HE RIPPED OFF THE COVERS

“‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.’ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.” John 6:56-59 (NIV).

No one had ever preached a sermon like this before!

I can’t help thinking, as I ponder on Jesus’ words, that no other man could or would dare to make the claims He was making. Those who have claimed to have new revelation from God, like the ones who have twisted the Bible or added to it or subtracted from it, have never gone as far as to identify themselves with their message.

Joseph Smith, for example, asserted that the Book of Mormon was new revelation from God and that it took precedence over the Bible, but he did not call people to believe in him as the one sent from heaven. Mohammed claimed to be God’s prophet and superior to all other prophets but he did not claim to be God.

More than that, no other human being has predicted in detail his own death and the manner of his death as well as his resurrection and then fulfilled it to the letter. If one is planning suicide, that would work but not violent death at the hands of others and certainly not resurrection three days later.

In this sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum, He was offering the gift of eternal life through His broken body and shed blood and through a union with Him that was as intimate as the food that one ate, that was digested and absorbed and became a part of one’s body, replacing cells and providing energy for one’s muscles.

The manna that their ancestors ate in the wilderness only sustained their physical lives. They lived out their natural lives and died of old age or, in the case of many of them, unnatural and premature deaths because of their sin against God. Many people died violently because they did not trust the God who had entered into a covenant with them that promised them real and eternal life if they obeyed Him.

To “eat” Jesus implied to believe what He said and act upon His word so that it became their very lives. It meant allowing Him to replace self as the energy, motive and driving force of their lives. It meant absorbing His word into their spirits as they absorbed food into their bodies, deriving sustenance and strength from Him to become like Him,

“On hearing this, many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard saying. Who can accept it?'” John 6:60 (NIV).

Of course, it was a hard saying if they misunderstood what He meant? Why didn’t Jesus spell out what He meant in plain language? Why did He use an offensive illustration like eating His flesh and drinking His blood? Could He not have explained it more simply? When He taught in parables, His disciples got His point with some explanation and without too much trouble.

This was Jesus’ way of exposing what was in people’s hearts. He was not interested in having yes-men for disciples. He often said and did things that offended them because that was what exposed what they were thinking.

When He told His disciples about His impending suffering and death, for example, Peter exploded in protest. Why? Because he rejected the prophecies that spoke of a Suffering Servant. Even the crucifixion of Jesus was offensive to His disciples until they understood the deeper meaning of His death.

That’s how God works with us as well. He allows people and circumstances to offend us so that what is in our hearts is exposed by our reaction. Only then can we face up to ourselves if we are honest, and allow Him to transform us from the inside through the presence of the Holy Spirit and the power of His word. When we allow His truth to replace the lies we believe, we are in the process of becoming one with Him.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.