Understanding Nothing from 25.11.17
Personal matters
Whilst Western churches decline their output of sermons, seminars and books on “how to” Christianity flows on. Our claims to understand the ways of God are limitless. However some of the things Jesus said seem incomprehensible; ““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.”…..many of his disciples said, “This is a hard saying…”…and turned back and no longer walked with him.” (John 6:53; 60, 66). To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is one with “the offense of the cross” in its sheer incomprehensibility (Gal 5:11). Satan has always used the human need to understand against us.
Snake in the Grass
Made in the image and likeness of God with dominion over all creatures and freedom to eat of every plant, excluding only “the tree of knowledge”, Adam and Eve were in a privileged position to know what was real and what was false (Gen 1:26-28; 2:16-17). When the serpent entered the Garden and proposed to the woman a way to become “like God” he should have been immediately rejected. How could a beast that needed to eat plants to survive and whose “flesh and bones” looked so different to the LORD who walked in the Garden possibly tell humans how to become “like God” (Gen 1:30; 3:1, 8 cf. Luke 24:29)! How could a tree whose form was nothing like the LORD’s be the secret to eternal life! All this was overcome when Satan spoke with the confidence of a scientist explaining how things work; “if you do x (eat) you will become y (like God)”. According to the serpent it was a simple matter of cause and effect; in which case there was no need for faith. With this new understanding and higher wisdom Eve ate of the tree (Gen 3:6). The response of a true child of God would have been something like, “I don’t know what to do, I don’t understand what’s happening. LORD please help me!” Such a cry would have been based not on logical understanding but faith in the character of God. From the primal sin in Eden however we have always wanted understand the way to spiritual and material success.
Eating and Drinking at Two Tables
Having been led astray by a beast it is fitting that idolaters seek glory by animalising themselves. “they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Rom 1:23; 3:23). Paul is alluding to Psalm 106:20, “They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.”, anything that needs to eat to live is mortal. This refers to the Golden Calf incident at Mt. Sinai. Although Israel had seen the mighty wonders of God in Egypt they built a calf idol representing the LORD, “And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to (sex) play.” (Ex 32:4-6). This pattern of exchanging the worship of the invisible Yahweh for visible images whilst continuing to seek the blessing of the LORD recurred throughout Israel’s history (Jer 2:11-13; 7:4). Paul dramatically teaches how the attempt to eat and drink at two (spiritual) tables also continued on in the Church; “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (1 Cor 10: 21-22). As in the days of the Golden Calf the Lord punished such a pleasure seeking mindset; “anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”(1 Cor 11:29-30 cf. Rev 2:14-16, 20-23). Only the utterly remarkable life of Jesus can break the stronghold of eating and drinking from two tables that has dominated the religious life of God’s people since Eden.
Incomprehensible
Judaism in the time of Jesus was dominated by religious specialists who understood exactly how to get in the right with God; keep the Law. When then the Jews asked Jesus, ““What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” they anticipated a form of answer they could understand and practically apply in the form, if you do x (keep the commandments) then y (eternal life) will follow (cf. Mark 10:17). Jesus however pointed his hearers away from the Law to faith in himself; “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” (John 6:28-29). He then explains such faith means to “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood” (John 6:53-54). Since our “flesh is useless” we must consume the flesh and blood of Christ (John 6:63). This shocking language is symbolic but of what? The answer is in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Where Eve, and all of us since, refused to cry out to God in utter ignorance and confusion about how spiritual things “work”, the flesh of Christ unashamedly “cried out with a loud voice, “My God…why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34; Heb 5:7; 12:2). Against the universal law that no-one wants to die in circumstances of shame and neglect Christ by faith willed the flesh of this life to die so that he might be raised from the dead. Raised in glory his flesh and bone remains, but of an order beyond our understanding (1 Cor 2:9-10). To only trust that this transformation has happened to Jesus’ mortality for us is to receive the gift of eternal life (Luke 24:39). This is how we eat and drink the life of Christ. But logical and scientific people like us find faith alone extremely difficult.
Church Experts
The crowds who heard Jesus’ command to consume his life were totally confused because they believed they already knew how this God-thing “worked”. If you did right by God in keeping his law he would do right by you. The same sort of contractual cause-effect way of thinking dominates western Christianity. Church culture is saturated with sure-fire explanations designed to impart an understanding of how to get the most out of your connection with God. Why then is there such a mixture of good and bad fruit in the lives of Christians? Each week millions of believers at communion are hearing Jesus’ invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood, but Monday through Saturday they are eating, drinking and playing along with the world. There is little evidence of resurrection life because few are living by faith alone. Only something extraordinary can release the Church from its obsession with understanding.
Conclusion
Our culture’s propaganda tells us to live only by the bread of this world (Matt 4:4 Deut 8:3). Speaking figuratively and prophetically, Christians need to give up wanting in like measure “the best coffee in town” and the joy of the Lord. You cannot feed like this off two tables and know the fullness of God in Christ; we need to live solely from one source. Paul puts it well; “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 14:17). It seems that just like Israel of old needed the Babylonian exile to smash their unbelieving attitude, ““Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.””, so only a major crisis can turn the heart of the Western Church from its obsession with the things of this world and lead to an impartation of resurrection life (Isa 22:13; 1 Cor 15:32). This is the sort of life you cannot understand but must receive by faith alone. As Jesus by faith willed the flesh of this life to die so that he might be raised from the dead we can humbly ask his help to eat and drink what he has done for us. He will not fail us.