How
does our Lord Jesus Christ give life to people who are dead in
sin? Today’s Gospel tells us it’s by giving His flesh for the
life of the world. Jesus says that He came so we could have life
and have it more abundantly. Scripture declares,
This
is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is
in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have
the Son of God does not have life.
The point is this: According to the Scriptures, there can be no
true life apart from faith in God’s Son Jesus Christ. Apart from
Jesus, at best there can only be a masquerade of life; at worst, a
living death, a zombification of our
humanity as God originally created it to be. Leave Jesus out of
the picture and the world is full of dead men walking. Leave
Jesus out of the picture and as far as God’s concerned the world’s
just an ashy cinder, a place of desolation and death. Our Lord
knew these things; He was grieved by them. No wonder then He came
down from heaven to give His flesh for the life of the world.
It was on the tree of the Cross that Jesus gave His flesh as a
sacrifice for the world’s sin. There our Savior died on behalf of
every sinner who has ever lived or ever will live. He died for
you. He died for me. He died so we who were dead in trespass and
sin could have life. True life! Life in fellowship with God, as
His beloved children. Life eternal. Life as God originally
intended it to be before sin and death tore through creation like
a devastating hurricane. Jesus died for you so that, forgiven,
you can live.
There’s nothing more important than God’s forgiveness through the
imputation of Christ’s perfect righteousness to us sinners.
Knowing that your sins are taken away and that for Jesus’ sake God
sees you as blameless is more essential than the food you eat, the
house you live in, the clothing you wear, or the car you drive.
All those things God gives you, to be sure, but His greatest gift
above all others is the gift of His Son as your Savior. To know
that God forgives you, and gives you life and salvation through
Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross is what ultimately counts.
The Jews in today’s Gospel didn’t see things that way, though.
They grumbled because Jesus said that He’s the bread that came
down from heaven. They didn’t want that kind of bread. They
wanted earthly bread – the kind that came out of ovens and you
could crack open and smear with olive oil. They wanted more of
the loaves and fishes that Jesus had miraculously provided them
with the day before. Forget this talk about Jesus being the bread
of life that came down from heaven. They weren’t interested in
that.
It’s that way with us too whenever we fix our focus so attentively
on earthly things that we forget the heavenly. Paul writes in
Colossians 3 that we Christians are to
set our minds
on things above, not on earthly things. Earthly
goods perish with the using. If you doubt that answer this: Is
the gallon of milk you bought at Jiffy Mart last month still in
your fridge? Of course not! But God’s grace and mercy in Christ
Jesus are for eternity. Earthly food satisfies only temporarily.
But Jesus says that He is
the bread of
life, and that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry, and
whoever believes in Him will never be thirsty.
But the Jews in today’s Gospel couldn’t understand this. After
all, Jesus (they believed) was just the son of Joseph, so who was
He to say that He came down from heaven? Who was He to say that
He was the bread of life? Pretty arrogant of Him, they thought.
Their basic problem was that they didn’t believe. It’s
everybody’s basic problem, for because of sin each of us, the
Bible says, is born into this world without true fear, love and
trust in God. If the Jews had believed, they would have known what
our Lord was talking about, or they would at least have been
willing to learn. Unwillingness to learn from Jesus as the One
who has
the words of eternal life is a symptom of rank
unbelief. It shows that the person who doesn’t want to learn from
Jesus is not a sheep of His flock. Our Lord says that His sheep
hear His voice, and He knows them, and they follow Him. Sheep who
hear the voice of their Shepherd – that’s the image Luther uses to
describe the holy Christian Church. It’s pretty simple – the
sheep that belong to Jesus hear His voice and follow Him, and He
will raise them up at the last day. On the other hand, those who
don’t belong to Jesus ignore His Word, have no interest in being
taught by Him, and on the last day will be condemned along with
all unbelievers.
Our Lord is an equal-opportunity kind of Savior, dying for all,
but that doesn’t mean all will be saved. He is, Scripture says,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but that
doesn’t mean that everyone in the whole world will enjoy the
benefits of His forgiveness. He gave His flesh over to death on
the Cross for the life of the world, but that doesn’t mean that
everyone has eternal life. Faith is necessary, and this faith is
a gift from God. Jesus says,
No one can
come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will
raise Him up at the last day. The Catechism puts
it this way, I believe that I
cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my
Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the
Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in
the true Faith. The Triune God works as one to bring
unbelieving sinners to faith in Jesus, so they can have life in
Him and He can raise them up at the last day.
Here’s a picture of faith: it’s the open hand that takes hold of
the gift of life God gives in His Son. Faith could also be
described like this: as the open mouth eager to receive Jesus, the
Bread of Life. Our Lord puts it this way:
I tell you the
truth,
he who
believes has everlasting life. The one who
believes has complete forgiveness of all of his sins. Faith takes
hold of Jesus as the only Savior, the only Mediator between God
and man. Faith looks to Jesus as the Bread of Life, and takes our
Lord at His word, that if anyone eats this bread come down from
heaven he will not die but will live forever.
In a world of death, Jesus is life. He gives life to those who
would otherwise perish in their sins. That’s what His sacrifice
on the Cross is all about, that out of His atoning death God’s
life and forgiveness are extended to sinners. Where sin is
forgiven life can be imparted. And that’s exactly what happened.
Christ died for sin, and therefore God now gives life to sinners
through the washing of Baptism, the preaching of Christ crucified,
and in the Sacrament of the Altar where penitent offenders eat and
drink Jesus’ Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sin. Earthly
food sustains our earthly lives. But
the Living
Bread that came down from heaven gives everlasting
life to all who believe.
Jesus says:
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. For my flesh is true food, and my blood
is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I
live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, will also live
because of me.
When you trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of all your sins; when
you believe in Him as the One through whom God declared you
righteous and reconciled you to Himself, you are in effect feeding
on Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood. Through faith you’re
receiving the abundant life He came to give. And when you eat
Christ’s Body and drink His Blood as these are actually given to
you in the Sacrament, you’re feeding in faith upon the living
Bread that came down from heaven. Jesus came down from heaven for
you – for your forgiveness; for your salvation. He gives you His
Body and Blood for the same reason – for your life, so that in a
world of death and condemnation you can live eternally as one of
God’s redeemed and forgiven children.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is
the
Resurrection and the Life. He assures us that the
one who believes in Him will live, even though he
dies; and whoever lives and believes in Him will never die. Death
doesn’t have the final word for the Christian. Death is not the
last stop on the line for those who are in Christ. God’s final
word is one of forgiveness. His final word is life everlasting.
His final word is the resurrection of the body. God’s final word
to us is “Jesus”. And Jesus has graciously given His flesh as
the bread
that came down from heaven for the life of the world.
He came down from heaven for you.
In Nomine Patris. . .
