Why we follow Jesus

Genesis 9:1-7         Leviticus 17:10-12             John 6:41-71

Why we follow Jesus

On March 8, 1548 the English church announced that communion was to be in both kinds…that is both bread and wine…thus breaking with the medieval custom of communion in one kind (bread) practiced by the Roman church since at least the 12th century when the doctrine of transubstantiation (a term first used by Hildebert de Lavardin, Archbishop of Tours, in the 11th century) became the official teaching of the church. This was reversed by Bloody Mary during whose reign several Protestant clergymen, including Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley, were burned at the stake because they refused to accept the Roman view of the presence of Christ in Communion. It was later reinstated under Elizabeth I in 1558.

Interestingly, long before Cranmer, Luther, and Calvin, Johannes (Jan) Huss, a Czech theologian, philosopher, and important figure in the Bohemian Reformation, was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415, because he called for the restoration of the cup to the laity and for the restoration of the Early Church practice of infant participation in Communion (what theologians call paedocommunion). Now, unlike the other Reformers, John Calvin denied that John 6 had anything to do with Holy Communion. Nevertheless, the words used by Jesus in this passage have been the cause for some of the fiercest ecclesiastical battles concerning the presence of Jesus at the table. Eat my flesh, Jesus said. Drink my blood. The interpretation of these two injunctions will determine our belief and practice with regard to the communion service.

So, let’s look at what Jesus said in this historically controversial chapter and unpack his statements in the light of the immediate context as well as in the light of the greater Scriptural context. 

The first context to be aware of as we walk though this passage is that of the Exodus. As we have seen before, John 6 reflects many images from the Exodus such as the Passover, the crossing of a body of water, the multitude of Jews in a wilderness area, teaching from a mountain, the miraculous provision of bread in the wilderness, and so on. Also, as we saw last week, the Israelites in the Exodus did not believe despite the many signs and the provision of food along the way and in John 6 Jesus said the same thing about the crowd. So, it is helpful for us to note right from the start that the teaching of Jesus is firmly set in the context of one of the major narratives of Israel, namely their divine deliverance from bondage. 

As we saw earlier, John began his account of the feeding of the multitude with a seemingly passing reference to the Passover in verse 4.  The institution of this foremost festival of Israel is outlined in Exodus 12, where the Israelites were instructed to slaughter a spotless lamb, daub its blood on the doorposts of their home, roast the lamb, and then, while they were eating the flesh of the lamb as a family inside their homes, the angel of death would pass over them when he saw the blood of the lamb on their doors. Only members of the people of God were allowed to partake of this lamb…a practice later adopted by the church as to who could partake of the bread and the wine in the communion service. For Israel the sign of membership in the covenant community was circumcision, and for the Church the sign of membership was baptism. That’s why Paul equates the one with the other in Colossians 2:11-12.

But the glaring difference between the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12 and the “Passover Lamb” in John 6 is, of course, the way the blood of the lamb was used. In Exodus, the blood was sprinkled on the doorposts, but not consumed. In John 6, Jesus tells us to drink his blood, an act clearly forbidden in the Levitical law, hence the negative reaction of the crowd. 

So, what’s going on here in John 6? The prohibition to eat the flesh of an animal with the blood still in it, whether sacrificial or not, is clearly stated at the time of two major deliverances – the Flood in Genesis 9 and the Exodus in Leviticus 17 (and also in Deuteronomy 12). In both instances, the people of God are told explicitly not to eat flesh with the blood in it. The reason given is because the blood is the life of the creature, and they were not to eat the life with the meat…and because the blood was given to make atonement on the altar. 

It is clear from various texts in the New Testament, that the Early Church believed that the blood of Jesus was shed to provide atonement for sin. They believed that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin because without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. This is because they believed that Jesus is the fulfilment or the reality of what the Passover Lamb (as well as all other blood sacrifices) signified and, as he is the true and only source of life, drinking his blood is not only permissible, but necessary. Jesus is the life…and we need that life in us. 

But what exactly does that mean? For the later Roman Catholic Church, it meant that the bread and the wine in Holy Communion had to change in substance…it had to become the body and blood of Jesus. This is called transubstantiation. For Luther, it meant something similar, but only when the elements were consumed by a believer. This is called consubstantiation. For other reformers, the elements were symbols of a spiritual reality. For instance, in Article 28 of the 39 Articles of the Church of England we read that “the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten only in a heavenly or spiritual manner, and faith is the means by which the body of Christ is received and eaten in the supper”. 

In the New Testament, Jesus is portrayed as a type of many things. He is a type of Word…he is a type of Passover Lamb…he is a type of prophet like Moses…he a type of manna or bread from heaven…he is a type of life-giving water…he is a type of vine…Paul called him a type of Adam or the 2nd Adam…but…and this is important…while Jesus may be a type of all these things and more, he is not any one of those things literally. Jesus is not the Bible. Jesus is not a sheep. Jesus is not a fountain or a well or a bucket of water. Jesus is not a plant. And, we can say with equal conviction that Jesus is not the bread nor is he the wine. While he may be truly present at the table (as he is most certainly not absent), he is not physically in nor under nor with the elements.

In many ways, the one big difference between the testaments is that in the Old Testament everything was external and in the New Testament everything is internal. In the new covenant the Law is internalised, written on our hearts. God is internalised as he comes to make his dwelling within us. And so, because Jesus is the ultimate substitutionary sacrifice, who sheds his blood for the atonement of sin, he must be internalised as well. We must abide in him and he must abide in us.  

Now, it is interesting to note that the term “eating flesh” has a symbolic meaning of its own.  It was a well know Hebraic figure of speech indicating the violence done to the people of God by their enemies. For instance, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 27:2, “When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.” (See also Micah 3:1-3) We know that the pagan nations that attacked Israel were not cannibals, so the eating of flesh is not meant to be taken literally here. 

Blood in the Old Testament, as we have already seen, was a symbol of life. So in keeping with these Hebraic figures of speech, we could say that our life, as believers, comes through the blood of Jesus shed by his enemies through his violent murder on the cross. 

Be that as it may, I do believe that what Jesus was teaching his disciples in this passage, using well-known Hebraic symbols associated with sacrifice, especially the Passover sacrifice,  was that his death (the giving of his body and the shedding of his blood on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice) secured for us eternal life (remember the life is in the blood), but that life can only be ours once we are in him and he in us. Therefore, Jesus used the images of food and drink, inextricably linked to the Exodus narrative…physical sustenance…eating and drinking in the context of liberation…to illustrate the spiritual reality of life in and through his sacrifice of himself. 

As such, Holy Communion can be likened to a covenant renewal ceremony…a memorial service…a remembrance along the lines of the Passover Festival, that takes place in the presence of our Lord. It is a time when we remember the reality of who Jesus is and what he has done for us and to what end. It is a time when we present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. 

The bottom-line is simply this: We are what we eat. As we are called to walk as Jesus walked…to live as Jesus lived…to love as Jesus loved…we must be like him…we must be conformed to his image. And therefore, the image of eating and drinking him in a dynamic spiritual sense seems clear.

Jesus ended this admittedly complex instruction in a way that presents us with a bit of a challenge. We so desperately want to grow our churches numerically…or we so desperately want to be “liked” or “honoured” by the world…that we are oftentimes willing to compromise or soft peddle the truth. But Jesus never did that. 

It is quite instructive to see that in verses 61 through 64, He appears to add offence. “Does this offend you?” he asked. “Well, then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?” This is a reference to a messianic prophecy in Daniel 7 and a clear claim to deity. (Remember, it was this statement that cause the High Priest to tear his robes and accuse Jesus of blasphemy at this so-called trial.) By this time, Jesus was done speaking of his atoning sacrifice of himself on the cross…now he turned to his vindication in which God not only raised him from the dead, but also crowned him with glory and honour and seated him at his right hand…all things that proved that Jesus had triumphed over death, over sin, over Satan and all his minions. 

And then once again, Jesus showed us that salvation can only be achieved through the merciful and gracious intervention of the Father. “No one can come to me,” he said, “except the Father has enabled them.” No one seeks after God, the Scriptures tell us. In fact, it is exact opposite: God seeks after us…he calls…he always initiates the relationship. The same was true with Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi… flesh and blood had not revealed the truth about Jesus to him…he received it from the Father. Likewise, our response to God is only possible through divine revelation. 

Now, it is interesting to note that the whole passage is framed by the reason for believing and following Jesus. In verses 2 and 26 we are told that the crowds followed Jesus for the wrong reasons. In verses 68-69, when Jesus asked his disciples if they also wanted to leave with the crowds, Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy one of God.” 

Notice that while there are two key words repeated by Peter in this statement, namely ‘word’ and ‘life’, he added a title used by the prophet Isaiah as his main title for God. He called Jesus the ‘Holy One’…the one who not only lives in “a high and holy place,” but also the one who is with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit” (Isaiah 57:15). Jesus was God incarnate…God tabernacled in the midst of his people.

This is why we follow Jesus. We follow Jesus because he has come and revealed to us WHO he is. He is the way the truth and the life…he is the word of life, the water of life, the bread of life…he is the Holy One of God. There is no god but him. There is no point in following anything else because there is nothing else. He is the beginning of everything and the end of everything.

Unlike the crowds that had eaten the food that spoils, the disciples were feasting on the bread that endures to eternal life. In Jesus, God has given us true bread from heaven to eat…in Jesus, he has provided life through his blood. So, feed and inwardly digest the Word of life as if your life depended on it…because it does.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023