John 6: 51 – 58

You may feel as though you have eaten an elegant sufficiency of bread in worship these last few weeks – but here is more! We are in the middle of a story – in the middle of a conversation really. And this is a very important conversation indeed.

Jesus is still comparing the story of Israel in the wilderness (where people ate the manna that God provided – just enough for that day) and himself. But Jesus has started to sound rather ‘distasteful’ to his Jewish audience at the time, and perhaps also to us. Perhaps we’re a bit squeamish?

If you tell someone not to think about pink elephants, more than likely that’s all they will be able to think about! Metaphorical or not, Jesus has created a lasting image of eating his flesh and it’s hard to get that graphic imagery out of your mind – even when people tell you it’s a metaphor.

What Jesus is doing is to create an association between the need for food every day and the need to nourish our lives with him, every day! There’s a dailiness about the need of food, without which we will die, and the need for Jesus.

Jesus is described by John in the first few verses of his Gospel as ‘the word made flesh’ (John 1: 14). So, the feasting we are to do is a taking in of and feasting on Jesus’ word – ie. God’s word, made known through Jesus?
God became flesh and blood (a term we use to describe our blood relatives, those with whom we share DNA and characteristics) to live among us, so that we can have the closest of encounters with God through what we know about God and God’s DNA and characteristics from and through Jesus. In the Old Testament, there’s a close connection between blood and life and also blood and sacrifice that those listening to Jesus would have understood well.

The natural flow of blood around our body gives us life, distributing nutrients and renewing oxygen in every part to enable it to function. Jesus wants to be that close to us, part of our very being, supporting and empowering us flowing through us and around us – our life-blood. We’re used to the saving power of blood these days, because of the life-saving possibilities afforded to us through blood donation, blood transfusion, organ donation and organ transplant – we are used to ‘giving’ in this way so that others might live. By his death and resurrection Jesus makes us the offer of his life flowing within us, flowing for eternity; life in his presence where we can feast on him for eternally.

These days we are used to charging up our devices and gadgets – they run out of energy and need charging up. Electric vehicles can travel many miles, without much noise or pollution. But eventually they need to return to a source of power, to be recharged so that the electricity can flow through them and make them useful again.
I wonder, what are we enabled to do when we are plugged into Jesus? What is our relationship with Jesus like? How often do we – do you – feed on his word, drink in his life and plug into the source of Jesus’ power?

Of course, there’ll be times when we’ll ‘snack’ elsewhere, but Jesus invites us to share with him something that is much more sustaining than any other source. So, how is your appetite for Jesus? How do you nourish it? And when? Daily? They say, don’t they, ‘you are what you eat’! If so, I want to feast on Jesus until I am full to bursting – I need more than an elegant sufficiency! I should want to be obese on Jesus’ word and life-blood – how about you? How about those who do not know about Jesus yet? Where are they feasting? Is their feast nourishing?
We have a life-saving job of donation and sharing to do! Like our blood – when we ‘give it away’ through blood donation, it renews and replenishes itself such that we have lost nothing, but given life to someone else and we have still gained everything.

Revd Janine