Monday
after Jubilate
“It
is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak
to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
Sacramentarians[1]
have the same problem here that the disciples who left Jesus had: Jesus’
teaching that His flesh is food indeed, and His blood is drink indeed is for
them a hard saying and they cannot understand it. Some teachers of that sect
try to use the words of this verse to spiritualize and symbolize all that Jesus
had previously said about Him being the Bread of Life come down from heaven,
and whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life. The following
quotation, taken from Bibleref.com, is typical of the Sacramantarian teaching
on this passage:
The idea of His flesh
being the bread of life was meant to extend the analogy of bread, in order to
include His upcoming sacrificial death on the cross. Here, Jesus makes a direct
statement that His prior words were not meant to be taken literally. In other
words, Christ is not actually saying that people need to consume His material
flesh or drink His liquid blood. Rather, the point Jesus is making is spiritual…faith
in Christ is not the same as intellectual knowledge. Saving faith means
receiving Christ in the deepest parts of ourselves.[2]
Faith
is indeed different from intellectual knowledge. It is the gift of God;[3]
it is the substance, the foundation, of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen.[4]
Why, then, do we treat it as intellectual knowledge by rationalizing Jesus’
words, and changing their context? Jesus is not speaking in figuratively in the
Bread of Life passage. In fact, when John is writing something figurative or
symbolic he, like the other New Testament authors, makes it clear in the text.
Jesus often teaches in parables, which are figures of speech. When He does so, it
is obvious; He says things like, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what
shall I compare it?” Or, “A certain man had a fig tree…” And the Gospel writers
clearly indicate that Jesus is speaking figuratively by writing something like,
“He spoke this parable to them, saying…” When Jesus cleanses the temple and the
Pharisees demand a sign from Him to show the authority by which He did what He
did, Jesus answers, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
They misunderstand, and think Jesus is talking about the actual building, but
John makes sure it is clear to the reader, “But He was speaking of the temple
of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples
remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and
the word which Jesus had said.”[5]
It was symbolic language, a figure of speech. There are no such indications in
the Bread of Life passage that Jesus is using the eating and drinking of His flesh
and blood figuratively.
On
the contrary, Jesus gets more and more specific and clear as He teaches precisely
what it means that He is the Bread of Life. He uses the Greek word for true,
living flesh, [6]
and the blood that goes through that flesh,[7]
when He teaches. His reference to the Holy Spirit being life in verse 63 hardly
negates as figurative His statement, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in Me and I in him.”
Jesus’
words here mean precisely what they say. It is the Spirit who gives life: It is
the Holy Sprit who creates life and faith in men, turning their hearts of stone
into hearts of flesh, as we know, through the word. And it should be no surprise
that Jesus delivers the word of His promises to us by different means. There
are many examples of Him using something intermediate as an instrument to
deliver His faith-creating word. He attaches His words to water in Holy Baptism
where He promises to give us a new birth, save us from sin, death, and the
devil, clothe us with His righteousness, and connect us to Him, His death, and
His resurrection. He attaches His words to mud made out of spit to restore
sight to a man born blind.[8]
He attaches His words, through the prophet Elisha, to the waters of the Jordan
river to heal Naaman’s leprosy.[9]
Even the preacher preaching the word, and the book containing the scriptures
itself, are means – instruments for delivering His word. If we say that Jesus
does not use means to deliver His word to men to create faith in them, we must
say that He creates faith directly in a man’s heart without means. This is
directly contradicted by scripture, for we know that faith comes by hearing and
hearing through the word of Christ.[10]
The
flesh profits nothing: Jesus did not say His flesh profits nothing, but rather
the flesh profits nothing. His use of the word flesh recorded in verse 63 is different
from His use of it earlier. Here Jesus uses it as Paul does when the apostle
writes about the sinful human nature, when he writes, for example, “For I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.”[11]
Jesus is here talking about man’s sinful human nature. He is literally saying
that the flesh profits nothing; the sinful flesh which lusts for bread rather
than the things of God cannot help in spiritual matters.[12]
But Jesus, the word made flesh, can and does. The words of promise that He
delivers to us, through the waters of our baptism, through the word preached to
us by faithful pastors, through the word read in our Bibles and meditated upon,
and through the word combined with bread and wine by which Jesus gives us His
real body and blood to eat and drink, bring to us also the Holy Spirit, who
creates faith and gives eternal life.
It
is the word that makes the sacrament of the altar, i.e. the Lord’s Supper, and
sets it apart.[13]
Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He
broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body,
which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.” In the same way also He
took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them
saying, “Drink of it all of you; this is My blood of the new testament, which
is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of Me.”[14]
It is about this that Jesus was teaching in John chapter six. And in this
sacrament He gives us his real body and blood.
If a hundred thousand
devils, together with all fanatics, should rush forward, crying “How can bread
and wine be Christ’s body and blood?” and such, I know that all spirits and
scholars together are not as wise as is the Divine Majesty in His little
finger. Now here stands Christ’s Word, “Take, eat; this is My body…Drink of it,
all of you; this is My blood of the new testament,” and so on. Here we stop to
watch those who will call themselves His masters and make the matter different
from what He has spoken. It is true, indeed, that if you take away the Word or
regard the Sacrament without the words, you have nothing but mere bread and
wine. But if the words remain with them, as they shall and must, then, by virtue
of the words, it is truly Christ’s body and blood. What Christ’s lips say and
speak, so it is. He can never lie or deceive.[15]
Bibliography
Baumler,
Gary P. John. Saint Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 2005.
Engelbrecht,
Edward. The Lutheran Study Bible: English Standard Version. St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2016.
“Haima
Meaning in Bible - New Testament Greek Lexicon - King James Version.” Bible
Study Tools. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/haima.html.
Lutheran
Worship.
St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 1982.
McCain, Paul
Timothy., W. H. T. Dau, and F. Bente. Concordia: the Lutheran
Confessions: a Readers Edition of the Book of Concord. St. Louis, MO:
Concordia Pub. House, 2009.
“Sarx
Meaning in Bible - New Testament Greek Lexicon - New American Standard.” Bible
Study Tools. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/sarx.html.
Websters
Collegiate Dictionary. Third Edition of the Merriam Series. The Largest
Abridgment of Websters New International Dictionary of the English Language.
1700 Illustrations.
Springfield: Published by G. and C. Merriam Co., 1919.
“What Does
John 6:63 Mean?” BibleRef.com. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.bibleref.com/John/6/John-6-63.html.
[1] Sacramentarian:
One who holds the sacraments to be simply symbols; a name given to Zwinglians
and Calvinists. Websters Collegiate Dictionary. Third Edition of the Merriam
Series. The Largest Abridgment of Websters New International Dictionary of the
English Language. 1700 Illustrations (Springfield: Published by G. and C.
Merriam Co., 1919))
[2] “What
Does John 6:63 Mean?,” BibleRef.com, accessed May 4, 2020, https://www.bibleref.com/John/6/John-6-63.html)
[3]
Ephesians 2:8
[4]
Hebrews 11:1
[5]
John 2:13-22
[6]
Sarx: 1. Flesh (the soft substance of the living body, which covers the bones
and is permeated with blood) of both man and beasts; 2. the body; 3. a living
creature (because possessed of a body of flesh) whether man or beast; 4. the
flesh, denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine
influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God. “Sarx Meaning in
Bible - New Testament Greek Lexicon - New American Standard,” Bible Study
Tools, accessed May 4, 2020, https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/sarx.html)
[7]
Haima: 1. Blood (of man or animals; refers to the seat of life; of those things
that resemble blood, grape juice); 2. blood shed, to be shed by violence, slay,
murder. “Haima Meaning in Bible - New Testament Greek Lexicon - King James
Version,” Bible Study Tools, accessed May 4, 2020, https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/haima.html)
[8]
John 9:6-7
[9] 2 Kings
5:9-10
[10]
Romans 10:17
[11]
Romans 7:18
[12] Edward
Engelbrecht, The Lutheran Study Bible: English Standard Version (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 2016))
[13]
LC V, 10
[14] Lutheran
Worship (St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 1982)): The Words of Institution.
[15]
LC V, 12-14
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