As you know, I have been on sabbatical for a few months, which has been a real blessing – it was precious to be free to spend more time with the family, more time with the Bible, more unstructured time with God. I’ve been thinking of the best way to describe the sabbatical, the best analogy I can use is that it was a pit stop. If any of you are familiar with formula one racing, well, super-fast cars race each other around the track for anything between 50 and 70 laps. They go round corners at breakneck speed and quite often attempt risky overtaking manoeuvres, which is when it gets really fun! A central part of the race is a pit stop. Cars will have to go into the pit lane, slow down and have new tyres replaced. Sometimes, if they’ve had a bit of a prang, other parts of the car will be replaced too. In the olden days, they used that time to refuel too. Swarms of mechanics would come and do whatever work is needed, and this would all take a few seconds – every tenth of a second would make all the difference and be the difference between winning and losing the race. The driver would not be able to complete the race without the pit stop. So, for me, it’s been this pit stop, and my prayer is that it will have equipped and enabled me to carry on running my race as a disciple and a church leader for the next season of life.
The focus of my time was to read the Gospels, using the Blended Harmony of the Gospels – how many of you joined me with this over the summer? I originally intended to complete the whole book in my sabbatical, but quickly realised that this would be impossible, not if I really wanted to get the most out of my time. Instead, I learned to slow down, to focus on being a human being rather than human doing, I got about halfway through the Gospels, finishing my reading with the transfiguration, where Jesus is revealed in all his glory to the startled disciples. One of the things that struck me in my reading here and throughout the Gospels is just how little the disciples understood of what Jesus said and did. He would speak parables that went straight over their heads. I have to say I find this incredibly reassuring that people who literally spent every waking hour with Jesus were still scratching their heads. Our reading this morning was another example of this. As we’ve been exploring in our services this month, Jesus has been teaching his disciples that he is the bread of life. We’re of course familiar with the imagery he is using, so it’s not particularly controversial, but when Jesus spoke, it really caused a stir. I wrote the following piece imagining I was Peter hearing and reflecting on all this.
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“I am the bread of life.” Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
It was an extraordinary statement he was making. We grew up knowing and loving the stories we were told about how Moses called upon the Lord and bread came from heaven and fed the multitudes miraculously. Well, now we had our own miracle story to tell – and the miracle happened in our hands. The crowds loved it – so much that they wanted to make Jesus king, and anoint him as their new leader. Jesus wasn’t having any of this – they’d missed the point. They wanted to have more miracles, more signs like that one, but he wasn’t going to do things their way. They wanted to have more manna from heaven, like Moses provided, but Jesus seemed to be saying that he was the manna from heaven. The manna would have to be collected every day, but he would satisfy people forever. It was a massive claim. Well, us disciples had seen Jesus walk on water and calm the storm with a word. We had witnessed him raising a girl from the dead. We had started following him because we thought he was a rabbi sent from God. But every day we were wondering, who is this man? Could he be greater than Moses? Could he be who he said he was? But there were others among us who weren’t so sure – you could sense their scepticism. Some were grumbling, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
Jesus seemed frustrated, “I wish you’d stop grumbling among yourselves. Look, the Father is in charge – he is drawing people to me, and that’s the only way they’ll ever come – and when they come, they will, as the Prophet’s promised, be taught by God. I’m telling you the solemn truth – if you believe, you have eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Well, this set some of the Jews among us grumbling even more. “This is impossible – how on earth can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?”
But Jesus wouldn’t back down, “I’m not kidding around here. You will only have life in you if you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.”
Many among the wider group of disciples were shaking their heads. “This teaching is tough – it’s too tough to swallow!”
Jesus knew they were struggling, so he asked them, “Are you offended by this? Look, what if you saw the Son of Man going up into the heavens, where he was before? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this. And you can’t help yourself – this is why I told you earlier that you can’t come to me on your own – it’s only a gift from the Father that makes you capable of getting to me.”
This was the last straw for many of his disciples. They got up, shaking their heads, and left. Jesus seemed to be stunned. He looked perplexed and hurt. He looked almost pleadingly at those of us who remained. “You don’t want to leave as well, do you?”
I had never seen Jesus so vulnerable and, well, needy, before. Was this the same man whose teaching had been so commanding, so radical, so life changing for so many people? The same man whose word had cast out demons and stilled storms? Whose hands had brought life and healing, had multiplied fish and loaves, and whose feet had ascended the waves? Yet, here he was, seemingly begging us to stay with him and not leave him alone.
I can’t speak for the rest of my brothers and sisters who followed Jesus, but there was no question in my mind – I wasn’t going anywhere – Jesus had changed my life completely, given me such purpose. And in that moment I knew that my purpose was to, hard as it was to comprehend, bring some encouragement to Jesus. So, I replied to him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”
At that, relief seemed to flood Jesus’s face. I wondered if I saw tears in his eyes. He smiled, “Haven’t I handpicked you, the Twelve?” but his expression changed and he said something that perplexed us, “Still, one of you is a devil!”
We looked at each other, confused – what on earth did Jesus mean? We were convinced that none of us would abandon Jesus. We were all in and would follow him to the end. Jesus needed us – and I was determined not to let him down.
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I find this passage fascinating for a couple of reasons – firstly, we get the first sense in the Gospels that all wasn’t going smoothly for Jesus. I mean, until this point he has been a roaring success – crowds follow him wherever he goes – hundreds, thousands – they can’t get enough of him. He does face opposition, as is to be expected – when anyone is successful, people can’t wait to bring him down – but his movement has had seemingly unstoppable momentum. Until now.
As you’ll realise, he’s been teaching on this theme of being the bread of life for a while – about 20 verses or so, and it’s gone well until this point, but here the mood changes.
They liked it when he suggested like Moses he could provide this miraculous bread, as he had done in the feeding of the 5000, after all, who doesn’t like a free feed? But then Jesus changes the metaphor – 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 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. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Now, the first thing that might put his listeners off is that Jesus is suggesting a bit of cannibalism – eat his flesh and drink his blood – eww! This might be the thing that has put off some of his disciples. But it could be more subtle than that. The story of the Israelites in the wilderness is a story of miraculous provision – water coming from the rock, manna coming from the skies, and quail being blown in from the sea – but around these stories are others, stories of doubt and mistrust. The Israelites experienced this miraculous provision but didn’t trust that God would continue to provide for them – and this is a picture of what Jesus’s disciples are like. They like the one off, spectacular miracle, but will they keep trusting in the long term? The thing about the manna in the desert is that it had to be collected every day. Each day you had to exercise an element of trust in God for his provision for the next twenty four hours. It’d be no use hoarding it – you could try, but you’d discover that it would go bad, and be inedible. Jesus is saying to his disciples to trust in him for provision of their needs for each day, to exercise that same daily act of trust. Notice in the Lord’s Prayer that he taught his disciples, the words are give us this day – or today our daily bread – not this week, or bread for the future, but for today. He counsels us elsewhere – do not worry about tomorrow, because our heavenly Father knows what we need.
And it’s this, which I believe is the teaching that the disciples find hard to swallow.
I found this reflection from Susan Hylen on workingpreacher.com helpful –
Feeding on Jesus as manna means remaining or abiding with Jesus. It is through this proximity that Jesus brings life to those who eat (v. 57).
But “abiding” with Jesus is difficult. Staying with Jesus and learning from him is a long process. For many, a quick fix would be more attractive. The crowd was initially attracted to Jesus when they saw him as a Moses figure — one who could work miracles and provide political victories. As they continue with him, they learn that Jesus is not offering an easy victory but the long road of discipleship.
So, the majority of Jesus’s disciples up and leave – his teaching on being the manna is too tough to swallow – and this, perhaps surprisingly leaves Jesus clearly feeling vulnerable and even scared. He turns to his disciples, the twelve, who have been with him the longest and asks them, “You don’t want to leave too?”
At this point, though they don’t fully understand what Jesus says and does all the time or even some of the time, and his teaching is difficult both to understand and to put into practice, they realise that they have really nowhere else to go – as Peter expresses it – where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life – we have come to know and believe that you are the holy one of Israel. They recognise Jesus’s words as being life giving, so why would they turn away? They stick closely to Jesus, who is the manna, and they will listen to his words. They will abide with Jesus.
You know what, I haven’t come back from sabbatical with incredible revelation about Jesus and his words, but I do believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life. I am determined to feed on him as my manna for each day, to abide in him. He alone has the words of eternal life. He alone will give us what we need. Let’s feed on him – and as we share in communion together, may it take on a special significance.
Halwill Publishing 