John 6:56-69
Chapter 6 according to the Gospel of John is a chapter full of Jewish imagery. We find Jesus talking about manna, the bread that came down from heaven and he identified himself as the real manna, that real bread. In verse 57 he says something that made people uncomfortable: As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eat me, he also shall live because of me. Jesus is not just anybread; he is the living bread. He gets his life from the Father who sent him, and he shares that life, the one he received from the father, with anyone who eats him.
For the Jews who first heard Jesus saying this, it sounded strange “How can this man want us to eat his flesh and drink his blood?” For us today this passage does not sound as strange as to the Jews. This passage sends us immediately to our communion table, bread, wine, sacrifice and Jesus inviting us to eat.
Our sacrament of communion has its origins in the Jew celebration of Passover and both celebrations have something in common, they both bring together past, present and future; they both are celebrated in community, and they also make –Israel and the church- a community that transcend place and time.
During Passover all Israel’s families get together around the table. On the table they have a lamb, unleavened bread, wine and herbs and they talk, they recalled their story. They talk about when they were slaves in Egypt and how God took them out; they celebrate how God opened the sea, and they walked on dry land; they recall how God took good care of them during their dwelling in the wilderness.
To celebrate the present, they thank God because they are not slaves anymore. The future is also included in this celebration with the fourth and last cup of wine they drink during this meal. The cup of Elijah is used to anticipate the coming of the Messiah. At this point of the meal they open the door, so Elijah can come in and sit in the extra chair they have around the table.
Passover is the only Jewish holy day celebrated in homes. This holy day reminds Israel who they are and makes them one community wherever they are; when they sit around the table and share the lamb and bread. the wine and herbs, they are eating life because these actions keep them alive as people.
According to some scholars, this passage from John six was used by the early church as part of the liturgy used during communion service. Since the beginning of the church the apostles knew about the similarity between Passover and our communion service, between the relationship of Jesus and the Passover Lamb. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; Paul in first Corinthians 5:7 says …For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
When Jesus said: “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world… Verily, verily, I say unto you, except if you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have not life in yourselves.” He was inviting us to sit with him at his table and eat what he provides for us. As Israel, we find identity and life around the table.
Around the communion table -as Israel- we also remember our past, celebrate our present and rejoice in our future; around the communion table we receive life and strength; around the communion table we are the living bread community.
How our past, present and future are present in the communion table celebration? Jesus said do this in remembrance of me, which means in remembrance of what I did for all of us. What did Jesus do for us? He took our place in the cross; he paid for our sins and gave us with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit the opportunity to be today new creatures; he called us out of darkness and today we can be part of his wonderful light. Communion also gives us hope for the future. According to Luke 22:17 during the last super Jesus took the cup and said: “Take this and divide it among you. 18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” When we get together around the table and eat the living bread, we affirm the coming of our Lord.
Around the table of communion, we also get life and strength. How do we get life and strength? As Methodists we do not agree with the doctrine of transubstantiation. We believe that when we eat the bread and when we drink the grape juice, they are not literally the flesh and blood of Christ. They are spiritual symbols and with them our spiritual life is fed, our relationship among brothers and sisters grows. We receive strength because Jesus the Manna that came down from heaven is the bread of life and the life he received from his Father, our Father, he also shares it with us.
When we sit around the table and eat the bread of life, Jesus abides in us and us in him, and his image, the image of God we lost because of our sin is restored in us and we receive the seal of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus abiding in us makes us his body, his church. We are his church not because we come here every Sunday, but because Jesus lives in us. I bring communion to several members of the church that for different reasons cannot come to church, and I always remind them that even when they do not go to church, they are part of Jesus’ church. If they cannot come to church, church will come to them, and we are one because Jesus lives in them too.
We are his church, and we are fed and sustained by Jesus… in other words we are community; we are a very peculiar and unique community.
As Jews do in Passover, Jesus the living bread only invites family to his table. The community of the living bread is first of all a family. Mathew 12:46-50 say: 46While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”[a] 48He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
We are God’s Family that is the reason why we call each other or should call each other brothers and sisters.
We as the living bread community and family work as one. 1 Corinthians 12:12 say: 12For just as(Y) the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,(Z) so it is with Christ. 13For(AA) in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—(AB) Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and(AC) all were made to drink of one Spirit.
What Paul reminds us of is that the living bread community and family suffer and rejoice together. In the same chapter Paul says: “25that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored,(AF) all rejoice together.
As a community and family of the living bread we also learn together, in 2 Peter 1:20-21. The apostle Peter says, 21 For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spoke from God being moved by the Holy Spirit.” Peter says that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation because we are one body. Therefore, my sisters and brothers, even when today we are not going to partake communion next Sunday when we come to the table and eat the bread and drink the juice, let’s remember we are a community. The “living bread” community.