Thirteenth and Fourteenth Sundays after Pentecost

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B—Proper 15)

August 19, 2018

Text: John 6:51-69

            Even Jesus has people leave when He preaches about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.  It isn’t just a peculiar Lutheran teaching.  It is Jesus’ teaching.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:53-54; ESV).  This offends the Jews who are following Him.  “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (v. 60).  And they all desert Him.  All but the Twelve.  It’s not so different today.  The world rules this teaching archaic and foolish.  Christians, even Lutherans, even you find the saying hard.  Next to justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, it is this very issue that divides so much of Christianity since the Reformation.  It is not just a question of the Lord’s Supper, but of the very incarnation of Christ, His taking on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, so that we can say our God is a man, Jesus of Nazareth.  So what Jesus says in our text about His flesh and blood is an offense both to human reason and pious Christian sensibility.  Our God is a flesh and blood God.  He is a man.  And we eat Him.  Really.  With our mouths, we eat His body, and with our mouths, we drink His blood.  And in this way, by this eating, He gives us eternal life and marks us for bodily resurrection on the Last Day.  

            Do you find that teaching offensive and hard to hear?  Join the club.  Everybody leaves but the Twelve, and I suspect the Twelve thought it was a hard saying, too.  But, as Peter says on behalf of them all when Jesus asks whether they also want to leave, and as we sing with him in the holy liturgy, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”  We really don’t know what else to do.  For “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (vv. 68-69).  And here’s the thing about believing in Jesus.  When you believe in Jesus, you believe His Word, no matter how hard it is to hear or accept.  Because this man is God.  He cannot lie.  So when He says He is flesh and blood, and you are given to eat His flesh and drink His blood, you believe it, whether you like or not.  Because He says so. 

            This text, John 6, has been an endless source of contention in the Church, really since Jesus said it.  Is it about the Lord’s Supper?  Is it not about the Lord’s Supper?  Pick your team.  Well, of course it’s about the Lord’s Supper.  John preached this text and wrote it down for the congregation of believers gathered around the altar to eat Jesus body under the bread and drink His blood under the wine for their forgiveness and life.  It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to figure out what Jesus is talking about.  But it’s not only about the Lord’s Supper.  As we discussed last week, according to our Confessions (FC SD VII), there are two ways of eating Jesus’ flesh.  The first is by faith when we hear the Gospel in all its forms, and the second is orally, with the mouth, when we receive the Holy Supper.  So it’s not an either/or, it’s a both/and.  And when our Lord says you have no life in you if you don’t eat His flesh and drink His blood, no, that doesn’t mean we should commune infants on the day they are baptized.  He doesn’t exclude infants or catechumen who don’t commune from eternal life.  They receive Him by faith in their Baptism and as they hear and learn His Word.  We Lutherans are really good at talking about the real presence of Jesus in the Supper, but we aren’t very good at talking about His real presence in the Word and in the water of Holy Baptism.  Jesus is really in the font when you are baptized, the flesh and blood Jesus, in the water because His Word is in the water, washing you clean and forgiving your sins, giving you new life by virtue of His death and resurrection.  And it is really Jesus speaking to you in His Word, in Holy Scripture and Absolution and preaching.  That is why the Word is so powerful.  It does what it says, because it’s not mere sounds out there in the air and vibrating off the walls, but the speech of Jesus Himself, the Word of God made flesh.  And we don’t mean He’s here in these gifts just in some sort of spiritual, non-literal way.  We mean the man, who is God, the very Son of the Father, Jesus Christ is present in all His fullness.  Flesh and blood Jesus is here.

            And since that is the case, it really shouldn’t surprise us that it is true of the Supper.  We know Jesus is bodily present in the Supper, His flesh under the bread, His blood under the wine, actually not from this text, but from the Words of Institution.  That is where we get our doctrine.  There Jesus clearly says of the bread, “This is my body,” and of the wine, “This is my blood” (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:24-25).  He’s not being cute.  He gives no indication that He is speaking figuratively.  Surely we can agree that Jesus knows what He is saying and He knows how to speak clearly.  And why does He give it?  “For you” (Lk. 22:19), and “for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28).  And this goes very nicely with what Jesus says in our text this morning from John 6: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (v. 54), for as Dr. Luther reminds us in the Small Catechism, “where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”[1] The Words of Jesus are what make the Sacrament so powerful so that it forgives sins and gives life and salvation, because the Words make Jesus Himself present, flesh and blood, orally received, in your mouth, down your throat, because that is what He promises. 

            And you receive Him orally, by the way, whether you believe it or not.  It’s just that if you receive His body and blood without believing it, you receive it to your harm, as St. Paul teaches us, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord… For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor. 11:27, 29).  This is why we practice closed Communion, out of love for our brothers and sisters who have not been fully catechized concerning the Supper or have a different theology of the Supper.  Because there are serious consequences for eating and drinking without discerning the body.  Again, St. Paul: “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (v. 30).  I know you don’t like it, and I know it doesn’t sound nice, but you have understand that the practice of closed Communion is from the Bible and it is done out of love.  And it never, ever means that we don’t want someone at the altar with us, nor is it to say the person isn’t a Christian and saved (they may even be a better Christian than I am, which isn’t saying much).  It is simply to say that there is a process by which they can join us for the Supper, and that process is catechesis, teaching, pastoral care.  And we say this not just to guests, but even to our own children.  You have to wait until you are catechized, taught.  If the Supper were just bread and wine, it wouldn’t matter.  Who cares who receives it?!  But because it really is Jesus’ true body and blood, and because of what the Spirit teaches us in the words of St. Paul, this is powerful stuff.  We don’t get to play around with it.  It can be deadly.  That’s not just me saying it.  It’s Jesus, and St. Paul.  If you have issues, you’ll have to take it up with them.    

            But for those who believe what Jesus says of the Supper, it is a meal that imparts forgiveness and life and every grace and blessing, because it imparts Jesus Himself.  There are two sides to this coin.  There are the Words of Jesus, which put Jesus, flesh and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine.  And then there is the faith that receives these benefits.  Dr. Luther reminds us just how bodily eating and drinking can do such great things: “Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’  These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking, are the main thing in the Sacrament.  Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: ‘forgiveness of sins.’” 

            So there you have it, a real, flesh and blood Jesus for real, flesh and blood sinners.  Which is to say, for you.  It is a real, flesh and blood death.  “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51).  It is the flesh of God that hangs upon the cross.  It is the blood of God that pours out of His head, His hands, His feet, His side, and every pit of flesh ripped off by Roman scourge.  It is flesh and blood that is crucified, dead, and buried.  And it is a real, flesh and blood resurrection.  Touch, see, my hands and my side.  It is I (Cf. Luke 24:39; John 21:27).  Or better, I AM.  Our God must be a flesh and blood God to die the flesh and blood death of flesh and blood sinners.  And He must rise from the dead flesh and blood for this very reason, to raise you flesh and blood on the Last Day.  And that is the very Promise of our text.  Beloved, Jesus says to you this morning: Eat my flesh.  Drink my blood.  In this way I forgive you all your sins and give  you eternal life.  And I will raise you up on the Last Day.  For real.  In the flesh.  Don’t be offended.  Don’t leave.  These are the Words of eternal life.  Alleluia.  Come and eat.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.          

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[1] Catechism quotes from Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986).

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B—Proper 16)

August 26, 2018

Text: Mark 7:1-13

            Beloved, whenever you make the Word of God all about what you do to be righteous before God, you make it void. That is to say, you empty it.  You empty it of its power.  You empty it of Jesus Christ.  And so you empty it of salvation.  Now, of course, the Word of God does tell you what to do and what not to do.  These are the holy Commandments of God, His righteous Law, given for your good and for the good of your neighbor.  You should do what God commands in His Word.  But that is not the main point of the Bible.  The main point of the Bible is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made flesh for you, living under the Law and fulfilling it for you, so that it counts for you before the Father, dying for your transgression of the Law, your death, for the forgiveness of your sins, rising again for you, that you may have new life in Him now, heaven when you die, and the resurrection of your body on the Last Day, and that He lives and reigns to all eternity for you, seated at the right hand of the Father.  That is the Gospel, the Word of salvation.  Jesus is the point of the Bible.  Not a bunch of rules and regulations, and especially not a bunch of manmade rules and regulations.  Not the secret of living your best life now.  Not the best way to manipulate God into being on your side.  Not the way to gain favor before God, or make up for sin, do satisfactions, win at life, be healthy, wealthy, prosperous, or whatever nonsense we come up with and make the Bible all about.  What we do is we take something God actually said and twist it around and put it through our own filters, add to it here, subtract from it there, so that it says whatever we want it to say.  And we’ve fallen for the old trick of the serpent.  Our Old Adam follows the tradition of his father, the first Adam.  Did God really say?  Well, here’s what this verse means to me…  If you ever attend a Bible Study and the leader asks what the verse means to you, run away!  That’s always an Old Adam question.  I don’t care what it means to you!  I love you, but with all due respect, you’ll get it wrong!  The question is, what does it objectively mean?  What does God mean when He says it?

            This is the conflict Jesus is having with the Pharisees in our text.  The Pharisees know the things God actually says in the Scriptures, but in their quest for self-righteousness, self-justification, and outward perfection, they add all sorts of human traditions to what God says, a man-made moral hedge around God’s Law to keep them from transgressing it.  So they add to the Law.  But then what happens is the hedge becomes more important to them than the actual Law, the actual things God has said, which ironically ends up subtracting from God’s Law.  Add in a few twists and turns and personal interpretations a la “What does the verse mean to you?”, and you have the Pharisaical concern that the disciples are eating with unwashed hands. 

            Now, you should wash your hands.  Let’s be clear.  Mom was right about that one.  Jesus is not against hygiene.  But you should recognize that washing your hands is a man-made rule, not a commandment of God.  The Pharisees had actually made this a matter of righteousness before God.  It was a tradition of the elders, a hedge around God’s Law.  There are all the laws about uncleanness from touching this or that or the other thing, so let’s make sure, in case we accidentally and unknowingly touched something (you know, like a common person or filthy Gentile scum!), that we wash our hands.  The Greek is “baptize.”  We baptize our cups and our pots and pans and even our dining couches and anything else some dirty sinner may have touched.  That is surely what God worries about all day long in His heaven.  And this whole business about the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother”… If taking care of Mom and Dad financially is a good thing, even better to take what we would have given to Mom and Dad and call it “Corban,” given to God, given to the Synagogue, the Church.  See, that’s a good hedge around the Law.  Take whatever God says and go one step further, and Mom and Dad can fend for themselves.  After all, if they are righteous like we Pharisees, God will take care of them.  If they’re not righteous, then they deserve whatever they get. 

            So this is what has happened to the Holy Word of God in the hands of the Pharisees, sons of Adam, all.  They’ve crossed out the actual Commandment of God in favor of their own tradition.  And they’ve completely denied the whole purpose of the Word of God, which is not to make it about what you must do to be righteous, but about what Messiah does for you to declare you righteous and give you His own righteousness.  “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men… thus making void the Word of God by your own tradtion that you have handed down.  And many such things you do” (Mark 7:8, 13; ESV). 

            Now, it’s easy to be hard on the Pharisees.  Jesus was hard on them because He loved them, and they were so close to getting the Scriptures right (incidentally, this is just an opinion, but it is quite possible none other than Saul, the future St. Paul, is among this particular group of Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem, undoubtedly from the school of Gamaliel!).  But you are hard on them because you can sit back and say, “Well, at least I’m not a Pharisee!”… Which makes you a Pharisee!  Old Adam is always a Pharisee!  He’s always trying to find a way to justify himself, make himself righteous.  At least he wants partial credit for his salvation.  He’ll confess salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but then he’ll turn around and in the next breath thank God that he’s not like that sinner over there.  “Boy, I’d better wash my hands.”  Beloved, repent. 

            We make up plenty of our own rules, by the way, man-made traditions, hedges around the Law.  Don’t smoke.  Don’t drink beer.  Or especially whiskey, which is extra evil.  Don’t watch a movie rated worse than PG.  Remember, I’m always watching to catch you in a sin.  I won’t actually talk to you about it, but I’ll despise you for it, thank God I’m not like you, and I’ll tell a lot of other people about it, secretly, out of Christian love and concern.  Our culture, of which we are all participants, does this on a grand scale.  Make sex the absolute center of your whole existence, and have it with whoever or whatever you want, but remember, no means no, #metoo.  Pornography is great, but don’t objectify women (by the way, pornography is not great, it’s demonic, which is to say, it brings demons into your life, and it does objectify women and men, and if you’re into it or addicted to it, you need your pastor’s help… let’s talk.  There is hope).  Don’t be a square, man.  Smoke marijuana, but not tobacco, because tobacco is sinful.  Save the spotted owl, but kill the unborn babies.  Get climate change right, or else… And whatever you do, do not judge!  Tolerate everyone.  Everything.  No matter what.  Because if you don’t, we won’t tolerate  you.  That’s Pharisaism by another name.  That is self-righteousness, self-justification, a way of feeling good about yourself and believing you are saved because you are right on all the issues of the day, and anyone who disagrees with you is just evil.  Bring on the hand soap.

            Thank God, Jesus comes to rescue us from this crazy cycle of self-justification and virtue signaling.  Do you know what the real purpose of the Law is?  We’re talking God’s real Law, here, the Ten Commandments, not the traditions of men.  The Law’s real purpose is to kill you!  To slaughter you!  To show you that you are dead and damned in your sins and you cannot save yourself, you cannot make yourself righteous, no matter how hard you work or how much you wash your hands.  And Jesus comes, Almighty God, the only-begotten Son of the Father, and assumes our flesh in the womb of His mother, and He steps under His own Law to take our place.  And He gets His hands dirty… with us!  Bloody, in fact.  He is sinless.  He never sins.  He fulfills the Law perfectly, for us, so that we get all the credit.  But because He stands in our place, the Law kills Him.  That is what happens on the cross, for us, for you.  Divine justice meets Divine love at the intersection of the cross-beams, in the body of God nailed to the wood.  Sin is put to death in the death of the Righteous One, Jesus.  And all your sins are forgiven.  All your self-justifying, virtue signaling, what-does-the-verse-mean-to-me interpreting, Law hedging, judging your neighbor, hand washing… all of it is forgiven.  You are loosed from it.  Set free.  And in its place you are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  His death is your death.  His resurrection is your life.  Eternal life.  Because He doesn’t just baptize your hands or your pots and pans and couches.  He baptizes you.  With Himself.  You are in Him.  And when God looks at you, He doesn’t care whether you’ve washed your hands or touched a sinner.  He looks at you and sees His spotless child, washed and clean, covered by the blood of Jesus, holy and righteous, loved.  And the Law, the real Law, the Ten Commandments?  Yes, do them, by all means, not because they help you be righteous before God, but because your neighbor needs you to do them.  That’s what love demands.  Give your neighbor a break and don’t kill him, don’t commit adultery with his wife or his future wife, don’t look at his daughter or son doing dirty things online, don’t steal from him or covet his stuff.  It is good to do the Commandments of God.  And of course, when you fail, you are forgiven.  That’s not the point.  The point is love.  As one forgiven and declared righteous by God for Christ’s sake, love your neighbor. 

            But don’t make the Bible void by making it all about you and what you should do to be righteous before God.  The Bible, the Word of God as it is read and proclaimed and given in the holy Sacraments… is full of Jesus.  It is full of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.  For you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.