Eat Flesh?!

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
August 20th 2006

Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
Sermon Series: “The Lords Supper Still Matters, But Why?”
“Drink Blood?!”
John 6: 51-58

Attempting to do a five week series on the Lord’s Supper runs the risk of being rather repetitive. After all, we are using only chapter six in the Gospel of John. Reading this long chapter can quickly give the impression that it has little to say about our lives. Talking about the body and blood of Jesus as the food for eternal life seems like conversations not meant for those concerned about life in this world. However, despite the initial appearance, Jesus is really speaking about living life in the here and now.
At first glance it appears this passage is simply a reiteration of the previous one. However, it is not. When Jesus talks about flesh and blood he is connecting this conversation with a larger issue. When Jesus talks about eating his flesh we are supposed to hear this through the lens of the opening chapter of the Gospel. There is a clear connection here to the verse that reads: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…” (John 1:14a). This is important because it grounds our entire discussion of the Lord’s Supper on our belief that God came in the form of a human being. (If you want to impress people the fancy way of talking about this is the doctrine of the Incarnation.) The basis of this belief is the simple premise that human history matters to God because God chose to be made known in history. In other words, any talk of the Lord’s Supper or this passage which is not grounded in life today is exactly the opposite of what Jesus was teaching. While there is much more which can be said about this doctrine, we will focus this morning on its implications for our celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus’ invitation to eat of his flesh and drink his blood is metaphor. If we consider that this passage is laying the foundation of the ritual of the Lord’s Supper, then the invitation to eat and drink is an invitation to participate in the ritual and, more importantly, an invitation to live our lives in the pattern of Jesus Christ. In other words, partaking in the Lord’s Supper nourishes us to live our lives as Jesus disciples in the world.
The point of doing a five week sermon series on the Lord’s Supper is not to ensure that we subscribe to proper orthodoxy. If our study of the Lord’s Supper focuses only on the right beliefs about the substance of the bread, or on the right way to celebrate the meal we will have failed in our task. When the practice of the Lord’s Supper is divorced from our lives in the world then it is no longer the Lord’s Supper. If our celebration of the Lord’s Supper does not lead us to live transformed lives or if it becomes an individualistic spiritual practice then it is no longer the Lord’s Supper. These forms of table practices would have been unrecognizable to Jesus. That is why today we focus our discussion about the Lord’s Supper on the ways in which Jesus practiced table fellowship. In this way our practice, of eating the flesh of the one who was the Word in the flesh, will be worthy of the term Lord’s Supper.
Our modern understanding of the Lord’s Supper is taken from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. It is also influenced from the ways in which Jesus shared meals. The institution and practice of the Lord’s Supper is an extension of Jesus’ many challenges to the meal sharing practices of his day. The modern practice of this ritual has lost much of its radical roots. However, we can begin to understand how challenging Jesus practice was, by looking more closely at the social order and social mores regarding the eating of meals in Jesus day.
The social structure of Jesus’ world was rather different from our own. There was a well defined social order. The top of the social order included the governors and rulers, who were followed by priests, military generals, and the leading merchants. At the bottom of the social order, which was about two-thirds of the population, were the peasants, followed by the Artisans (carpenters and such), and finally the Expendables. There were people who generally did not fit within the socio-economic structure. They made up about ten percent of the population. This was the well defined social world which Jesus lived.
It is also important to know that the practice of eating was also very detailed and a microcosm of the society itself. Eating became the way in which to enforce the social order. Only those people who belonged to the same class would share meals together. It was highly irregular to cross these class boundaries. Since the expectation of shared meals was that there would always be reciprocation it would make no sense to share meals with people who could not offer the same sort of meal in return. A meal was a social transaction meant to solidify and support the very foundation of society. Anthropologists have noted that throughout all the worlds’ cultures and throughout history eating is an easy way to map economic distribution, social hierarchy and political differentiation. Who knew that how we eat could say so much about society?
Since Jesus had the reputation of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners,” it is clear that he violated the acceptable eating habits of his society. We know that Jesus was indiscriminate in his meal sharing. It was not uncommon to find Jesus eating with people from across the socio-economic spectrum all at the same time. Historian John Dominic Crossan paints a rather vivid picture of this, he says: “Anyone could be reclining next to anyone else, female, next to male, free next to slave, socially high next to socially low, and ritually pure next to ritually impure… (one might image) what a social nightmare that would be.” Jesus radically inclusive table practices were a real threat to the social order. This is the foundation for the practice of the Lord’s Supper.
Maybe the world of Jesus day is so far removed from our world. Maybe any talk about radically inclusive and socially challenging table practices no longer apply in our world. After all, aren’t we taught from a very young age that we live in a classless society? Well, that may be the talk but let us talk a closer look at reality. How often do the heads of major corporations actually eat with the custodial staff of the same corporation, or invite them into their homes? If we are really honest with one another there are class and racial division alive and well in our society. This is no where more evident than in our practice of eating. A short look at who we eat with, who we invite to our homes, who we invite to our holiday gatherings say a great deal about whether we are supporting these exclusionary practices.
We live in a culture where we are taught from an early age: “You are known by the company you keep.” However, Jesus teaches us a different way of living. While our practice of meal sharing in our homes may not be living out this model of life our practice of this table gives us a glimpse. When we gather around this table it is true that we do cross many of our social norms. We have folks from different races and from across the socio-economic spectrum. However, our practice at this table compels us to follow the way of Jesus in all aspects of our life. It is not enough for us to challenge the pattern racial segregation and social stratification of the world at this table in this place. We are called to do this in all areas of our lives.
Our identity as followers of Jesus Christ is found in the eating the flesh and drinking the blood. This marks us as disciples of the Word which came in flesh. This same Word, Jesus Christ, was known as a glutton and a drunkard. As we seek to be faithful disciples in all areas of our lives we are compelled to look at our eating habits. We are called to say no to those practices which enforce the continued divisions of our day and yes to those practices which may just end up giving us a reputation of gluttons and drunkards. Are we up for this challenge? I pray that God gives us the strength to accept that reputation with pride because it was good enough for the one we call Lord. Amen.