Lent 2025 Day 21: Fri 28 Mar
John 6:53-70
53 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, 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 them 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 them. 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 ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.’ 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Many disciples desert Jesus
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, ‘Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you – they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.’
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’
70 Then Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’
“You do not want to leave too, do you?”, this question to the Twelve is one we are often asked in our journey of discipleship. It is, after all, the job of a good preacher to convict as well as to reassure, to challenge as well as to comfort, just like Scripture does when we engage with it regularly. So it is only natural that sometimes we might be faced with a sermon, a text, or a concept that makes us say “This is a hard teaching”, and part of our calling as people of God is to wrestle with it, not because we will always have the right answer, but because the Patriarchs of old teach us the importance of engaging with God, being open to Him about our challenges and doubts.
I once had a tutor who was fond of extreme hyperbole, and he used to say “if Christians took their faith seriously, MI5 would be kicking down church doors”. While I might not quite have his flair for the dramatic, I do often wonder if we are taking our faith seriously if we never find it challenging. Complacency seems to be a common theme among Jesus’ hearers in this Gospel, so perhaps it is not surprising that Christ would use the most difficult of parables in this passage, inviting people to “gnaw” (as some translators put it) on his flesh, perhaps anticipating the violence of his own death, which is the centre of our faith, and the event we commemorate in the Eucharist.
Father, Christ’s body was broken for us. May these words always challenge us, preventing complacency from taking the place of living faith.
1:16:58 Geduld! (Aria)
35. Aria T (Chorus II)
Patience, patience!
When false tongues pierce.
Although I suffer, contrary to my due,
shame and scorn,
indeed, dear God shall
revenge the innocence of my heart.
36a. Evangelist And the high priest answered and said to him:
High Priest I abjure you by the living God to tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God!
Evangelist Jesus said to him:
Jesus You say it. Yet I say to you: from now on it will come to pass that you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and approaching in the clouds of heaven.
Evangelist Then the high priest tore his garments and said:
High Priest He has blasphemed God; what further witness do we need? Behold, now you have heard his blasphemy. What do you think?
Evangelist They answered and said:
Ends at 1:22:01
Paul