Back

John 6:53-61
"A Hard Saying"

Intro - Many sayings of Jesus are difficult. He said, "It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man into heaven."
He also said, "If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out!" In our text this morning is yet another of these difficult statements. We read, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you." The disciples called it "a hard saying". Notice
they didn't say that it was sick. They understood the Aramaic idiom that sheds light upon Christ's words. When Semitic people have worked to the point of exhaustion they say, "I have eaten my body and drunk my blood."
We use similar idioms. We sometimes call miserly people bloodsuckers. We say that we have "sweat blood." When a demand is too difficult, we exclaim: "What do you want my blood?" We challenge people to envy with the most cannibalistic phrases, "eat your heart out man!"
Jesus chose this metaphor to dramatize the importance of a continual union with Him. The allegory of the vine and the branches conveys the same thought.
I would like to share three thoughts from this Hard Saying.

1. The Interest
What is so significant about this statement?
It was hard because it communicated our need to submit.
We must absorb his teaching. We must share his character.
We must follow his life.
It was a metaphor for the high level of commitment needed to follow Christ.
It was illustrative to contextualize that we have no communion without Christ and involvement in what He is doing in the world.

2. The importance - We are being called to be an exciting part of God's plan for evangelism and His strategy to save the world Bread in this culture was sacred. It was the staff of life, the essential life substance. Breaking bread was a sacramental act, just like passing the peace pipe was to the Native American. Bread was a sign. When you ate bread with an enemy, it communicated a sign of reconciliation. When a refugee was given asylum and broke bread
in the host's home, the host was responsible to defend his guest even to the cost of his life.
Bread was a symbol. It communicated trust and mutual responsibility between people. Jesus stated that He was the "bread of life." He meant that He, His message and His soon to come sacrifice would do exactly what the bread did. It would give life.

The elements convey the broken body and shed blood as an offering to you.
We take on the essential life, will and purpose of Christ.

Think through what Christ is doing. He is offering a totally new relationship with Him and new power to sustain that relationship!
The Christian life is not imitation, but participation with Christ living in us.
Eating = becoming involved with Him.
We receive His Spirit - we give up our flesh and blood
We must feed on Him to experience what He has to give us.
We must feed on Him to receive saving power.


3. The issue

They saw what Jesus' ministry cost him, loss of privacy, demands of people, misunderstandings.
They wanted His words and His healing, but were unsure about involvement in an unpopular cause.
They were thrust upon change. They were invited from observation to participation.
We want peace, but balk at the cost of involvement.
Ministry costs. Serving Jesus costs. Being a disciple costs.
Christ followers began to thin out. Some believe they began to turn away due to misunderstanding. But it may be that they turned away because they were fully aware of what Jesus was asking.
Quote: Wm. Temple - "Without the experience of communion, the faith would become too vague; too theoretical. Communion is the Word of God illustrated. It is visualized and directed to more than one of the senses in order that we might not merely hear the message of divine grace, but also see and taste it. We eat and drink which means we receive that by which we live."