 |
spent1303
Wisdom's
Banquet
Text:
John 6:51-58
Date: Pentecost XIII
9/7/03 hot latina thumb
“Wisdom has built her house…she has set her table…. ‘Turn in here….
Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.’” So the
book of Proverbs personifies true wisdom—the ability of godly knowledge
which is faith. In God’s Word true wisdom is faith. On the other
hand, unbelief is the folly of unreason. Only truth can turn unbelief
into faith.
Today we end our brief visit with St. John in the all-important
sixth chapter of his gospel where we hear the truth, Jesus, issuing
his invitation to faith in the face of growing unbelief. The “murmuring”
of his hearers with which we began this chapter now turns into outright
arguing and dispute. As John said in the first chapter of his Gospel,
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” [John
1:11 (ESV)]. We share the same sinful, fallen nature with them that
simply will not and cannot believe in Jesus Christ or come to him.
So enslaved are we to sin and death that we reject even the one
thing that can free us and give life. This is why unbelief is called
the folly of unreason. Only truth, true wisdom, can turn unbelief
into faith.
In the very first words of our Gospel Jesus summarizes
the truth concerning his Person and his Mission as well as how this
truth can be obtained and believed. “I am the living bread that
came down from heaven.” Jesus is the Son of God, the second Person
of the Holy Trinity from eternity, now incarnate by the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary. When he says he is “the living bread”
he means he is the “living one” (Rev. 1:18), the One who is not
only alive but has life and is life itself—the Creator and Redeemer
of all life. Any coming into contact with Jesus means the end of
death and the gift of eternal life. That contact is faith. “Eating”
the bread means believing in Jesus. And believing in Jesus means
the whole Jesus, both his divine and human natures. Not a disembodied
spirit, neither only a man. For where he is in the flesh, there
is the divine Son of God. And where he is as God he is always also
there with his flesh.
The Savior must be God and must have flesh, for he
says, “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my
flesh.” He said to his hearers that he “will give” his flesh, pointing
forward to his crucifixion which, of course, hadn’t happened yet.
But to us these words point us back to that bloody sacrifice where
all sin was atoned for in his body on the tree of the cross. As
the scripture says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness
of sins” [Hebrews 9:22 (ESV)], and, “In him we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches
of his grace” [Ephesians 1:7 (ESV)].
In a mysterious way his words were already conveying
the benefits of his cross to his hearers even before the event happened
in time. In a similarly mysterious way his words in our hearing
bring forward through time and convey the benefits of his cross
to us, for Jesus Christ is here, bodily, in this place and in our
hearing.
Still unbelief and dispute rejects his Word, “How can
this man give us his flesh to eat?” Well, you’re right. A mere man
giving his flesh to eat results only in cannibalism. That’s why
Jesus, in response, calls himself something more than a mere man.
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man….” The “Son of Man” is the divine man from heaven whose very
flesh has been joined to God.
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.” How fleeting is the little life we have.
Though in youth we may think like we will live forever, one act
of violence, a devastating disease or just the accumulation of birthdays
brings the reality spoken in the Psalm, “The years of our life are
seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is
but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” [Psalm
90:10 (ESV)]. Life is filled with toil and trouble because we are
alienated from God and hostile in mind toward him by our sin. Therefore
it was the purpose and mission of God to come in our human flesh
and to reconcile us “in his body of flesh by his death, in order
to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him”
[Colossians 1:21-22 (ESV)].
Still the grumbling and the folly of unbelief keep
us from receiving God’s gift of eternal life. Only the truth can
change unbelief to faith. And the truth is, “Whoever feeds on my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him
up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true
drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me,
and I in him.” That Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world
is fact. But the benefit of his death requires a participation in
his sacrifice. It is not enough to just stand with the crowds and
gawk at the crucified. “Feeding” on his flesh and blood means to
believe that his sacrifice was for your sin. You participate in
his sacrifice every time you confess your sin in Jesus’ name and
receive—not just hear, but take and believe—the holy absolution,
“I forgive you all your sins.”
The gift and prospect of eternal life is often referred
| |
