St Luke’s, Havelock North – OT21, 23^rd August 2009 – ‘Does This Offend?’

Reading: John 6: 56-69

“Does this offend you?”

It’s nearly September and we’re into the final quarter of our church year and the focus for 2009 has been the Gospel of Mark, but for the past month we’ve found ourselves sidetracked into John chapter 6 and some might well be wondering why that is? It’s a good question. Largely it’s because John is the one Gospel that doesn’t have its own year in the current lectionary cycle, so at certain points it takes centre stage to try to redress the balance. There’s actually a move afoot at the moment to change this and turn our 3 year cycle into a 4 year one so John gets its own year, but that’s a whole different issue. Another reason for diverting into John occasionally is, of course, because John is so very different to the other gospels and there are some points and themes in John we don’t find elsewhere, so it’s worth making space for them and the hard issues they involve, and many of those issues are hard indeed, that’s the whole point of today’s passage.

At the beginning of the chapter we find Jesus feeding the multitudes; a story so significant apparently that we hear it six times over the four gospels, and on this occasion it acts as a catalyst for a dawning realisation among the crowd, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus the man from Galilee has moved to Jesus the miracle worker and now he begins to become in the hearts and minds of those around him the Christ.

From the feeding story the chapter moves on to another show of power as Jesus walks on water and then, just as everyone starts to think ‘we’ve got a winner here’ the verses take a sharp turn and Jesus is describing himself as the bread of life who will fill the emptiness of those who come to him and if that’s not enough he claims that no one can come to God unless they go through him, and most astounding of all perhaps, that “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”

“Does this offend you?”

Accounts of the early Church celebrating the Eucharist are full of the reactions of those around them. Christians were accused of being cannibals and ghouls of the worst sort because of words like those we find in John 6. “Eat my flesh, drink my blood,” is it any surprise that people misinterpreted what those words meant? Two thousand years later we still use the same language and just imagine, if you had never been to church or heard about the Last Supper, how would you interpret them? People were offended.

Throughout John 6 we find words and ideas that could not help but offend those hearing them. At the beginning of today’s reading we’re told that Jesus has been teaching these things in the synagogue – at the heart of the local religious institution Jesus has been describing himself as the doorway to God, and the bread of life, as the ultimate gift of God to God’s people. Wouldn’t you be offended if I started to make the same claims today? If I told you that everybody else was wrong and I was the only source of truth and righteousness, wouldn’t you find that offensive?

It’s not just his words that caused offense either, what Jesus did was just as bad. The food itself – the bread and fish – may be alright, but sharing it indiscriminately between a huge crowd of people like Jesus does crosses all manner of lines dictating who you could and couldn’t eat with. It’s no wonder that the good Jews were offended by what Jesus said and did, but it seems they weren’t the only ones.

“When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you?”

This is where a bit of background knowledge is important in understanding what we’re hearing. It’s clear throughout the gospels and especially in John that Jesus had many more than 12 disciples. On occasion we hear about 70, at other times the implication is hundreds, but in John’s version at least this is the crux point. Those who have decided to follow Jesus because of the miracles and the drama have been listening to his increasingly outrageous words and they’re saying ‘Enough! This has gone too far, what you’re saying is too much, we can’t accept it.’ In response to which Jesus asks, “Does this offend you?”

Yes, it does. What Jesus is saying may not be offensive in as much as it is rude or crude – although for some all the talk about blood and flesh may well have been – but it certainly offends in as much as it makes no sense.

“I am the bread of life. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” These are offensive statements because they are ridiculous. How can this man, powerful though he may be, say such things? How can he risk upsetting the authorities by making these sensational claims? How can he put all that he and we have worked so hard for at risk by talking such complete nonsense? Yes, this offends me. It offends my intelligence, it offends my sense of decency, it offends my simple commonsense. To which Jesus says, “if you think what I’ve said so far is bad, just wait!’

I think this is the message we’re left with at the end of John 6. It’s a message we actually find over and over again in the gospels but it’s laid out particularly bare here, the way of Jesus is offensive. We really have to be clear about that, [especially when we’re welcoming new members into the Church at baptism like we are this morning]. This is not a sensible life we’re leading. This is not a nice, middle-class, orderly and decent road that we have chosen to follow. This is the way of Christ.

This is the way of Christ and, yes, if we’re really walking that road people will be offended. They’ll be offended because what Jesus says offends, what Jesus teaches offends, what Jesus does offends, and what Jesus demands offends. “Take up your cross, lay down your life, and follow me.” “Those who love their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will live forever.” “The one who eats this bread – my flesh – will live forever.”

“Does this offend you?”

By the end of John 6 Jesus has gone from potentially hundreds of disciples down to just 12. There’s a line in a hymn we sing that asks, “does your life attract or scare?” John 6 pretty much answers that as far as Jesus is concerned. This is where the rubber meets the road, the hard questions get asked and everyone is left under no illusion that Jesus is running some sort of political campaign or popularity contest. People are left upset and offended and many of them just walk away, but not all.

“So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go?”

To anyone who really looks it should be clear that the Jesus life is always going to be offensive to commonsense and decency, so why do we choose to live it? Why don’t we, like the many, simply turn around and walk away? It’s a really important question, and in some cases I believe the answer is because we’ve somehow cleaned up the Jesus message. Over the centuries we’ve worked hard to make more sense out of what Jesus does and says in John 6 and elsewhere and in the process we’ve tried to make it less offensive, more acceptable, more fitting for polite society perhaps, so then it’s easier to stick with it and live the Christian life because it looks a whole lot like the lives of everyone else around us. But most of the time it shouldn’t. Most of the time if we look just like everyone else we’re not living up to the call of our baptism. Most of the time is what we do and say isn’t offending someone, we’re probably not doing it right.

But wouldn’t that be ridiculous? Wouldn’t that defeat the point? Don’t we want more people to join us and come to church? Don’t we want people to see that we’re both right and alright? Wouldn’t anything that works against that be offensive? Absolutely.

“Lord, to whom can we go?” The 12 who stay with Jesus are the 12 we read and hear the most about in the scriptures. Of course it’s not always positive or flattering reading. Often they’re portrayed as obtuse and ignorant, sometimes they’re vain and annoying, elsewhere they’re confused and scared, but through it all they stick with Jesus. It’s not that they’ve got nowhere else to go – most of them have got homes and families and previous careers, but as the great reformer, Martin Luther, put it they stay because they “can do no other”. “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Through all the insanity and confusion and the offense of what you’re saying, we have seen that in you is true life with God.

Here’s the challenge of today’s reading, and indeed all the gospel readings of the past month. Will we listen – really listen – to what Jesus has to say to us? Will we hear how ridiculous, how offensive, those words are? And will we follow him regardless, because in him we find true life with God?

“Does this offend you?” Yes Lord, sometimes it does, but to whom else can I go? Where else will I find what I find in you? Where else can I find true life?

Thanks be to God.