Joshua
24:1-2a, 14-18 Ephesians 5:6-21 John
6:51-69
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially these words, “Lord, to
whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ, The last few weeks, Jesus has been saying some difficult
teachings. He has not earned for himself
any friends among the Jews of Capernaum.
In fact, lets be honest, Jesus’ words are a little odd to us as
well. “I am the bread of life” Jesus
says, eat my flesh, drink my blood, and then you will live. Oh and by the way, if you don’t eat, you are
dead. You can imagine the response of
those people that day so long ago, “Wait a minute Jesus, that sounds a little
weird. I mean we aren’t cannibals
here. We don’t go around eating people,
in fact we lock those sorts of people up and throw away the key.”
“And Jesus, by the
way, what’s this dead talk? You think
we’re dead if we don’t eat you? That’s
crazy talk, and frankly, we don’t have time for it. We don’t want anything to do with you and
your cannibalistic morbidity.” That day,
many stopped believing in Jesus. That
day, many turned away from Jesus, listening instead to what their itching ears
and what their reason told them to believe.
And its no
surprise really is it? I mean we do the
same thing all the time. What’s that
Jesus, you think I should drink so much?
Hog wash! What’s that Jesus, you
think I shouldn’t swear or curse? Too
bad! You say I shouldn’t commit adultery,
or steal, or lie, or gossip? That’s just
too bad, because frankly, I’m going to do what I want to anyways. I’m my own boss, and I don’t need the likes
of you telling me what to do.
And it goes beyond
even what we do. We struggle to believe
the things Jesus tells us about himself.
What’s that you think your God’s Son?
I don’t know if I can believe that.
I mean you died and all, God can’t do that right? And you think the little snack in the middle
of church is your body and blood, I’m not sure I can believe you Jesus, because
it just seems to represent those things.
And finally enough of this Jesus is the only way to heaven stuff. I know that Muslims, and Mormons, and
Jehovah’s Witnesses are just different understandings of our religion right?
Dear friends, all
of these things we so badly want to believe are true, but are not. Jesus clearly teaches they are false
teaching. He is God’s Son, no doubt. He is truly present in with and under the
bread and the wine. He is the only way
to heaven, and Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses and more do not believe the truth
in any stretch of the imagination. Try
as we might, believe as we may, these things are the work of Satan in our world
and in our lives. And despite our lies
to ourselves, we do sin, and we need to hear it. We want so badly to believe them though. And when Jesus, or a Pastor, or anyone else
tells us something we disagree with we grumble against them, just as the Jews
do in our text. We complain and moan,
because we know in our sinful hearts, that “That’s not the way its supposed to
be!”
When Jesus taught
these difficult teachings so long ago in Capernaum, many people began to turn
against him. People began to stop
believing in him and turned away. We
can’t believe that Jesus guy, he’s just full of hate. We can’t believe that Jesus guy he’s a bigot
and a lunatic. We disagree with him, so
we can’t be seen in public with him, or talk to him anymore, we just need to
ignore that bigot Jesus.
Jesus even
wondered if his own 12 closest disciples would leave him. He said to them, “Do you want to go
too?” But no, they had heard Jesus
Powerful Word and believed. They saw their
own sin, they saw the miracles of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit worked faith in
them. Faith that trusted Jesus, faith
that caused them not to doubt his word, but believe. And So peter stands up for the 12 and says,
“Lord to whom shall we go? You are the
one who has the Word of eternal life.
Dear friends, that
is the truth. Jesus has the words of
eternal life. He has the words that give
you forgiveness. He has the words that
give you salvation. He gives you those
words through a poor lowly and sinful pastor, whose very job is to give those
words to you. And so when the pastor
says, “This is sin” it is not the pastor’s opinion, but God’s. He gives you those words, when the pastor
says, “as a called and ordained servant of Christ, I forgive you all those
sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Amen.
Those are the words of Jesus, spoken through a poor pastor, to give you
life and forgiveness.
Jesus gives you
the words of life in other ways as well.
He comes to you in baptismal waters, not just plain water, but the water
included in God’s command and combined with God’s words of life. “You are baptized” and thus a child of
God. Jesus gives you his Words of
Eternal life as He says, “Take and eat,” “Take and drink”, “this is my body and
blood”, all for your forgiveness. Jesus
gives you the words of life as you read, learn and inwardly digest his word in
scripture, and as you hear it and believe it in the liturgy and church
service.
Dear friends,
where shall you turn? To your own
reason? To your own opinion? To a friend’s opinion? No.
Where shall we go? Jesus is the
one with the Words of Eternal Life. And
this should be no surprise to us, for he is the one who has power over life and
death. He’s the one who was bloodied and
killed on the cross. He’s the one who
poured out the blood for forgiveness of all sin, and who took the punishment
that brought us peace. He’s the one who
laid dead in the tomb for three days before rising into eternal life and
ascending into heaven. To whom shall we
go? Jesus has the Word of eternal life,
and shares them with us all. He speaks
of the Spirit and Life. He draws us in
with the work of the Father, and he feeds us with the very bread of life.
Dear friends, its
not about your opinions. It’s not about
your feelings or thoughts. It is all
about Jesus. What Jesus says goes. And what Jesus says is this, “You are
forgiven, so have life to the full.” Amen.
