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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the LeTourneau Church Fair yesterday, incoming university students circled around tables from area churches, including Pilgrim, trying to figure out to which church they might like to go. When one student in particular said at our table that she was looking for a church that was Bible‑based, I asked her if any of the churches that she had talked to so far admitted to not being Bible‑based. (Obviously we would not expect any churches that consider themselves to be Christian to admit to not being Bible‑based.) That particular conversation at the Church Fair was striking to me, having been preparing to preach on today’s Gospel Reading this morning, in which many from Jesus’s wider group of disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him, but, when Jesus asked the Twelve if they wanted to go away, too, Simon Peter answered for the group, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” This morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Coming to the Words of Eternal Life”.
Today’s Gospel Reading is last of three weeks of Gospel Readings that we have heard of sections from Jesus’s so called “Bread of Life Discourse”, His teaching in Capernaum about Himself as the Bread of Life, teaching that followed His miraculously feeding at least five‑thousand people on the other side of the sea (John 6:1-15). As we heard previously, Jesus said that the people who sought Him after that miracle did so because they ate their fill of the loaves (John 6:26), not necessarily because they were looking for a church or “Coming to the Words of Eternal Life”. And, as Jesus continued to teach, people in the crowd became increasingly dissatisfied. They asked Jesus to perform signs, arguably like Moses’s giving people bread not once for one meal but sufficient for every day for forty years (John 6:30-31). They grumbled when Jesus said that He came down from heaven (John 6:41-43). As we heard this morning, they disputed whether Jesus could give them His flesh to eat. They grumbled that Jesus’s teaching was hard and impossible to listen to. And, with them already falling from faith, Jesus taught something after which many turned back and no longer walked with Him—going elsewhere, as it were, for the words of eternal life.
Now, obviously we are here, and not because we ate our fill of the loaves, though in many ways we have been more‑abundantly blessed, but we likely are “Coming to the Words of Eternal Life”, at least to some extent. We may still sinfully want Jesus to perform miraculous signs of our choosing. We may still sinfully grumble about Jesus’s origin. We may still sinfully dispute whether Jesus can give us His flesh to eat. We may still sinfully grumble that certain aspects of Jesus’s teaching are hard and impossible to listen to. And, we may already be falling from faith, and it might take just one more thing that we find offensive in order for us to turn back and no longer walk with Jesus, to go elsewhere, as it were, for the words of eternal life. If we do not sin in those ways, then we sin in other ways, for we all are sinful by nature; on account of our sinful nature and our actual sin, we deserve death now in this world and torment for eternity in hell.
Except, God the Father grants that we come to Him. God the Son calls us to turn away from our sin and to believe in Him. And, God the Holy Spirit gives life to our spiritually dead human flesh so that we not only hear but also understand. When we so repent and believe, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. For, when we come to Him, we are “Coming to the Words of Eternal Life”.
Jesus is, as Simon Peter confessed, the Holy One of God. Jesus is the Son of God (Luke 1:35 NKJV; Beckwith CLD III:220); He is the Word, Who existed from eternity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (John 1:1-2). Because of God’s great love for this fallen world, the Father sent His Son to save the world (John 3:16-17). For us and for our salvation, He descended from heaven (John 3:13), was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. For us, the God-man was betrayed and crucified. On the cross, Jesus died for our sins, in our place, the death that we deserved. On the cross He gave His flesh for the life of the world. After three days, He rose from the dead, showing that He had conquered sin and death, and, after forty days, He ascended to where He was before. Now, through faith in Him, God saves us from sin and death, as we who believe are “Coming to the Words of Eternal Life” and, believing, receive Him in His Means of Grace (confer Brown, ad loc John 6:51-59, p.292), where He now in a different sense gives His flesh for the life of the world.
The words of eternal life are read and preached to groups like this one, and they are applied and give eternal life to individuals attached to tangible things: water in Holy Baptism, touch in Holy Absolution, and bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body of Christ given for you and the Blood of Christ shed for you. For many, the life of the Holy Trinity is first shared in Holy Baptism (Beckwith, CLD II:233), the birth from above of water and the Spirit that generally is necessary to see and enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). And, the life of the Holy Trinity is continuously shared in the Sacrament of the Altar, the eating of the flesh of the Son of Man and the drinking of His blood that generally is necessary in order for us to have life in us. The otherwise weak human flesh personally united to the Divine nature of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Who communicates His attributes to that otherwise weak human flesh, is truly able to be physically present in bread and wine and to give eternal life to those who receive it in faith. Jesus says that His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Him and He abides in them. And, as Jesus lives because of the living Father, so whoever feeds on Jesus will live because of Him. To deny Jesus’s real physical presence in the Sacrament of the Altar is essentially to deny His incarnation; in the Gospel Reading, Simon Peter and the Twelve notably confess their belief both in Jesus’s incarnation, that He is the Holy One of God, and in His real physical presence in the Sacrament of the Altar, the “hard saying” concerning the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood in order to live forever (Sasse, This Is My Body, 359-361).
Like the Twelve, we, who are no longer dead in our trespasses and sins because God the Holy Spirit has given life—we believe, know, and confess our belief both in Jesus’s incarnation and in His real physical presence in the Sacrament of the Altar. Like Joshua and his house in today’s Old Testament Reading (Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18), we make sanctified choices to serve the Lord. Heeding God’s call through St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 5:6-21), we look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, as children of the light, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. As we prayed in the Collect, we steadfastly follow Jesus, Who is the way, in the way that leads to life eternal, and He will raise us up on the Last Day. Others may make different choices, including going to different churches, with their different teachings, even if they falsely claim the same Biblical basis. We are comforted by today’s Gospel Reading’s showing us that not everyone believes true teaching but that the teaching remains true nevertheless (Luther, ad loc John 6:59-60, AE 23:157, 158; ad loc John 6:66-67, AE 23:189). We rejoice in that truth with those who are here! As for us and our households, we are “Coming to the Words of Eternal Life”.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +