1. Jesus’ flesh and blood

During this August we are reading the episode about ” Bread of life” from the Gospel according to John. Jesus fed more around 5000 hungry men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Impressed strongly by Jesus’ miraculous power, the crowd followed him to Capharnaum. Jesus taught there such people to seek “bread for eternal life”. That was the beginning of the story.

Today’s lecturing portion is the most important part of it, in which Jesus compels them to take his flesh and blood to get new and eternal life. “To eat flesh of Jesus ” is the theme of today’s lesson.

Jesus said ;- 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.” (John 6:51)

If we understand it literally the contents should be disgusting. The Jewish people found it likewise. therefore they rebuffed ;- “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52)

However real message of Jesus was that he would die on the Cross as if he break his flesh and that act would give humans authentic life. Nonetheless they did not grasp its symbolized meaning. As a matter of fact, Lord’s Communion observed by the early church was very often misunderstood. Non-christians thought in material sense that believers of Jesus Christ consumed human flesh and blood. The reaction of Jewish people portrayed in John’s writing suggests repugnance largely shared by their contemporaries.

And “to drink blood” caused stronger disgust than “flesh” because “blood” in general had a specific significance in Jewish culture. This biblical interdict shows that ;- ” ‘Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, “You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.” (Leviticus 17:13-14)

Therefore Jesus’ disciples too reacted brutally ;- On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (John 6:60)

That commandment above must be strictly respected. Today’s faithful believers of Judaism eat only blood-drained meat which is called Kosher. Thus it was really scandalous to say ” drink my blood”. Thus Jesus’ saying then pushed the crowd definitely away from him.

But why did Jesus, according to John, insist on consumption of his flesh and blood so much ? To understand the reason we must see background of John’s writing. John tried to declare witness of his church through language of Jesus. John gave description about the rite of Communion in chapter 6 verses 51-58, which was observed by the early church. After the Cross and the Resurrection disciples, though once scattered, got together and met living Jesus.From then they commenced holding Sunday worship to commemorate the Lord Jesus. During the service they hold Lord’s communion by taking bread and wine which represent “flesh and blood” of Jesus. By sharing the rite they felt together in life as Jesus’ followers. “Blood and flesh of Jesus offered on the Cross filled christians with the Holly Spirit”, that was faith of the early church. So much so they dared use provocative words “flesh and blood”, despite risk of misunderstanding and repugnance of other Jewish people.

2. To eat Jesus, or to live in Him

John continues their expression of faith ;- 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. (John 6:54-55¡Ë
John’s message here is that humans must throw their entity into inside of Jesus and share his death on the Cross to have eternal life. The rite will be completed with the act of consuming flesh and blood of Jesus symbolized with bread and wine. At that moment Jesus’ salvation work is achieved.

How could John have such a conviction ? It is based on his faith that he had been spiritually dead till he met Jesus. Indeed we felt as if we were dead due to secular burdens, or under weight of absurd world. Them we met Jesus who leads us to eternal new life.

We don’t know why our body must die. We only know that all humans are destined to die someday, without exception. The fact is the very source of our fear. Our life is filled with sadness but we don’t know ultimate reason for that.

As a matter of fact this world is filled with incidents and unhappy events which capture us abruptly, mortal diseases or wars for example. We do not understand why the world, even though created by God, surrounds us with such terrible phenomena. In facing them we only lose our breath and feel powerless. And we try to overlook harsh realities. But such a cowardly attitude can not change anything.

Then suddenly we receive the calling and meet Jesus. Jesus prayed God in preparing himself for the Passion.;- “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."(Mark 14:36)

Trusting his entity to God that way he overcame the destine which had seemed absurd. Therefore he could offer his life for humans’ sake. But God resurrected Jesus. And we have acknowledged that we can find hope of real life through the Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus. Therefore we observe Lord’s Communion and give thanks and commemorate his act like John. John continued appealing, ” we eat his flesh and drink his blood because Jesus died for us”

Juestin the martyr, an early Christian apologist described the rite of Communion.:
“On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.” (The First Apology chapters 66)*

As we understand from Juestin’s writing Lord’s Communion was the core of Sunday warship of the time. And symbolic act of sharing bread and drinking wine determined Christians’ new lifestyle. They commenced living by sharing what they have with others, which empowered them to fight against secular absurdities.

3. New life in Jesus.

Today’s invocation verses are Luke 22:19-22 ;- And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.”

furthermore John reported Jesus’ saying ;- Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. (John 6:56)
Luke’s verses above is in accordance with John’s witness. The new covenant is came from and contrasto the old one. The old covenant is the contract between God and humans sealed through commandments or directives of God. The right relationship between God and humans can be maintained only on condition that humans observe strictly God’s commandments. But they were desperately powerless to live by following perfectly God’s words. Therefore they committed repeatedly sins. As the result, they needed to sacrifice animals to make them to bear humans’ sins. Thus Judaism or the faith based on the Old testaments consisted of rites of sacrifice. They reconciled with God through animal blood. In the same way humans sought pain or life of criminals to console families of their victims. In ancient world vendetta has been widely practiced and the principe of revenge remains till now. For example family members of murdered person very often demand zealously death penalty to the murderer.
Jesus offered his blood to redeem such a vindictive nature of humans. And the very act established the new relationship between God and humans based on the new covenant, or the New testaments, which prevail the Old testaments. Only his sacrifice could make it possible. Jewish hight priests went into the inner sanctuary of the Temple where they bring and spread blood of sacrificed animal to redeem human sins. But Jesus offered his own blood in order to abolish the old rite. God accepted it. Therefore “we do no need any more animal sacrifices” and deny also vindictive attitude.
We do no need any more aggressors’ blood or life to heal victim’s soul. Thus blood of Jesus created the new world in which there is no revenge. Humans coexist there through forgiveness and tolerance.

Nonetheless it became more than more difficult to find mutually understanding mind in today’s Japanese society. As a matter of fact, the number of suicidal or depression cases increased up to 30,000 a year. Economic globalization is one of reasons which made our relationship difficult. Due to accelerated business competitions made companies greedy. They seek cutting cost at any rate. To optimize cost-performance they not only put temporary workers to layoff but also dismissed numerous fulltime employees, especially hight aged perosns. Remaining workers must accept salary cut and, consequently, more and more persons live in conditions financially very difficult.

Even if workers’ life level declines and becomes inadequate employers would not be concerned. Besides decreased number of employees caused excessive working time for each employee. Due to hard living condition some of them get too much stressed to maintain healthy mental balance. Inhuman economic system generated unhappiness also to Japanese households. Because of layoff of parents children too loose hope for the future. In short recent economic tendency is one of reasons of increasing suicidal cases.
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We can say that today’s Japanese society functions at expense of the weak. Our world is always similar to that of the period of the Old covenant, without knowing the New covenant. So much so we should be redeemed by blood of Jesus. Midst of actual social conditions we must find our real way to live as christians. The lyric of a Japanese Methodist hymn sings ” Please pour your spirit on us, who are gathering here, and change those bread and wine into blood and flesh of Jesus and make us share them with others. Then we can be blood and flesh of this world.”

The act of eating “flesh and blood of Jesus” leads christians to a new life. And they will live by sharing what they have. There are different ways for humans to live. Some spend their times and days to realize themselves, in other words to achieve their secular ambitions. But such a life style requires very often to compete with others. And competition always makes winners and losers. It should not be our life to choose. Christians’ appropriate life style should be a life in coexist.

Humans are rapacious in nature. They seek exploiting others to survive. Nonetheless those humans can be changed by encountering Jesus. They can became altruistic. And that attitude free us from earthy greed.

Normally we long for being loved by others and if we can not feel being loved enough we become unhappy. But once we change the stance to seeking love we should be able to feel happy more easier. It means to love instead of seeking to be loved. Indeed it is sometimes difficult to love someone. But we can always make efforts to find positive characters of that very person. And those efforts must make human relationship much more comfortable and cozy. Jesus said concerning love ;-’It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35)

We received the calling which compel us to live by serving others for our own sake. In this world of predators, similar to that of the Old Testaments, christians are told to live in the world of the New Testaments.

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*First Apology of Justin Martyr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Apology_of_Justin_Martyr#Dating_of_the_text