Blog & Pastor Letters

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” A hard saying of Jesus is one that his own disciples find difficult to believe or accept. Not everything he taught is “hard,” yet any believer who finds everything Jesus says pleasing and agreeable has not truly heard the Jesus revealed in the Gospels. A man rejected by his own people who in the end clamored for his crucifixion was not one who simply told people what they wanted to hear. More than once they took offense at what Jesus said, whether it was the townspeople of Nazareth saying, “Where did this man get all this?” (Mark 6:2-3); or the Pharisees affronted by Jesus’ indictment that they nullify the law with their traditions (Matt 15:12).

Today’s Gospel contains one of the most disputed passages in Christianity. The question, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” continues to be raised by his followers. Jesus’ teaching divided his initial audience and has not ceased doing so among the generations of believers since. What Jesus says is controversial and scandalous, yet because Jesus speaks quite clearly, repeating three distinct times the provocative phrase of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, the reason for the quarreling over what he meant lies with his followers, not with him.

We continue a month-long hearing from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, which began with Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes to feed a multitude in a deserted place. When the crowd recognized the miracle as a sign that God’s Messiah would reenact the wonders of Exodus and again feed them heavenly bread, Jesus quite simply disappeared. He fled from their adulation, their plans to make him their king. He went deeper into the wilderness, higher up the mountain, to pray to his heavenly Father in secret.

When hunger overtakes you, the importance of what you were doing fades until you find the satisfaction of a filled stomach. Whatever you were doing, that day’s pursuit, succumbs to the simple need for sustenance. A life spent primarily on the pleasures of food and drink is meanly lived, yet no one can go without eating. Wisely, we often combine caloric intake with the good of eating together, changing the meal into a communal repast of joyful conversation. We do well when the replenishing of the body is joined with true communion with others, the one thing really worth living for.