Gnaw on Jesus

Breaking of the Bread
Sieger Koder

John 6 51-58   
August 18, 2024

 

Yuck.

Eating flesh and drinking blood.

 

Today, Christians and non-Christians alike

have been steeped in the language of eating

Jesus body and drinking Jesus blood 

for our whole lives.

 

When we hear this now,

most people just think of communion.

Eating some bread and wine that we

believe turns into Jesus body and blood.

 

But think about the people hearing this for the first time

Yuk. what is Jesus talking about?

Eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

Is Jesus talking about eating him literally?

Probably not.

More likely, it’s a metaphor.

 

But was that metaphor just  a metaphor about communion?

I think it would be easy to turn this just

into a communion story: Go to the right church.

Take communion regularly.

Jesus words fulfilled. Done. Box checked.

Plenty of pastors are probably doing that right now.

But to be honest, that’s probably not what Jesus meant either.

 

Jesus is talking to the same group

of mildly interested people who

have been following him since he fed

5000 people on that hillside earlier.

They’ve been asking him how he did what he did,

could he do it again? Could they do it? Could he teach them?

 

They just wanted a piece of Jesus.

A parlor trick, a memory, a little bit of wisdom,

something to take home and impress their friends.

 

Maybe Jesus is getting annoyed with them.

Maybe he’s tired of their idle curiosity.

So he starts to get real and he tells them:

“Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood

you can have no life in you.”

Shocking. I think, on purpose.

 

I believe Jesus is telling them,

“Don’t just take a little bit of bread and go home.”

Jesus is telling them to eat the whole thing

Consume the whole of him, the whole of his message,

the whole of his life, the entirety of his example

of a life given for others.

Learn how to be servant leaders,

and how to sacrifice for others,

Learn how to live and how to die.

Learn how to really be the children

God created you to be.

Don’t just take a little bite.

Consume the whole thing.

 

And Jesus is telling us, don’t just get the

bread and the wine at the end of the

worship service and check the box off,

and then go out and live your lives as usual.

Actually consume the body of Christ.

 

The word Jesus actually uses for eat

literally means “to gnaw”.

“Unless you gnaw on my flesh,

you will have no life in you.”

Gnaw on his flesh.

Don’t just nibble or pick at it.

 

This is not a polite afternoon tea to be eaten

with the fine china and dainty pinkies up.

Jesus wants us to really dig in on this.

Get dirty, get messy, really gnaw on it.

 

Don’t just take the palatable parts.

Don’t just take the parts you like

and throw the rest away.

Don’t just take a bit of the parts

that go along with your particular political view

or that easily fit into your life.

Really gnaw on the whole of Jesus.

Every bit of Jesus.

Think of Jesus as food and eat it as if your life depended on it.

That’s what we’ve been talking about for the last 4 weeks.

You are what you eat. Jesus is our food.

Now when we think about food,

we can think about it in a couple of ways.

 

Webster’s says:

Food is any nourishing substance that is eaten,

drunk, or otherwise taken into the body

to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc.

 

Digestion is the process by which food

and drink are broken down into their smallest parts

so the body can use them to build and nourish cells

and to provide energy.

 

And that’s a utilitarian definition.

It’s accurate and it is one facet of food.

It even works for communion.

Fed, nourished, sustenance, it’s all those things.

But there is more to food isn’t there?

 

Food is tradition. It’s emotion, it’s community. It’s family.

Relationships. Food is the best way to understand any culture

Sharing a meal is one of the best ways to get to know a person.

Food is memories. Food is love.

 

Many of us know this from someone in our families.

Many of us had a mother, father, aunt, wife, husband.

Who would cook or bake for everyone.

If not in our families, maybe someone at church, or a friend.

People cook, not just because others need nutrition.

But because it shows their love and care.

 

Did you have or do you have that person, or people?

Who was that person for you?

If you have a person in mind,

thank God for putting that person in your life.

 

Like a lot of people, that person for me was my grandmother.

She would cook for everyone.

Now my grandmother never made anything fancy.

She wasn’t creative in the kitchen.

She just had four or five things that she made well.

And most of them had potatoes and bacon fat in them.

She seldom baked, that was too frivolous.

She didn’t really make too many fresh vegetables.

She just made a lot of food that filled everyone up.

 

And I would give anything to have one of those dishes.

If I’m honest, not because it tasted better than

what I can cook or eat now. But because if I ate it,

I could taste her love and care for me and for all of us.

Food is more than nourishment, sustenance, and energy.

Humanity has gathered around tables to eat for eternity.

And families, friends, and strangers have shared food together.

It’s about more than just survival. Food is more than just food.

And that goes for the food of Jesus body and blood too.

 

Families fight, they have difficulties, disagreements

and strains. Every gathering around a table

is not pleasant.

 

But as time goes by, those struggles fade.

The cause of all the arguments

usually leave our memory.

But the food stays with us.

It’s like we can still taste it.

The food stays with us forever.

 

In this meal that we eat every week together.

Jesus gives us that food. An actual piece of him.

 

We gather around this table,

Where everyone is welcome regardless of age or

experience or denomination or belief.

We all come around the gift of Jesus

to eat this meal – this food.

The body and blood of Christ.

But it’s not just nourishment.

It’s not just food that gives our faith and belief strength.

It’s not even just food that gives us forgiveness.

 

This food is God’s love put into each piece.

Jesus sacrificial life given for us.

To experience, to taste.

It’s a piece of Jesus given for us.

We’re invited each week to gnaw on that.

 

Every week we come to this table.

Sometimes we have our disagreements and hurts among us.

We come to this table with the same troubles that families have

with our own difficulties, arguments and strains.

Some of us struggle with God.

 

But around this food we experience God’s love.

The food brings us together somehow.

It’s the one thing that we can always share.

No matter what has happened.

Around this table we’re always friends.

 

Eventually, with time, the struggle and the pain

the disagreements and the hurt, those

will fade from our memories

 

But the food –

The food stays with us forever.

it’s like we can still taste it.

 

So don’t just nibble on this meal.

Don’t just have a piece of bread and wine

and go on about your life as usual.

 

Really gnaw on this meal.

This bread and wine, this body and blood.

Let it change you.

 

Really gnaw on Jesus.

And taste the love of God.