He Has the Words of Life

“Spirit and Life”

(John 6:41-71, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 26, 2009)

John 6:41-71 ⁴¹ So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." ⁴² They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" ⁴³ Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ 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- ⁴⁶ not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ 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." ⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." ⁵⁹ Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. ⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" ⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ⁶⁵ And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." ⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." ⁷¹ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

The Word from God (41-47)

In this dramatic interchange Jesus presents Himself plainly to the crowd as the answer to the deepest needs of mankind. If we need food for our bodies in order to live, Jesus of Nazareth claims that He is the bread of eternal life, meaning that people need Him if they are to have life beyond the grave. If everyone else marks his beginning with a conception and a birth on earth, Jesus of Nazareth claims that He had a life in heaven as a powerful and exalted being prior to his conception in the womb of His mother, and prior to his birth described in another passage. If everyone else seeks the mercy of the Almighty or some judgment of merit that they might be found to have come to God some day, Jesus says that the goal of existence would be that people would come to Him, and that will only happen by the express purpose and power of God, meaning that God Himself has the most extreme interest and takes the most diligent efforts in order to make certain that His chosen people will come to Jesus of Nazareth. If everyone looks to some power of divinity to give to him any spark of life that could be left to him after his body has given up mortal life, Jesus of Nazareth claims that He Himself will be the agent by which the dead shall be raised on the last day.

He then goes on to quote from Isaiah 54:13, “They will all be taught by God,” a portion of a larger passage that is plainly describing a world of the greatest eternal blessing. He quotes this to make the point that the teaching of the Father has as its object that people would draw near to Him, the Son, Jesus of Nazareth. He reiterates that He alone is from God, and has seen the Father, and that He speaks authoritatively about eternal life, and can be entirely trusted. In contrast, those who think they know Jesus of Nazareth are quite shocked to hear Him plainly claim that He came down from heaven. They think they know that He had a father and a mother just like everyone else who has ever lived after Adam. They are completely taken aback by the plain claims of this Jesus. As we have seen from the outset of this gospel, Jesus, the Son of God, is the divine Word from God, the Word that brings life to the soul, the Word that is to be received with eager hearts. To believe in Him as we need to is the work of God the Father. If they insist on rejecting Jesus, they are only displaying the fact that the Father has not chosen them to hear His Word with the gift of faith.

The Word and Heavenly Food (48-58)

Jesus is not embarrassed by these expressions of doubt directed toward Him, as if He might back down from the claims that He is making. If anything, His statements become even bolder, even more extreme, almost as if He were attempting to offend those who are already inclined to reject Him. He does this by using imagery that would sound savage to those listening to Him. After reiterating the claims that they have already found offensive, that He Himself is the bread of eternal life come down from the realm of heaven, He says this bread is so very much Him, that He can say that the world must eat His flesh in order to live. We easily make the connection now to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, but can you imagine how strange these words would have sounded in the ears of His hearers when He spoke that day, since He had not yet instituted the Supper for His followers. What could He have meant? He will save any explanation for the ears of a smaller group of disciples. In the face of a hostile crowd, He only turns up the intensity on statements that already have caused them great offense. He plainly believes what He has already said, that faith in His Word is something that comes from the Father, and is not a matter of making His message more palatable and acceptable to a crowd that is beginning to turn away from Him.

On come the more intense statements. He has already spoken of eating his flesh, now he adds that one must drink his blood. Then he changes the word that he uses for eating to a more graphic word, a word that could be translated “gnaw,” but is presented somewhat more gently in our translation with the word “feed.” “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood…” these are the words that He uses to describe the intensity of our partaking of His life for us, and the eagerness of the desire of the one who is in communion with Him. The promise of eternal life and resurrection existence are the same as He has been speaking of throughout this chapter, but the words that are spoken concerning our partaking of Him seem almost designed to repel, rather than to attract. Do we want eternal life? Do we want to live in the resurrection? Do we want to be in His life, and to have Him in our lives? Do we want the experience of life that He has from the Father? If we want these things then we must have Him. In fact, we are told that we must feed on His flesh and drink His blood.

What can this mean? It may help us to remember that there was a whole Old Testament tradition concerning the rules for consuming a sacrificial animal. There were certain offerings that no one was allowed to eat. There were others that only the priests could eat. Then there was the Peace or Thanksgiving offering that could be eaten by the one who made the offering, and there was the Passover lamb that was to be eaten in a family context. The way that Jesus is our eternal life is through the pathway of His sacrifice for us. The Old Testament priest presented animals to God on behalf of the people. Then, in the case of the Passover, and in the case of Peace offerings, the people were made partakers of this sacrificial food. They were taking in the forgiveness from God and peace with God that was based on the death of a substitute. It is in this sense that we have life from the death of Christ, and we become partakers of a heavenly meal that comes to us from the pierced hands of our High Priest in heaven. We are able to have a part in this as we eat at the Lord’s Table. We take in the Word from heaven, who gave Himself for us, that we might know eternal peace, and have the fullest thanksgiving. We are even permitted to be spiritual partakers in the blood of Christ, something that was not allowed in any of the Old Testament ceremonies. Now we have peace with God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

The Word and the Spirit (59-65)

Jesus did not explain His words to the crowd. Even His disciples knew that the things that He had spoken were hard to believe. He explains that the power was not in His actual physical flesh and blood. If we had a relic of a piece of flesh from Jesus, it would have no miraculous properties. It is by the Spirit of God that life is given, both now, again after our death, and in the age to come at the return of Christ. All life comes by the Spirit.

For now, during this mortal life, that spiritual life especially comes through the Word. As Jesus says to His disciples in verse 63, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Throughout the rest of the New Testament we are told that it is through the preaching of the Word that people come to spiritual life and grow in that life. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” They were instructed, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If we have trouble with the Word of God, we would not believe even if our eyes were to see Jesus of Nazareth ascending again to the heavens. We must hear the Word and believe, but this a work of God, and can only come from the Father.

To whom shall we go? (66-71)

We are told that this was it for many in the crowds and the larger group of disciples who had followed Him. They turned their backs on Him, and no longer walked with Him. They could not receive His words. It is at this point where the Lord speaks so movingly to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” This question is for us as we stumble over any matter of faith, or any passage in the Scriptures. We simply do not understand everything. Will we use this as an excuse to walk away from Jesus? Do we have another Savior waiting in the wings? Does Jesus have an understudy? Everything that we could count on under the sun can so quickly be taken away from us.

We need to say finally with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.” This is the confession of the church throughout the ages, though there may surely be a Judas hiding in her midst. There simply is no place else for us to go. Our confidence is in the Father who has drawn us to the Son, in the Son who has given Himself to be our peace offering and our Passover Lamb, and in the Spirit-filled Word that came down from heaven as the Bread of Life. We see Him on every page of the Bible. He is our one story. His cross is our peace. His resurrection is our life.

1. Why did the crowds have a problem with Jesus saying that He came from heaven?

2. How did Jesus respond to their concerns? Did He back away from any of His claims?

3. Why would Christ speak words that seem almost designed to repel, and then explain these things only to a few?

4. How can people grow in their spiritual life?