Life to the Fullest

Text: John 6:35, 41-51

Focus: Abundant life

Function: to help people see that the kingdom of heaven is here already.

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

⁴¹Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. ⁴⁶Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Good Morning! This is one of the most provocative sermons that Jesus preaches.

Up until this time, like for example when the miracle for Synagogue Ruler’s daughter and the woman who touched Jesus’ garment happened, the text says that there was an huge crowd pressing around him.

But by the time Jesus is arrested, the crowd has diminished greatly. And the text says it was because Jesus says later in this sermon that he flesh is true food and his blood is true drink and we must eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus in order to have abundant life. The crowd did not understand and could not abide the thought of cannibalism.

I don’t know how I would react if I heard firsthand such a message. Most of the crowd left, Jesus looks at those who remain and asks them if they are leaving also and Peter replies that Jesus has the words of abundant life and he is going to stick it out with Jesus even though he doesn’t understand.

I believe that this statement, My flesh is true food and my blood true drink is the reason why our Orthodox and Roman Catholic siblings in the faith believe that miraculously, every time we eat the bread and cup, it transforms inside of us into real flesh and blood.

Sadly we have argued dearly over whether or not Jesus was literal or symbolic.

And I am going to bless my other brothers and sisters and pray for the day when we can share the bread and cup together. I believe it will be a sign from God that true reconciliation happens in the Church.

If not here on earth, then we will in heaven, with Jesus. What hope we have!

This teaching from Jesus does illustrate the importance of the practice of Communion together. We do it to remember Jesus giving his life for us.

The irony for me is the faith involved. Jesus gave his life, but we have to take it.

I used to always preach this from the perspective that since we willingly consume him, we also willingly participated in his murder.

In the movie the Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s only role is to wield the hammer that drove in the nails. And he said he did it to remind himself that he was guilty of Jesus’ death.

I see that theology. But it is filled with shame.

Yes, Jesus gave his life in a terrible way as he was tortured on the cross.

But he did it out of love and an example to us that we can love our enemies, even to the point of sacrifice, because we believe in the resurrection and our reward in heaven.

The scripture said the he learned obedience through the things he suffered. His death was only temporary!

We must consume him. We must use him for our benefit. We must accept a gift that we cannot repay.

That is sort of un-American. We are taught to be self sufficient and not depend on anyone else, to make enough for ourselves and have enough left over to share, according to scripture. But Jesus is giving himself freely and we participate in that gift by taking it for ourselves.

Communion is a way of receiving Jesus. I have seen different people become born again and filled with the Spirit just by embracing the thought of Jesus while taking the bread and cup together.

It is a spiritual practice that we make in order help us embrace the reality of our faith in a symbolic way.

And our text reads that anyone who eats the flesh of Jesus will have eternal life.

I titled the sermon: “Life to the fullest.”

That is exactly what Aorami the Greek word often translated as Eternal life actually means.

It is literally, a life without any boundaries.

Jesus is talking about our freedom in Christ to experience the abundant life that the Kingdom of God has come to bring to humanity.

It is an abundant life because it is a God kind of life.

When we translate it merely “eternal life” then we focus on the life after we stop breathing and not the promise of abundant life here and now. It is like we believe the Kingdom is sill coming and Jesus said it was here and now.

We are the Kingdom and the change that God wants to bring to the world.

This abundant life is filled with the Spirit and is full of the kind loving nature of our God. It fills us with joy and gives to us a sense of purpose when we are being led by the Spirit of God.

When I took those 10 dozen cookies to Kairos a few weeks ago, I sat at a table with a very troubled young man. He was disappointed and discouraged because he was told that he could have anything he wanted if he asked in faith believing and then he didn’t get it.

We spent the day talking about forgiveness and he implied that he had murder in his heart.

The room was crowded and we were short of volunteers, so I was the only volunteer at the table, with 3 other residents. The young man started spouting some white supremacist stuff and the saint of a black man, sitting at the table with me immediately bowed his head and took to praying for this guy.

His great disappointment was not his fault. Someone else told him that God would do whatever he wanted. It doesn’t work that way. We must pray according to the will of God. It was like he was sold Christianity as a commodity to get his needs met instead of relationship with God that is designed to change the environment we live in.

I mention this because abundant life does not mean a life without suffering or trials.

Most of us in this room suffer in different ways, some physically, some emotionally, some spiritually, some relationally and other reasons for suffering happen, and Jesus promise to us is that he suffered with us and has overcome the suffering of this world.

He suffers with us and when we suffer, we suffer with Christ. I don’t understand that mystery.

But it really helps to know that we are not alone and have been give abundant life through Christ

I realize that to have abundant life, I must practice it. It is a live lived by faith, meeting God every morning in prayer and study and walking with God through the day.

I am not talking about trying to be very holy or off set from the environment. But having the positive attitude that God is going to make a difference in our environment through us.

It gives us a purpose and helps us to live life to the fullest.