll never go hungry once you ve feasted on Christ. This is the life you are called to drink because once you ve imbibed the life of Christ, you ll never be thirsty. If you ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), if the Lord is your chosen portion and cup (Psalm 16:5), if you have eaten the flesh and drank the blood of Jesus, if you have feasted on and imbibed the Son of Man, you will continue to come to the smorgasbord of his power and presence, to the all-you-can-eat buffet of his love and mercy and enjoy him always. Think about the finest cut of beef or venison back-strap you ve ever eaten, the finest chicken breast you ve feasted on, the most succulent salmon or lobster you have devoured. Think about the sweetest smelling loaf of bread, or chocolate-chip cookies, or apple pie that was just taken out of the oven. It s an aroma you can never forget. The aroma fills yours nostrils. You can taste the flavors through your nose. What I want you to do is transfer that kind of tasting and smelling to enjoying Jesus in that way. With all of your senses. Having his word invade you ears, saturate your mind, fill your heart. Tasting and smelling the sweetness of redemption when you eat and drink the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar. Shaking the hands of a fellow brother and sister in Christ and feeling their warmth, feeling their sweaty palms, feeling through their pulse the beating heart of Christ in your fellow believers. Eating and drinking Christ is to enjoy his presence wholly and completely in worship, with the people of God. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood is believing, trusting in Christ with other believers so that you would be strengthened by their faithful witness to Jesus. Feasting on and imbibing the Son of Man is allowing the Spirit of the Living Father fill every ounce of your life with the Living Bread, Jesus Christ. Feasting on and imbibing the Son of Man causes you to ooze and sweat Christ out of your pores so that others would smell Christ on your clothes. Feasting on and imbibing the Son of 4
Man saturates your soul with the love of Christ, saturates your soul with the life of Christ, saturates your soul with the very life of God, the life of God which God himself gives you here and now through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Savior of the world. Come, feast on and imbibe today and always the flesh and blood of Christ. Come and let us eat the life of God to taste and see how good Lord is. Come and let us eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man unto life eternal. Amen. HOD: LBW #214 Come Let us Eat 5