Take, eat. This is my body.
John 6:53-59

In a minute we'll be looking at John 6 together, but first I'd like to say something about why we are going there.

In a few minutes we will be sharing a meal together. And it will be a rather strange meal. The portions will be ridiculously small: a tiny piece of bread and a thimble sized cup. It will be hardly enough to nourish a mouse. But the most peculiar thing will be how we talk about it. We will use language that would sound utterly barbaric if we were not so used to it.

As we begin, I will pick up the bread and I will repeat these words: "Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body. "

My first question this morning is this: What do we mean when we repeat these words. We repeat this phrase every time we share the Lord's supper. But what does it mean? What does it mean for us to take a piece of bread, say "this is the body of Jesus", break it, pass it around and eat it? Or to put it bluntly: What does it mean to "eat" the body of Christ?

Christians have been painfully divided over this question for the last 500 years. The division is fairly easy to describe. There are really just two alternatives, although each alternative has plenty of subsets.

1. First alternative: "This is my body" is a simple statement of fact about the nature of the bread. When Jesus says "This is my body" it is just the same as if I said "This is a book." It's a statement about the real nature of the thing. The bread is in some real sense, the body of Christ. Roman Catholics and Lutherans read Jesus' words this way. They disagree over exactly how it works, but they agree that the bread and wine is, in some sense, really the body and blood of Jesus.

2. The second alternative: "This is my body" means "this represents my body." This is also a perfectly natural reading. We use language like this all the time. I might hold a picture up here, for example, and say "This is my family" and you would have no confusion about what I mean. I am not claiming any special relationship with this colored piece of paper. Rather, I mean, this is a representation of my family. Look at this picture and you can get a pretty good idea of what my family is like.

The words "This is my body" can be read either way. So which is it? How do we decide? Turn with me to John 6:53-60

53 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. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 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. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live for ever." 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

At first glance that this passage seems tailor made to answer our question. Jesus seems to want to emphasize that he is talking about literal food and literal drink: "My flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink." He seems to be talking about actual eating and drinking. And he links this eating and drinking with salvation: If you eat you'll have eternal life; if you don't you'll die. It is not too big a leap to conclude that when we share the Lord's supper we are applying this passage. In other words when Jesus says "Take and eat. This is my body" he is offering us a way of literally eating his flesh and drinking his blood and thus being saved. Communion would seem to be the only way to apply this passage directly and literally.

Is this what Jesus intends?

Well, we probably have different hunches about whether this is right nor not. But I've just finished a detective novel by Dorothy Sayers, and I know very well that it does no good to just have a hunch about something -- you have to gather a lot of clues and try to prove it. Are there any clues that will help us to know what Jesus means by eating his flesh and drinking his blood. There are several. Let me give you four:

1. First clue, verse 56: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him." To eat is linked in this verse to remaining or abiding in Jesus. In other words, eating somehow implies relationship. That's the first clue.

2. Second clue, verse 54: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Compare this to verse 40: "everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Who has eternal life? In verse 40 it is everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him; in verse 54 it is whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood. To eat his flesh and drink is blood has the same result as looking to him and believing in Him. To eat is to believe. First clue: eating is connected with abiding. Second clue: eating is connected with believing.

3. The third clue is perhaps the strongest and comes at the end of the passage in verse 63. Jesus disciples have been upset about his apparently cannibalistic talk. In verse 63 he responds to them: "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." In other words, to take Jesus literally without getting the spiritual meaning is to miss the whole point. So our third clue is that the the eating is not physical but spiritual.

Now if we put these clues together, what can we conclude? Eating and drinking are metaphors for taking Jesus into our innermost being by faith. To eat his flesh and drink his blood is to believe in Him. You cannot live without physically eating and drinking; You cannot live spiritually without believing in Jesus.

There are several possible possible objections:

1. First, isn't eating a strange metaphor for faith? Not at all. Eating metaphors are quite common. A grandmother sees her grandson, opens up her arms and says, "I could just eat you up." Is this a threat of cannibalism? No. It's a way of saying that she wants a deep love relationship. I see Ruth Anne absorbed in a book and I say, "Wow, you are really devouring that book." Or I look out at you as a congregation and I say, optimistically, "I can see you are really drinking this sermon in!" To drink in a sermon, or to devour a book, or to eat your grandchildren means to absorb them into your innermost being.

When Jesus says, "Take and eat. This is my body" He is using a similar word picture. This bread stands for my body. Just as you eat take this bread into your body, so you must take me into your innermost being by faith. To eat is to believe.

2. But that leads to another possible objection: Why the flesh and blood? Sure Grandparents talk about eating their grandchildren. But if they talked about drinking their blood, then we would start to worry. The flesh and blood part seems to make the metaphor messy -- almost repulsive. Why the messy language? I think it is because we must have faith in the real, living Jesus who was a real person with real flesh and real blood. We cannot have faith in Jesus as we imagine him to be, or Jesus as a purely spiritual being. No our faith is in Jesus as God in the flesh. We rest our hope on the carpenter from Nazareth who was a real historical person, who felt real joy and real pain, who shed cried real tears, and who shed real blood, and who was really tortured and who died a real death. To eat his flesh and to drink his blood is to believe that he really is God incarnate and to have faith in him.)

3. Another possible objection: So what? What difference does this make whether I take "This is my body" literally or figuratively? To each his own.

It makes a huge difference. We can see this clearly by using a parallel case as an illustration. Each week during worship we read a fair bit of scripture. Most of us also read scripture privately. And we believe that this reading is different from ordinary every day reading. We believe this because we believe that Scripture is the inspired word of God and that it nourishes us spiritually. We think of the verse in Hebrews which tells us, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword." Or we might think of Psalm 19: "The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." We believe that the word of God has the power to nourish and to transform. And so we read it because we desire to be transformed and nourished spiritually.

So let me offer you some of this transforming word: Maana mimi nilipokea kwa Bwana yale maagizo niliyowaachieni: kwamba, usiku ule Bwana Yesu aliotolewa, alitwaa mkate, akamshukuru Mungu, akaumega, akasema: "Huu ndio mwili wangu ulio kwa ajili yenu; fanyeni hivi kwa kunikumbuka." Vivyo hivyo, baada ya kula, akatwaa kikombe akasema: "Hiki ni kikombe cha agano jipya linalothibitishwa kwa damu yangu. Fanyeni hivi, kila mnapokunywa, kwa kunikumbuka." Maana kila mnapokula mkate huu na kunywa kikombe hiki, mwatangaza kifo cha Bwana, mpaka atakapokuja. Kwa hiyo, kila aulaye mkate huo au kunywa kikombe cha Bwana bila kustahili, atakuwa na hatia dhidi ya mwili na damu ya Bwana. Basi, kila mtu ajichunguze mwenyewe kwanza, ndipo ale mkate huo na anywe kikombe hicho; maana anayekula na kunywa bila kutambua maana ya mwili wa Bwana, anakula na kunywa hukumu yake yeye mwenyewe. Ndiyo maana wengi kati yenu ni dhaifu na wagonjwa, na wengine kadhaa wamekufa.

Did you feel the power? Did it tranform you? Not likely. The words here are just verbal symbols. They have no power on their own. The power is only in the truth they point to. That means that in order to have any effect on you, they have to be understood, they have to be taken to heart, and they have to be applied.

The word of God is a verbal symbol. The bread and the wine of the Lord's supper are visual and sensory symbols. They have no power on their own. On their own they are just bread and (in our case) juice. Only when their meaning is understood, taken to heart and applied will there be any effect. To put it bluntly: This bread, and this juice are nothing in themselves. But what they depict -- that is something -- in fact that is the only thing . And what they depict is taking Jesus into our innermost being by faith.

What makes this meal different? Not any change in the bread or the wine, but a change in you. If you have taken Jesus into your heart by faith, eating the bread and drinking the juice are an acting out of that relationship of faith. That's the first thing that makes communion communion. It is an acting out of your faith in Jesus.

But this raises another question. If this is a symbolic meal -- if the bread and wine are really symbols pointing to spiritual realities, then why do we take them so seriously. Why do we handle them reverently, and in particular, why do we repeat this warning from I Corinthians 11 everytime we celebrate communion?

27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

Doesn't this suggest that there is something more going on here? Doesn't it sound like there is something more mysterious and powerful at work? Something dangerous? If you eat or drink in the wrong way you are guilty. If you eat without recognizing the body, you face judgement. People in Corinth were getting sick because of mishandling communion. These are serious warnings. Even here at Stony Brook we try to take these warning seriously. Periodically we will even go so far as to ask someone in the congregation not to take communion because we are concerned that he may be bringing judgment on himself.

Doesn't all this suggest that there is some spiritual power in the elements themselves that makes them either nourishing or dangerous? Paul says, "anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgement to himself." There must be something special and mysterious about this bread and this drink and we had better recognize it or we will fall under judgement. Is this what Paul means?

Again, if we do some detective work we will find several clues that this is not what he means:

(1) The first clue is in the general problem that Paul is concerned about in this passage, indicated by verse 18: "In the first place, when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it." The main problem on Paul's mind is division within the church at Corinth. That's clue 1.

(2) The second clue is Paul's specific accusation against the Corinthian church. Verse 20: "When you come together it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk." Paul's accusation is that they are selfish, and this selfishness and its accompanying greed is invalidating their celebration.

(3) A third clue is a connection that Paul makes in the last chapter. In chapter 10, verses 15-17, he says this: 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. Here Paul makes a clear link between the bread of communion and the unity of the church. Just as this loaf is one, so we are one in Christ.

Now put these clues together and ask again, what does Paul mean by "recognizing the body"? He means recognizing those around you as members of the body of Christ. He means not neglecting or trampling or ignoring other believers. If we do, it is not the Lord's supper we are celebrating and we will be in danger of judgement. That has a very important implication. It means that it is impossible to celebrate communion in isolation. You cannot celebrate communion in your quiet time. If you are not in real relationship with other believers you could eat this whole loaf or drink gallons of grape juice and you will not have celebrated communion.

In a moment we'll pass around the bread and the cup. What will make this any different from ordinary bread or ordinary grape juice? Two things: A living faith in Jesus-- that's the individual part -- and living relationship with his people -- that's the corporate part. Without these two things it is not the Lord's supper.

Two implications:

(1) First, communion is a celebration of something present and living, not something past and dead. Some Protestants sometimes describe communion as just a memorial feast. That's a really bad description. What do you do at a memorial? You remember someone who is dead and who is not there. This is not a memorial feast, but an anniversary celebration. When a husband and wife go out for dinner to celebrate an anniversary they do alot of reminiscing -- but the anniversary is not a celebration of something past and gone, but something living and growing.

(2) Second implication: If we take communion without these two living relationships -- a relationship with Jesus by faith and a relationship with his people -- then we are acting out a lie. Taking this bread and eating it proclaims that you have faith in Jesus in your innermost being and that you recognize that you are part of his body, the church. If I eat it without both of those things being true, I act out a lie. I am a hypocrite. And God hates hypocrisy. If you eat without faith, or if without recognizing his body, the church, you eat judgment to yourself. Don't do it.

So when God calls us to examine ourselves, these are the two things we need to ask. To test questions, if you will:

(1) Do I have a living relationship with Jesus by faith?
(2) Am I recognizing the body of Christ?


23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.