What happens when we “eat Jesus”?

This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder John 6:35, 41-51. These verses lie within a longer account in the same chapter. As I said last week, the English Standard Version titles the longer account “I Am the Bread of Life.”[1]

Last week we saw that Jesus told a crowd to stop thinking of how to fill their bellies. And to think instead of what work to do to fill their time.

He told them to fill their time with doing what Moses had told them to do. His summary of what Moses told them is, “Love your neighbour as yourselves.” And he expanded “neighbour” from “Israelites” to “all people.”

Today the lectionary invites us to read verses 41-51 through the lens of verse 35. Verse 35 reads:

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.‘”

John explains the meaning of verse 35 in the next five verses. In these verses, John explains that Jesus told the people they didn’t believe him.

He told them they were focusing on looking for a leader who would serve them by feeding and healing them.

He told them they should instead focus on looking for a leader who would show them how to change the focus of those who ruled over them.

Although he had rejected their attempt to make him king, he told them he was that leader. John makes this clearer later when he tells us Jesus said he was the Good Shepherd who would lay down his own life for them.[2]

What they wanted is a leader who would use military means to replace their Roman and Jewish oppressors. But that’s not God’s way.

God’s way is an army of peaceful resisters. Resisters whose power lies in shaming oppressors. Resisters who hand over their trousers together with their shirts when their oppressors ask for their shirts. You can read about it in Matthew 5:38-42 and Luke 6:27-31.

Now, I come to the verses the lectionary invites us to ponder this week.

In verses 41-51, John tells us “the Jews” grumbled about Jesus because he said he’s the bread of life.

They knew he was the carpenter’s son. I spoke about this in a previous column, which I titled “How to compare the stories of Jesus and Jack Ma.”

They knew his family: his poor, lower-class, non-elite, family.

Jesus responded. Directly. Bluntly. Undiplomatically. He said they failed to see and hear God. He said they were blind and deaf. Because they didn’t recognize him, didn’t agree with him, didn’t obey him.

He said they rejected him because the Father, God, had not chosen them. He went further. Much further.

He talked about time. About God’s time. Not God’s idea of time. God’s reality of time. He spoke of the last day. Of raising people up on the last day. Of eternal life. He went further.

He painted a bleak picture of their ancestors, his own people.

He said their ancestors were disobedient. He said though they ate bread from heaven in their years of wandering in the wilderness, they still died.[3] Because they disobeyed.

Verse 51 tells us what Jesus said to them. He said:

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

John double underlines what the crowd which rejected Jesus didn’t want to hear. Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven. Eating him gives life. Eating him gives life to the world.

What are we to understand by “eating him”?

I submit that “eating him” means becoming bodies which are temples of the Holy Spirit. It means learning and doing what pleases him. It means making our every breath serve one purpose: The purpose of his will being done on earth as it is done in heaven, as we say in The Lord’s Prayer.

How do we learn God’s will? The easy – and most common – answer is “read your bible and pray.” It’s the kind of answer which too easily becomes our excuse for being people who prefer waiting to being people who act.

Don’t get me wrong. God’s will for us is to love and care for ourselves – because, as the apostle Paul told the Corinthians, God has chosen us to be his temples.[4]

My point is that God’s will for us is also to actively love our neighbours, because God cares for them too. Actively loving our neighbours means watching over them, means regarding ourselves as their shepherds.

Watching over them means protecting them from being scammed. It means calling them out when they think too highly of themselves. It means feeding, healing and housing them when they are needy.

Knowing what Jesus meant when he said “I am the bread of life” should make us rejoice. It should also make us tremble.

At the Lord’s Supper, when we hear the words “Take and eat, this is my body, broken for you,” we should hear more than assurance. We should also hear commission. A commission to actively love our neighbours.

What happens when we eat Jesus?[5] Our life becomes like his. We get tired. We experience pain. And the world becomes a better place. Are we eating Jesus?

Peace be with you.

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[1] Verses 22-59.

[2] John 10:14. I discuss shepherds in my column “What might Jesus say to our shepherds?” I centre the column on Mark 6:34 which tells us Jesus had compassion on the crowd because “they were like sheep without shpherds.”

[3] I don’t have the space to unpack this. I can only give a hint: the lives they lived were quarrelsome lives, not “good neighbour” lives of service to others.

[4] 1 Corinthians 6:19.

[5] On account of the Lord’s Supper, the first Christians were accused of many things, including cannibalism. Christian History Institute has a short, good discussion of early accusations. It’s titled Defending the Cannibals, but it also touches on the perceived political threat of Christian assemblies.