Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 14B)
August 11, 2024
Text:
John 6:35-51
Jesus is the Bread of Life (John
6:35). He is the Living Bread that came
down from heaven, that, if anyone eat of this Bread, he shall live forever (v.
51). Now, there is more than one way to
feast on the Bread of Life. Our
Confessions are very helpful here (and I’m quoting, now, from the Solid
Declaration of the Formula of Concord, Article VII, and this is worth
quoting at some length): “There is a twofold eating of Christ’s flesh. One is spiritual… This spiritual eating is nothing other than
faith. It means to hear God’s Word (in
which Christ, true God and man, is presented to us, together with all benefits
that He has purchased by His flesh given into death for us, and by His blood
shed for us, namely, God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and
eternal life). It means to receive it
with faith and keep it for ourselves. It
means that in all troubles and temptations we firmly rely—with sure confidence
and trust—and abide in this consolation: we have a gracious God and eternal
salvation because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The other eating of Christ’s body
is oral or sacramental, when Christ’s true, essential body and blood are orally
received and partaken of in the Holy Supper by all who eat and drink the
consecrated bread and wine in the Supper.
This is done by the believing as a certain pledge and assurance that
their sins are surely forgiven them and that Christ dwells in them and is at
work in them. This supper is received by
the unbelieving for their judgment and condemnation” (FC SD VII:61-63).[1] Thus far the Formula of Concord. In other words, you eat the Bread of Life by
faith in all the Means of Grace.
You eat the Bread of Life orally in the Supper whether you
believe or not; if you believe, to your eternal benefit and life, if you do not
believe, to your judgment and spiritual and bodily harm. We’ll address this second eating more
thoroughly next week in our continued mediation on John 6.
For today, spiritual eating by
faith. But what is faith? Have you ever asked that question? Perhaps we’re too quick to take for granted that
we know what we’re talking about. As a
result, we may find ourselves captive to some misconceptions. So, first of all, what faith is not:
Faith is not sight. Not in the ordinary
sense, in any case. That is clear from
our Holy Gospel. So says the Lord Jesus:
“But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe” (John
6:36; ESV). We sometimes wish we could
just see Jesus. Then we’d
have no problem believing, we think.
Like Thomas. “Just let me poke
around in the wounds a bit.” But the
Jews in our text saw Him, and what did they say? “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How
does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” (v. 42). So sight can, as often as not, be a hindrance
to faith, more than a help, and assuredly sight doesn’t equal
faith.
Nor does historical knowledge. That is, believing that Jesus existed, and
that He died on the cross. Even
believing that He died for sins. Even
believing that He rose again. Those are
all, of course, things we should believe.
But such knowledge is not yet faith, for, as St. James reminds us, the
demons also believe these things, and shudder (James 2:19).
In our day (as with probably every
other day), we must also say that faith is not a general confidence that everything
will turn out well in the end. Or,
that we have what it takes to make it through, to muscle our way through
the challenges of life. Or, that other
people are basically good. Or, that we
ourselves are basically good. We
should not believe in our own heart, our own instincts, our own
inclinations. Etc., etc. You know, of course, because you’ve been
well-catechized, that faith directed toward any other person or thing than the
one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is idolatry. Repent of that. You’ve seen the posters, though. Hopefully you don’t have any hanging in your
house. “Believe!” In what?, the question is begged. Or, in whom. The object of faith must never be
ambiguous. If the object of faith in not
clearly the one true God, Satan will happily substitute an idol.
Okay, that’s what faith is not. What is faith, then? Faith is trust in the one true God for
salvation, and every good, through Jesus Christ alone. Apart from your worthiness. Apart from your works. In fact, in spite of your unworthiness
and evil works. By His
worthiness. By His works. By His sin-atoning death and life-bestowing
resurrection. We don’t see it with our
eyes. In fact, the writer to the Hebrews
says, in his great chapter on faith, “faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Faith, really, is its own kind of sight. It is spiritual sight, the ability to see
what cannot be seen by the naked and fallen eye. Thus Jesus, in our Gospel, speaks of the one
who “looks on the Son and believes in him” (John 6:40). That’s faith.
It is looking upon the Son, expecting help and salvation from Him, and
from Him alone.
And it’s not simply a matter that we
know these things recorded by the Gospels happened in the past. It is knowing that these things, written for
our learning, are our present reality.
That they happened for us, for you, and they are being bestowed
upon you at this very moment in the Means of Grace, the preaching of God’s
Word, and His holy Sacraments. All that
the Lord Jesus accomplished for you in His life, death, and resurrection, He
gives to you, here and now, by His real, bodily presence with you, in Word and
Sacrament. Faith receives what He
is here doing.
In fact, in addition to simply
understanding faith as trust, two things may be most helpful in defining
faith. The first is, faith is the receiving
hands into which God places His gifts.
Now, that necessarily means that faith is not your work for
God. Lutherans love to do that. “There is one thing I get to do, and that is believe!” No, no.
Faith is not your work. It’s not
something you came up with yourself.
It’s not a decision you made, or a gift you’ve given God. Faith is God’s gift to you. Just like your hands. You didn’t decide to have hands. You didn’t come up with hands by some
movement deep down in your heart. You
were given hands, by God.
You were born with them. So that
you can receive other gifts from God. So
it is with faith. You were given
faith, by God. Not from birth,
but from your New Birth from above, by water and the Word, by the Holy
Spirit, in Baptism. So Jesus says in our
Gospel, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”
(John 6:44). The Father draws a person
to Christ in Baptism and by the preaching of His Word. That is the giving of faith. So, faith… the hands that receive forgiveness
of sins, life, and salvation, and every other gift besides.
The second is this: It’s helpful to
just equate faith with Christ Himself.
Otherwise, you’ll be tempted to have faith in faith, as so many
Christians, including many Lutherans, do.
No, if you have faith, you have Christ.
And it is Christ alone who saves you.
To say that you are saved by faith alone, is to say that you are
saved by Christ alone. Many
Lutherans get this wrong. When asked,
“how do you know you’re saved,” too many Lutherans answer, “because I believe
in Jesus.” Close, beloved, but no
cigar. That answer directs faith back in
on itself. The devil loves that, because
then you start to ask devastating questions, like, “do I believe enough? Do I believe exactly right? I think I believe, but do I really?” The minute you direct your faith back to
yourself, or anything within you, you’re sunk.
The answer to the question, “how do you know you are saved,” is
“Christ!” That’s it. Christ died for me. Christ is risen and lives for me. Christ covers all my sins with His blood and
death. God forgives me for Christ’s
sake. I’ve been bathed in Jesus and
clothed with Him in Baptism. He speaks
His Spirit and life into me by His Word.
He puts His very flesh and blood, crucified and risen, into me in the
Supper. How do I know I’m saved? Christ!
Only Christ! That’s all I
know… Christ! Christ for me. And see, all those answers are, by
definition, faith.
Faith feasting on Jesus, the Bread
of Life. His flesh given for the life of
the world. That’s pretty
scandalous. And, as we’ll see, it only
gets more scandalous from here on out, when Jesus talks about eating
the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man. From the beginning, from the Lord’s own
mouth, the Lord’s Supper has been the dividing line in Christian theology. More on that next week. In the meantime, rest in what the Lord says
to you here: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone
eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for
the life of the world is my flesh” (v. 51).
To rest in that is faith.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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