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Kit 6 2003 - Pentecost 7 to Pentecost 13
Written by Rev Dr Harry Swadling
Sunday 24 August. Pentecost 11
1 Kings 8:22-30,41-43, Ps 84, Eph 6:10-20
John 6: 56 – 69
I wonder why the compilers of the lectionary went back to vv 56-58 when we had dealt with them last week? My guess is that they serve to introduce verse 60. We need to know what it was that Jesus said to puzzle the disciples so much. And certainly, those of us who have worked our way through this section are more than ready to agree with the grumbling disciples, despite the fact that we are much more familiar with the ideas than they were. They say the teaching is difficult. Perhaps we have made it more difficult for ourselves by examining it in some detail. We have shared something of the shock and felt the accusation of cannibalism a little more. We accept the usual words associated with Holy Communion more easily because of their familiarity. Perhaps we should be a little more shocked or perhaps awed by what we do in this symbolic way.
What seems to us a little unexpected is that in his next words Jesus moves on to a teaching which we almost take for granted but which he puts to them as even more disturbing. The idea of the Son of Man ascending to heaven is not one that takes us by surprise. We are familiar with it from the other Gospels where it provides a fitting conclusion to the earthly ministry of our Lord; here, however, it is more striking because there is no comparable Ascension in John. To John’s Church, this would have been something quite different and a demonstration of the triumph of the spiritual values that Jesus has been teaching. It would indeed show that the flesh was without value and the spirit is all.
This, in fact, qualifies and describes the teaching about eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking his blood. The teaching is spirit and life. Many of us today react against this sharp division of spiritual from physical, but this was the thought world in which the Johannine Church lived. We need to see that the Synoptic Gospels offer us a different thought world and maybe use one to modify the other. That is to say that we may need to remind ourselves that this exalted spiritual world is as much a biblical reality as the more earthy world of, say, Luke. We are not dealing with an “either/or” but with a “both/and”.
It is very interesting to note that so early in the Gospel we have a radical split amongst the followers of Jesus. Many disciples turned back. This split seems to foreshadow the division that we know so well from the First Letter of John. Such splits seem to have been part of Christianity from the earliest times. Once again we have the Jesus who knows not only those who believe and those who do not, but also the one who will betray him.
The way in which you handle this section will depend on the way you view this Gospel. Some will want to see it as confirmation of the Jesus they know as completely divine, knowing everything in advance and even as establishing the doctrine of predestination. “..no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” I think we do better to see this section as coloured by the stresses that were already beginning to affect John’s Church. Once again, the key is belief in Christ. It is not about forms of worship or even points of theology. Those who believe are within the community – those who do not are outside. It is as simple as that. We are quite wrong if we use a section like this to define our own concept of Church as the only one acceptable to God. The criterion is belief in Jesus as the one who brings life. Even if the Johannine Church is taking this very hard line on who is acceptable as a member, we need to recall that the actual words here are open to more than one interpretation. “..no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father” can mean that the granting is through the life of Christ and the Spirit that he brings. It seems to me unnecessarily stern to take this as meaning that it is foreordained for some to come to Christ and others to be prevented. In fact, this sentence seems to be tacked on to the rest of the teaching in a rather loose way.
The end result of this whole long section, starting with the Feeding of the Fivethousand, is a radical split in those following Jesus. But this apparent tragedy actually leads to affirmation. Two things happen. The Twelve are seen as faithful and Simon Peter makes that magnificent affirmation of faith on behalf of the Twelve. Where else are we to find the meaning and purpose for life that is given by Christ? Jesus is the one who has the words of eternal life and he is the Holy One of God. This is the heart of John’s Gospel. Note that Peter does not say that God has given them belief (see last para) but that they have come to believe. Being with Jesus has brought them to belief in him and to see that he is the Holy One of God. This is, I think, far more relevant to our experience of faith.
It seems to me that this rather unusual title for Jesus is an indication that we cannot press faith into a common mould. Different titles are used, different people respond to Christ in different ways. The experience that has led to this affirmation goes back to the feeding of the multitude and through the teaching of Jesus about the nature of spiritual food. We must ourselves be willing to appropriate this food through developing our spiritual lives in relationship with Christ, the One who brings eternal life.
Loaves and Fishes
The feeding of the five thousand
Is a little different these days,
With loaves and fishes changed in appearance.
But I believe that people are much the same,
And Christ’s presence among us is still miracle
Whether we recognise him or not.
For the wonder of Jesus is
that he always oversteps the narrowness
of the expectations we place upon him.
He turns up out of place and time
to bless and bless and bless yet again,
without leaving a business card
or an advertisement for the local church.
But we know that something has happened.
There is a transformation
in the sharing of food and lives,
in the laughter of children,
in the special mood which hangs over us,
unnamed and yet fragrant with love.
Some of us know who is present.
We look for him in the crowd, asking,
“Excuse me, are you the Christ? Is it you?
Or you? Are you the one?”
Gradually there is an awakening
to the truth of the loaves and fishes miracle.
Christ has so multiplied himself amongst us,
that he has made us all into Himself,
and we are sacrament to each other.
Joy Cowley “Aotearoa Psalms”