Text: Gospel of John 6:25-71
The
interaction here between Jesus and those who follow him reminds me of one of
those high stakes games of five card stud poker in the movies. There's the good guy. There's the bad guy. There's all the others. They all sit around the table with their
solemn poker faces on while the dealer throws everyone one card face down at
which they take an impassioned peek.
This is an important card. Only
the holder knows what it is and thus it permits the opportunity to bluff, to act
as if you have a better hand than the one showing. The dealer then deals everyone one card face
up. Each player must put in or place a
bet if he desires to stay in the game.
This continues on until each has four cards showing and one card
down.
In
the movie version what ends up happening is the bad guy pushes the stakes
higher and higher with each round of betting until either by bluffing or by the
strength of his cards showing those of weaker fortitude drop out with a heavy
sigh. By the time the fifth card is
dealt, there is only the good guy and the bad guy facing off. Usually the bad guy has a seemingly
unbeatable hand and he places a big enough bet that if the good guy wants to
stay in the game with a hand that is showing nothing, he must go all in and bet
everything. Yet, his down card may be
the one card in the whole deck which against seemingly impossible odds can turn
this hand of nothing into poker’s one unbeatable hand, the royal flush. The odds of that are 1 in 2,598,960. He’s got the ace of hearts and the king and
the jack and the ten. Is he holding the
queen, the queen of hearts?
Unfortunately, his all in is not enough to match the bad guy’s put in
and unless he can find a backer he will have to fold but along comes the pretty
lady dressed in red, the Queen of Hearts.
Remarkably, not knowing the card and simply because she believes in him,
she gives him the money he needs and some.
The tables are now turned. Now
it’s the bad guy who must choose between folding and losing everything he’s put
in or going all in to see if the good guy is bluffing. The suspense builds. He looks at his card, sweats, puts a finger
to his temple; in Casino Royale fashion his eye begins to tear blood…he
folds. Against impossible odds, he has
also come to believe that the good guy
must have the queen of hearts. The good
guy rakes in his winnings. He never
shows his card. We never know if he was
bluffing.
So,
gathered here around the table in John's Gospel we find Jesus, the Jews (the
synagogue and thus town authorities of Capernaum), the disciples, and the Twelve. Thus far, we have seen the synagogue
authorities drop out. The stakes of
accepting Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Incarnate
Word of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world are just too
high. They’ve too much power to loose being
religious, societal, and political authorities.
Their hand is not showing strong enough either. They can’t feed the multitudes like Jesus
did; over 15,000 on two fish and five loaves of bread…something only God could
do. So, they convince themselves that
Jesus is working for the bad guy, the devil, and accordingly they fold and as
they leave the table they try to convince others that Jesus is a blasphemer and
a liar…he’s bluffing.
The
stakes got too high for them when Jesus claimed to have come down from heaven being
sent by the Father which was a claim to divinity. They leave the table and as they go Jesus has
an interesting life-word for them, “No one can come to me unless the Father who
sent me draws him. And I will raise him
up on the last day. It is written in the
Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’
Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me – not
that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the
Father.” The authorities can’t just come
to Jesus and have eternal life – the life that flows from the relationship of
God the Father and Son in the Holy Spirit – they are not going to believe him
unless the Father who sent him draws them.
Apparently, the Father hadn’t been drawing them. He hadn't been attracting them to come to
Jesus by revealing to them who Jesus is.
Their claimed expertise in the Prophets and the Law of Moses was simply
a sham, a power play bluff. What they had
supposedly learned there wasn’t taught them by the Father. They were using the Scriptures just to insure
their grip on power and the way things are.
Had the Father been their teacher, they would have come to Jesus
accepting him as having seen and been with the Father and as having the
authority of one sent by the Father, an authority greater than theirs. What they had learned wasn’t God’s
self-revelation as the one true God steadfastly loving and faithful who saves
his people. Rather, they believed in an
insular god of “ism’s” – protectionism, nationalism, conservatism, moralism,
legalism.
Next,
at the table are the disciples. Take
note here that John makes a distinction between “the Twelve” and “the disciples”. It appears that around Capernaum Jesus had
amassed a following of people who regarded him as a great teacher, a great
Rabbi, and quite possibly the Messiah.
They were following him; heeding his teachings rather than those of the
authorities. We might call them the
liberals. Jesus had the
religio-socio-political plan of the Messiah king that would make life better
for them the poor and oppressed people of the land. They ate the bread and the fish. Yet, the stakes got too high when Jesus told
them that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they were going to
receive the life he had to offer. True
faith in him which is eternal life - knowing the Father and the Son through the
Spirit, sharing in the loving communion of the Father and the Son through the
Holy Spirit (I hope you've got it that eternal life in John's Gospel is not going
to heaven when you die; cf. 17:3.) - is the manna, the bread of life that will
sustain them in the wilderness of this broken world.
But,
they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood to get it. Jesus wasn't talking about becoming
cannibals. He was intimating that as the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world he was going to have to die for
them and his death would be for them the once and for all Passover Lamb whose
blood would shield them from death, once and for all scapegoat of the Day of
Atonement who bears their iniquity away reconciling them to God. I don't have the time this morning to flesh
out the meaning of those Old Testament sacrifices, yet I will say that to drink
his blood is to drink of his life, the Holy Spirit. Therefore, spirituality honed in obedience is
key to the life of faith. Imbibing of
the life-giving relationship with Jesus that the Father has freely given us by
the work of the Holy Spirit is crucial.
Prayer, contemplation, Scripture study and meditation, corporate worship
are things we cannot see as optional. Also,
to eat his flesh is to participate in Jesus’ ministry, which means we must be
cross-bearers in this world who sacrificially lay down our lives for love of
others. Participation in his ministry of
reconciliation must be the highest priority in our lives. Does saying that offend you?
Jesus
and his ministry must be the absolute first place in our lives if we are going
to have any kind of a taste of eternal life now, any
personal/relational/me-changing knowing of God the Father and Son in the Holy
Spirit. This is a hard teaching to hear
and to heed. “The disciples” rightly
realized their inability to do just that.
"This is a hard teaching.
Who is able to heed it?"
They said. As they fold and leave
the table Jesus says to them, "No one is able to come to me unless it is
granted him by the Father." No one
can just up and decide to be a disciple of Jesus. No one can just up and decide to believe
Jesus and call themselves saved. No one
is able to come to Jesus and truly know who he is except by a gracious
revelation of who Jesus is from the Father through the Spirit giving permission
for him to come to Jesus indeed, making him able to come. We cannot have faith and be faithful of our
own initiative. Luther
wrote in his Small Catechism: "I believe that by my own understanding or
strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead
the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his
gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith..." Faith in Jesus is a gift we cannot
have apart from a work upon us by the Trinity.
Finally,
we have the Twelve and they are all in.
Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are
the Holy One of God”. They have received
what the Jewish authorities and the disciples did not. The Father by the self-revealing work of the Spirit
drew them to Jesus and permitted them to come.
They know Jesus. They know who he
is. They know that life is all about
Jesus; Jesus the Holy "One" of God.
Yet, Jesus humbles them. Indeed,
humbles them. He lets them know in no
uncertain terms that not a one of them would be standing there knowing him had
he not chosen them. Moreover, he says one
of them is a devil…a devil. One who will
betray him. I can't imagine how they
must have felt, standing there wondering "Is it me?...is it me?"
As
we come to this the Lord’s table, let us come knowing that it is solely by the
love and grace of the Father that we can come saying “all in”. Yet, let us not come with pride because in
the end even though one has been chosen, one still harbours the capacity to
betray him, to deny him, to desert him.
Amen.
