12 PENTECOST, PROPER XIV - B
- 18 JOHN 6. 35, 41-51
Our gospel for today
continues with the theme “bread of life,” to which Jesus adds the promise of
eternal life. However, Jesus’ opposition, the Jews, St. John’s designation for
those who opposed him, complain, as did their ancestors in the wilderness.
This time their complaint is
aimed directly at Jesus because he said, “I am the bread of life that came down
from heaven. They know him, or at least they think that they do. We know your
parents, they say. How can you say you came down from heaven? Here they openly
oppose the idea of his divine descent.
In the five verses that are
skipped over in today’s passage Jesus first chides them for their having seen
him and yet they do not believe in him. Secondly, he makes the claim that those
who do believe in him will have eternal life.
“No one can come to me,” Jesus said, “unless
drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last
day.” The Jews oppose him because their minds are closed. They have made the
decision not to believe in him.
Too often, we forget what
scripture and Jesus teaches us about the new life He brings now and the promise
of eternal life that is ours in Him who do believe in Him. Not everyone is
going to heaven. This remains a shocking reality to many even today as it did
to those, including his own disciples, who asked him about it then.
It is not that God does not
want everybody to be eternally in His presence. The reason not all will be is
that God has created us with free will that is the ability to choose. Not everyone chooses to follow Jesus. Remember
the little camp song, “I have decided to follow Jesus?”
That reminds me of a story
Bishop Tom Wright likes to tell about C.S. Lewis. It seems that Lewis was
interviewed at one time by an American Christian journalist who was writing
about well-known characters who had converted to Christianity during adult
life. The theme was “decision.”
He wanted Lewis to tell him
how he “had made his decision.” Unfortunately, for his project, Lewis refused
to put it into those terms. He hadn’t “made a decision” he said. God had closed
in on him and he could not escape. Tough at times he had badly wanted to.
The closest he would get to
using the language the reporter was interested in was to say, “I was decided
upon.” In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, Lewis describes it in a more evocative
phrase: “His compulsion is our liberation.”
Last week those who had eaten
their fill of loaves and fishes asked Jesus what they had to do to be doing the
work of God. He answered: believe in him who God has sent. God invites and His
invitation is always a balanced one with an open and free appeal: anyone at all
who is thirsty is invited to come to the water that is an offer; anyone at all
who comes to Jesus will not be rejected.
Throughout John’s gospel, he
presents Jesus as Life and Resurrection. Moreover, Jesus identifies himself as
such in today’s passage in the verses that are skipped over as well as the
concluding verse. Jesus makes the promise that those who believe in him He will
raise up at the last day. His promise is eternal life.
“I am the living bread that
came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever…” Eternal
life is the quality of life Jesus is promising. It is a sharing of the inner
life of Christ. It is an offer made to anyone who believes in Him.
Eternal life tells you what
sort of life it is, as well as the fact that it goes on after death. It is the
life of the age to come, the new life that God has always planned to give to
the world. Eternal life begins in the present when someone believes, and
continues in the future beyond death.
It will eventually take the
form of the resurrection life Jesus is alluding to in today’s passage but which
is ignored by those who oppose him. Rather they are stuck on the idea that he
has said that he comes from God. How often we get stuck on one idea about God
and become deaf and blind to all that God truly is and does.
For example, one hears a lot
today from various preachers and religious leaders that God is Love. And He is.
One only has to look at the cross to see this is true. However, there is a
path, a journey if you will; one must take in order to come to know the love of
God, and to understand what the will of God is for each of us.
Repentance is the beginning
of the journey to God. We have to make the decision to “turn” away from the
life we were living before we were drawn by God. We have to choose to follow
the new life God is offering and inviting us to in and through His Son, Jesus.
We have to learn to trust in
God, and not ourselves. We have to learn to live by grace in order to continue
to make the daily decision to follow him. We can’t get stuck on one idea about
God, that God is love, for example, and think that if we love God we can do
what we want and all will be well in the end. The gospel does not read that
way.
The legalists in today’s
passage decide not to follow Jesus, only oppose him, ridicule him, and try to
discredit him before the people. “We know who you are. We know your father and
your mother.” Yet God’s invitation came to them first in the person of Jesus of
Nazareth.
Sadly, it was an invitation
they decided not to accept to their own condemnation. Salvation cannot be
earned. It is a gift of God for all who are drawn to him; to all who make the
decision to follow in His ways; to live according to his will; to respond to
his love with love.
Each time we come to God’s
altar and kneel to receive the “bread of heaven”, we are receiving a foretaste
of the heavenly banquet Christ himself will one day preside over. For now, it
is our spiritual food as it was physical food for the Israelites in the
wilderness.
However, once they crossed
over into the Promised Land, they no longer received it nor needed it. For the
land they inherited was one of milk and honey that satisfied their every need.
One day we will no longer celebrate Eucharist, for then, we will be in the
greater presence of Christ where all of our hopes and dreams; all of our wants
and desires will be found in Him who is Resurrection and Life. AMEN+
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