Jesus said ‘The words I have spoken to you are ‘spirit and life’.

John 6: 41- 71 Part2

John 6: 60-61

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ ⁶¹But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? 

Today you and I stand at the crossroads of our world and the radical alternative offered by Jesus Christ. Disciples in our reading are being challenged to be obedient to the words and practices of Jesus, that is, to meet their holistic needs by being obedient to the words of Jesus. This is what Jesus offers as the explanation of what He has just taught. To eat and drink the ‘flesh and blood’ of Jesus is to hear His words and put them into practice. Verse 63 could not be simpler. The flesh is useless in and of itself. There is no teaching of humanity that can fully meet the needs of humanity. This story is not announcing our need of the transubstantiation of bread and wine to flesh and blood: (eating flesh and drinking blood is prohibited in Mosaic Law Lev 17: 10-14: Deut 12:16 and Acts 15: 29). There is no ‘bread and wine’ in this story; this is not the Passover story; this is a ‘feeding in the desert story’. Jesus does refer to His death but as a substitutionary atonement (verses 51 see also John 3:6 & 16: here the metaphor is to be ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’). The question being addressed is: how can we survive in the desert of life and inherit the Kingdom prepared for us by God? There is transubstantiation: conversion, changes and transformation being revealed here but it is that of our lives to the words and practices of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. It is the Spirit that gives life; the Holy Spirit empowers the transubstantiation, the conversion of the human life through applying the words of Jesus to our lives. Jesus said ‘The words I have spoken to you are ‘spirit and life’. The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of willing active participation through the obedience of accepting Jesus and His participative teaching culminating in the cross and resurrection as the substitutionary atonement. Participation is not through personal will (this is an act of ‘flesh and blood’) but by the divine gift of ‘belief and the faith’, of obedience to the words and practices of Jesus. Remember all this talk of bread is because the people listening to Jesus have mobilised the story of the feeding of the ancient people of God with manna in the desert (6: 31) as some sort of sign that they were the people of the Kingdom of God. But they only told part of the story; why then did the ancient people of God die in the desert and not inherit the kingdom? They had the bread and water of God but they lacked obedience.  Joshua 5:6 makes it clear: ‘⁶For the Israelites travelled for forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the warriors who came out of Egypt, perished, not having listened to the voice of the Lord.’ The process of obedience to Jesus is the evidence and assurance of eternal life. The outcome of participation is personal and communal transformation where we become one with the body of Jesus and the life giving Spirit of God which becomes the lifeblood of our new lives in Christ. We can be confident in the words of Jesus; He is not trying to confuse He is explaining exactly what He means. By the reference to the ancient people of God being fed in the desert by Manna and comparing Himself to that Manna as the gift of God that brings life Jesus is clearly stating that He is the gift of God the fulfilment of the promise: Jesus is the messiah. To inherit the Kingdom and not perish in the desert we need to take the bread, eat AND obey the words (bread) which we eat.  This is clearly what the disciples who continue to follow Jesus understood and accepted. In verses 66 to 71 Jesus asks his disciples standing at the crossroads of decision to make their choice. Peter speaks up and replies to Jesus and in so doing reveals his understanding of what has just been taught. This understanding is accepted by Jesus; Peter states: ‘You have the words of eternal life’. Participative obedience to the teachings and practices of Jesus brings eternal life.  Only this will ensure we don’t die in the desert and never participate in the culmination of the journey, namely the consummated Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus; the Kingdom of peacemakers.