Messiah Lutheran Church, Fargo ND
Pentecost
11/August 8, 2021
John
6:35, 41-51
In
the name of Jesus. Amen
“Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
and
The skies are not cloudy all day.”
That old familiar verse pretty much sums up the mood that
prevails in the first half of John chapter 6 which we’ve been exploring these
last few Sundays.
A crowd numbering 5,000 has been miraculously fed with
a very limited menu: just five barley loaves
and two dried fish. Everyone eats
until they’re filled, after which the clean-up crew collects 12—mind you!--12
big baskets of leftovers.
In the wake of this amazing meal, the mood is buoyant
and hopeful, the crowd is eager and curious, and there is even talk about
drafting Jesus to become their king.
As those who were fed engage with Jesus, their
benefactor, they’re captivated by what he has to say about wanting to give
them—not just here today/gone tomorrow bread, but bread that endures for
eternal life, “wonder bread” that reminds them of the miraculous manna their
ancestors ate in the wilderness, “bread
from above…the bread from heaven”…all of it culminating in Jesus’ stirring claim
that he—in his very being—is the Bread of Life…Bread that will assuage
all hunger forever.
No wonder the mood here in the first half of John 6 is
filled with hope and promise….
…until….until we come to today’s portion of this chapter….where all of a sudden some discouraging
words are heard, and there’s some grumbling like the complaining
Moses put up with while leading the ancient children of Israel for 40 years through
the wilderness….
When we listen closely to this grousing in John 6, we
recognize another old familiar tune…a melody of grievance, jealousy, and complaint.
“Who does he think he is—this fellow who fancies
himself the Bread of Life??? We know
his pedigree and it’s nothing special. Is
not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down
from heaven’?”
That, my friends, is the unmistakable
sound of familiarity breeding contempt. It’s the sound of doubt creeping in and
stealing away the joy and hope Jesus had planted in the hearts of those whom he
had fed so lavishly.
It’s the kind of noise that’s made by the spiritually
elite—self-appointed guardians of religious purity--whenever someone crosses
the line between human and divine. For
Jewish religious leaders in the first century A.D., you could be one or the
other—either human or divine, but never ever could you be both at the same time….
Even though Jesus had filled their bellies…even though
Jesus had done the kind of thing only God can do….he still looked and sounded like an average ordinary human
being….folks knew where he came from….and they were familiar with his family
tree…
So how dare Jesus cast himself as somebody who’s
more-than-human? What gives him the
right to say, “I have come down from heaven?”
To talk that way, in that time and place, was to
engage in blasphemy—a crime punishable by death.
Knowing how risky this was, you’d think Jesus might
have toned down his rhetoric and made his claims more easy-to-swallow—lest he wind
up in hot water with these guardians of the Jewish orthodoxy.
But Jesus, instead of backing down, rebukes
these members of the religious elite, commanding them to stop their
complaining….and then doubling down on them by declaring: “No one can come to me unless drawn by
the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.”
Instead of softening some of his claims, rounding off
the rough edges on his rhetoric, Jesus repeats what he has already said and he even
ups the ante: “I am the
bread of life…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 for the life of the world is my flesh.”
That last word “flesh” must have stopped those
guardians of Jewish doctrine dead in their tracks…by confronting them with
their own aloof, hyper-spiritualized understanding of God.
If they just took Jesus him at his word, they’d have
no choice but to say that Jesus is God—but God garbed in flesh and blood—God with
skin on! Such a notion was so shocking,
so jarring to Jews in the 1st century that they simply could not
believe it (at least, not on their own!)….which is why Jesus insists that “No
one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will
raise that person up on the last day.”
Now that word—translated here as “drawn”—piqued my
curiosity this past week as I prepared this sermon.
In the original Greek language of the New Testament,
this word can have an earthy flavor.
It’s used toward the end of John’s gospel to describe fisherman dragging
or hauling in a net filled-to-overflowing with fresh-caught fish (John
21).
But this same word can also mean—more metaphorically--to
draw in or to attract.
That’s how Jesus uses it here in our text: “No one can come to me unless drawn
by the Father who sent me.”
In other words:
coming to faith in Jesus is never about us choosing Jesus. Rather, it’s about discovering that Jesus is so
appealing, so alluring, so attractive that we’re simply drawn to
him.
And just what makes Jesus so attractive, so appealing? It’s the depth and daring of Jesus’ love for
us, his fearless determination to suffer and die on a cruel Roman cross for
us—and, in so doing, Jesus draws us toward his love--love that will not let us
go!
Jesus’ journey to the Cross begins with stories like
this one here in John chapter 6, narratives in which the religious leaders of his
day take aim at Jesus and push back against his fierce determination to
sacrifice himself for those he loves.
This rejection of Jesus begins here in John 6 and it
keeps crescendoing over the next thirteen chapters until Jesus’ enemies stir up
another crowd who shout: “crucify him,
crucify him!” (John 19:6)
On the one hand, what a tragedy that
those angry voices prevailed!
But, on the other hand, what a triumph that Jesus won
in his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave three days later!
My friends, this is the irony of all ironies: that Jesus’ rejection by the religious
leaders of his day led to his astonishing victory over sin, death and the power
of the devil.
This is what makes Jesus so profoundly appealing, so
amazingly attractive. It’s what draws
us to Jesus, enabling us to believe in him and depend on him for everything we
need.
In just a few moments we’re going to experience a dramatic
demonstration of how this happens….as we see sweet baby Mara being drawn to
Jesus by God’s promise through the saving water of Holy Baptism.
As this happens right before our eyes, may it remind all
of us of how we have been drawn, attracted to Jesus and his love…and how God uses us as his tools for drawing
others to the Bread of Life, as well!
In the name of Jesus. Amen.