In the Name of the Living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
This very specific, far reaching and truly outrageous statement is the first of the so-called “I am” statements that Jesus uses to describe Himself and His salvific work. Elsewhere in St. John’s gospel, you’ll remember some of the others. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world; before Abraham was, I am; I am the door; I am the good shepherd; I am the resurrection and the life; I am the way, the truth, and the life; and I am the true vine.”
The sheer audacity of the “I am” statements – taken at face value – eventually led C.S. Lewis, the greatest Anglican apologist of the twentieth century, to conclude that “Christianity, if false, is of no importance at all, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
Thus, we best approach this passage – and indeed all of the “I am” statements – by making that same observation. Either Jesus has completely gone mad and has lost his marbles, or He is in fact the Bread of Life. This statement is either true and of infinite importance, or it is false and of no importance whatsoever. What we cannot do, then, is relegate this passage to something of moderate importance. The stakes are simply too high.
And just a few short sentences beyond where the appointed reading for today ends, Jesus raises the stakes even more, saying, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
St. John then reports to us that those who heard him were so stirred up that they began to argue and even fight among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus ultimately concludes by saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
So, as I insinuated, this is either psychobabble spoken by the rambling rabbi, or these are the very words of eternal life spoken by the very One in whom eternal life is offered and discovered.
From the very earliest days, the Church has maintained that these words – these great “I am” statements – are indeed the very words of enteral life. In fact, this very passage lead the early Church – and the Church Catholic throughout the ages – to say, as we do today, that receiving the Eucharist – the Body and Blood of Christ – is so vital, so life-giving and animating that it is generally necessary for salvation. As a side note, we say the same thing about the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, because of what our Lord says to Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
And the Holy Scriptures and the Sacred Tradition of the Church are so clear about all this “I am” business not because of some effort to be cumbersome or to set up a series of barriers through which we must progress in order to grow closer to God. No, that’s not it at all. This business is so serious so to entice us, to draw us in so that we may obtain the treasure that God wants each of us to receive – nothing less than the gift of new and everlasting life, both in the here and now in the world to come.
You see, no matter what you and I might hear from time to time or be tempted to believe, the Church actually exists for one ultimate and God-given purpose: to bring souls into union with Christ. And the primary means whereby the Church brings souls into union with Christ is through our sacramental life together – over and over again at each and every celebration of the Holy Eucharist. And it is the Holy Eucharist that this passage – this first “I am” statement – is all about.
But, not to diminish what I’ve said, I think when we hear this passage, the natural thing to do in our post-modern minds is to sort of sit back and silently wonder things like “does Jesus really mean it; does He really want me to do something so intimate as to eat His flesh and drink His blood?”
And the answer, beloved, is a deafening and resounding, yes, He means it!
He wants to be in an enteral relationship with you and with me so badly and so desperately that He gives His very Body and Blood to us at each mass – not some cheap imitation, but the very lifeblood and fullness of His humanity and divinity under the appearance of ordinary bread and wine – so that we know we are truly loved and forgiven and so that we won’t starve to death as we carry on with life.
What we are gathered here to do together – to celebrate the Holy Eucharist – is, therefore, of infinite importance. And it is of infinite importance because the Eucharist is neither more nor less than Jesus Christ Himself. To receive the Eucharist is to receive God. And to receive God is to receive the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life.
Jesus said, “Whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
So, if it’s been awhile since you’ve thought about the utter profundity of it all – the sheer boundless love of God who hasn’t forgotten about us, but in fact loves us enough to empty His veins to feed our souls, ask God right this moment to give you a renewed perspective.
“Now, my tongue, the mystery telling of the glorious Body sing, and the Blood, all price excelling, which the Gentiles’ Lord and King, in a Virgin’s womb once dwelling, shed for this world’s ransoming. Therefore we, before him bending, this great Sacrament revere; types and shadows have their ending, for the newer rite is here; faith, our outward sense befriending, makes our inward vision clear. Glory let us give, and blessing to the Father, and the Son, honor, might and praise addressing,
while eternal ages run; ever too his love confessing, who from both with both is one.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Come now, my friends, and taste and see that the Lord is good.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Charleston David Wilson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
10th Sunday after Pentecost
2 August 2015