Communion - More than Food

It’s easy to rush through Communion without giving much of a thought to what we are doing. For many of us, this has been a regular part of our church life for years, and because of that, it can be easy to forget how radical it really is.

Today I want to try to remind us what we are doing when we take Communion. We often look at when Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples, which is logical, because it is when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Instead, today, we are going to look at John 6:25-69. This chapter starts with the remarkable account of Jesus feeding five thousand people with five small barley loaves and two small fish.

Then the disciples left and went across the lake, and Jesus met them halfway, walking on the water. If that’s not enough to freak you out, I don’t know what is. You see, Jesus is always blowing away preconceived notions and doing things that we would think are impossible.

The next day, the crowd has realized that only the boat full of disciples had left (without Jesus), but that somehow Jesus made it across the lake, and they took off across the lake to find him.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.


Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

This could be called “adventures in missing the point.” First Jesus calls them out for following him just for the free food. I find this extremely interesting; Jesus is saying that there’s something bigger than feeding the hungry!

The crowd was witness to something miraculous, but they didn’t acknowledge it. All they acknowledged was that their bellies were full. They quickly realized that if they just followed Jesus around, he would feed them. Sounds pretty good! But they didn’t evaluate what happened any further than their taste buds or their stomachs. In his commentary on John, Leon Morris says this: Faith that rests on miracles is not the highest kind of faith, but it is better than no faith at all. But these people were crass materialists. They had not reflected on the spiritual significance of the sign they had just seen.

I wonder how good we are at reflecting upon and evaluating what God does for us. I know too many people to whom God gives an abundance and instead of using it for God’s purposes, they hoard it, thinking, I might need this for a rainy day! So Jesus points out what is more important: food that endures to eternal life. And He Himself would give it.

Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."


This sounds really simple, doesn’t it? Just believe. You don’t have to do anything. But what is true belief? I submit that if you’re not willing to do something about your belief, it’s no belief at all. If believing in Jesus doesn’t transform you, then you don’t really believe in Him. If that belief isn’t bringing about the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control), then you don’t really believe.

This is borne out by the next question from the crowd: So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

Don’t you love this? Jesus says, “You’re not interested in the miracle I did; you’re just interested in food.” So they say, “then show us a miracle!” Wow. Talk about missing the point completely! What do you think Jesus just did? He already did the miracle!

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

Still missing the point. Didn’t they just get what Jesus said? That he himself is the true bread of God? So Jesus goes ahead and tells them plainly.

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

That “I am” statement is important, because Jesus invokes God’s name there, saying not only is he the bread of life, but he is God. Period. The issue is that the crowds have seen him but they don’t believe.

God’s express intent is that everyone who looks to Jesus and believes in him shall have eternal life. Does that happen? Yes. Everyone who looks to Jesus and believes in him shall indeed have eternal life. That’s what everything is all about.

At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.

But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

Did you notice the defense that the Jews made? They pointed to their perception of Jesus. They “know” his mother and father. Or so they say. Did they really “know” Mary or Joseph? Did they ever ask, “Is there something, erm, different about Jesus?” This is something that drives me nuts; when someone comes in all riled up and they don’t have any evidence to back up their anger, so they claim inside information, even if it’s completely false.

We get to the heart of the matter here: did you notice in this passage that Jesus repeats himself a lot? Do you remember Rudy’s Hebrew lesson about the pit, the pit-pit, and the pit-pit-pit? That the emphasis is greater and deeper with repetition? Well, in this passage, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” three times. That means he really, really means it. If he means it that much, then there’s something to it. He’s saying that there is no life aside from him.

And did you notice that he says about giving his flesh for the life of the world? The Jews completely missed what he was saying there.

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Did you know that this teaching garnered Christianity the reputation of cannibalism during the Roman rule? But to a Jew of Jesus’ time, the meaning of these “eat and drink” sayings pointed toward a taking within one’s innermost being. In other words, Jesus is saying, “unless you take me into your innermost being, you have no life within you. If you take me into your innermost being, I will remain in you and you will have eternal life.” Do you get this? Jesus Christ himself is the only source of real life.

This is how Communion applies to us. When we take Communion, we’re not just doing a ritual to remember Jesus. We are reminded of what Jesus did, certainly, but Communion is more. Jesus says that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood, whoever takes Jesus into their innermost being, that person remains in Him and He in us. This isn’t just a temporary state, but a permanent one. This is what He wants from us.

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you?

What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe."

For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

The life of following Jesus Christ is not easy. Nobody ever said it was. But it is real life. It is life to the fullest. He asks you the same question today. Do you want to leave, too? Or do you know that Jesus is the one and only Holy One of God? Today as we celebrate Communion, we have a chance to take Jesus into our innermost being, to allow him to take control of who we are, and thus to allow him to transform us into who He wants us to be.

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