(John 6: 51-58)
Law school does two things to you. It gets as much money out of you as it can, and it teaches you how to think like a lawyer, hence the hefty tuition. To learn how to think like a lawyer we were taught the IRAC method. Issue, Research, Analysis, and Conclusion. If you followed the IRAC method your legal arguments would, more often than not, be solid, reasoned, and hopefully persuasive. Identifying the issue was generally pretty easy. The research could be tricky as you could find yourself running down some rabbit trail and getting sidetracked. You had to stick to the research, the case law and statutes, even if it looked like it might not be going in your favor. After you had done your research, you then had to analyze it to determine what it meant to your case or the other side’s case. From there you would draw your conclusions and make your argument to the court as to why they should rule in your favor and not for the other side. In preparing yourself for your presentation to the court it was always good to keep in the back of your mind that they were also trained up in the law and, in all likelihood, knew more than you just by experience and having heard these arguments before. Both parties would submit their legal briefs and then wait to be called in for oral arguments. The judges, legal experts in the law, would have read the briefs and done some research of their own. And they were especially good at finding the case you omitted in your brief because it hurt your position and they would grill you on your ill-advised attempt at putting one over on them. A good appellate attorney would anticipate these inquiries and would be prepared to respond as your credibility before the court was crucial. The whole point of the exercise was to get them to see your point, where you were coming from, and what it was they weren’t seeing, and therefore rule in your favor.
And getting them to see his point, where he was coming from, what it was they weren’t seeing is what Jesus is trying to do in our scripture reading for today. We left off last week with Jesus saying: 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 you for the life of the world is my flesh. Jesus’ conversation about bread that sustains you for life, as opposed to the manna their ancestors got in the desert after fleeing Egypt, takes a critical turn with the use of the word flesh. This comment caused the Jews, the teachers and experts in the law, to argue amongst themselves saying: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Rather than stopping and analyzing what Jesus is really saying, they take him literally. So Jesus says to them: Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. To these learned men who have already made their mind up regarding Jesus, this sounds like outright cannibalism, and they knew that the Torah condemned the eating of blood. Leviticus 17: 10-12 says: Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.” And Deuteronomy 12: 23-25 says: But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord. If I’m an attorney arguing for the other side that’s pretty good legal precedent. Remember, they are trying to discredit Jesus and his teachings before the people and here he is telling them and all who listen to do something that is wrong in the eyes of the Lord. I rest my case! But Jesus is actually referring to his upcoming death when he says: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. However, the Jews misunderstood what Jesus was saying as they were reading Leviticus 17: 11 literally, where Jesus was speaking figuratively. Leviticus 17: 11 clearly states that life is in the blood, and what Jesus is trying to tell them is that if they accept the sacrifice of his body and blood then that is the basis for eternal life. It’s his flesh and blood, his death, that accomplishes what actual food and drink accomplish, giving and sustaining life. Jesus continues by saying: Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever. Jesus was saying that his life had to become their own, but they could not accept this concept. They knew the issue was eternal life, and their research or knowledge of the law of Moses was subject to a different analysis outside of their comfort zone, and they couldn’t come to the conclusion that Jesus was the one sent from God. It just didn’t fit their narrative. I think it’s important to point out that not all of the teachers of the law, the legal experts, the Pharisees felt this way. Sure, you had Saul who dug his heels in and was a zealot, but you also had Nicodemus who would come and visit Jesus one night to seek answers to the questions he had, as what Jesus was saying seemed to make sense with his reading and understanding of the Torah.
Jesus uses the image of eating to refer to himself as God’s life-giving bread not only in his incarnation and ministry, but also in his death, the giving of his flesh. To consume Jesus in this way is to believe in him and accept his death as that which gives life. It’s Jesus’ death which paradoxically gives us life, and the eating of this “bread” is a synonym for our faith. Clearly, he was indicating that he was God’s provision for the people’s deepest spiritual needs. And just as God had provided for his people as they came out of Egypt, so Jesus had provided physical food for the 5,000, and was ready to provide spiritual nourishment and life to all of them as well.
These verses are teaching that the benefits of Christ’s death must be appropriated by each person. Each person has to have a firm grasp of the issue, being a life that never dies if you have the right relationship with God the Father. That person must do the research, read the word of God, engage in discussions with other Christians, and then analyze what it is that they have learned and thereby draw the conclusion that it is faith in Jesus Christ that secures your future with God in eternity. So, if it pleases the court, in conclusion; symbolically, Jesus is the heavenly manna, the spiritual or supernatural food given by the Father to those who ask, seek and knock. What other conclusion could there be?
Let us pray.
There is a name we love to hear, we love to sing its worth, it sounds like music in our ears, the sweetest name on earth. Gracious and loving God, how we thank you for our Savior’s love who died to set us free, and the shedding of his precious blood was in answer to a sinner’s perfect plea. We praise you for the love of Jesus Christ whose heart can feel our deepest woes, who bears our sorrows in a way that is beyond what we can bear. O how we love Jesus, O how we love Jesus, O how we love Jesus, because he first loved us, in a way only he could love. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.