08.19.18 Flesh & Blood

2018-08-23

Sermon title: Flesh and Blood Scripture text: John 6:52-58 Sermon excerpt: For example, in verse 49-51, Jesus uses the common word esthio for eating the bread from heaven. But in verse 53, he uses the word trogo which has a connotation closer to “munch” or “gnaw,” noisy eating, like a wild animal devouring its prey. This kind of eating is urgent, even desperate. It is eating as though life depends on it … because it does.[i] Heard in that way, Jesus’ words ...

Sermon title: Flesh and Blood

Scripture text: John 6:52-58

Sermon excerpt:

For example, in verse 49-51, Jesus uses the common word esthio for eating the bread from heaven. But in verse 53, he uses the word trogo which has a connotation closer to “munch” or “gnaw,” noisy eating, like a wild animal devouring its prey.

This kind of eating is urgent, even desperate. It is eating as though life depends on it … because it does.[i]

Heard in that way, Jesus’ words start to make more sense. He’s not literally talking about feeding on his physical body like some scene from The Walking Dead … but rather offering himself as life-giving and life-sustaining spiritual nourishment for the world, a world that is desperately hungry for something real and something significant, something we can (metaphorically) sink our teeth into.

Throughout John 6, Jesus reveals himself as the bread of heaven, broken and given as food for the soul, and we ourselves partake of it in the sacrament of Communion, eating the bread and drinking the cup as though our very lives depend on it.

[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=371

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