Today we reach the conclusion of our three-week study of John Chapter 6, the chapter often referred to as Jesus’ “bread of life” sermon. During these next minutes we’re going to focus on two verses of today’s Gospel lesson, John 6 verses 53 and 54. They read as follows: “So Jesus said to them, ‘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.” So far the reading of the text.
Over a period of months beginning on September 12, 1884, C.F.W. Walther – the first president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod – gave a series of 39 evening lectures to Lutheran seminary students. In his first lecture he stated: “Now, of all doctrines the foremost and most important is the doctrine of justification. However, immediately following upon it, as second in importance, is this, how Law and Gospel are to be divided. The distinction between Law and Gospel shall now claim our attention and form the subject of our earnest study.”
Walther’s 39 lectures were later reprinted and assembled into a volume entitled “The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel.” Today that book is an essential textbook when Lutheran seminary students learn the craft of homiletics – writing and delivering sermons – for every sermon should include a clear proclamation of both Law and Gospel. Walther also taught that sermons should be somewhat longer than what we’re used to, for in this same book he refers to a poorly prepared pastor whose sermon was “only 45 minutes long.” I’m pleased to tell you that I will not be following Walther’s guidance in that area. But Law and Gospel are absolutely essential in Lutheran preaching. And the two verses of John 6 that I just read represent clear examples of Law and Gospel purely proclaimed by Christ.
Law and Gospel. Two of the first words we learned when we took our Catechism class. And actually, two pretty easy words to understand. I remember that when I was studying the Catechism a long, long time ago, we were taught to remember the difference between the two with the letters SOS. The Law shows our sin – SOS. The Gospel shows our salvation – SOS.
St. John gives us a good summary of Law and Gospel in chapter 1 verse 17 when he wrote: “For the law was given through Moses.” The law was given through Moses – the 10 Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Three “thou shalt’s” and seven “thou shalt not’s.” We know them well. But we also know that we can’t keep them. We can’t live up to them. We can’t do them. St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” All have sinned – not some, but all. Not some of us, but all of us.
When Jesus began talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, most of his listeners would have been absolutely horrified. “This is a hard saying,” they told Jesus. “Who can listen to it?” In fact, many of them probably concluded that Jesus Himself was actually breaking the Law by these statements. In Leviticus chapter 17, God gave the Children of Israel specific commands to never consume blood. Pagan people sometimes consumed animal blood as part of their religious rituals, and God was determined that His chosen people would never commit those abominable acts. Speaking through Moses, God declared: “I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.” But remember that Jesus wasn’t talking about eating animal blood – He was talking about something even worse. He was talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. “Who can listen to it?” the people asked. And as John then tells us, “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”
SOS – the Law shows our sin. It shows our helplessness. It shows our complete and utter inability to please God. It shows us that we deserve to be punished for our sins. It shows us that we deserve death – eternal death. “For the law was given through Moses,” St. John wrote in chapter 1 verse 17. But then he continued with these words: “but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Grace and truth. Or to put it in a single word – Gospel. The Gospel shows our salvation, shows us what Jesus has done to redeem us from the curse of the law.
So where do we find salvation in today’s Gospel lesson? Our word “gospel” comes from the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, which is translated to mean “good news.” How do we find any kind of “good news” here? Not only were people confused when they heard Jesus speak to them 2,000 years ago – but all of these words about eating flesh and blood can be pretty confusing to us today.
Let’s start by going back to the first verse of today’s reading, John 6:51: “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.” “For the life of the world.” The Greek word that we translate as “for” is loaded with meanings and nuances. A more literal translation would read something like this: “The bread which I will give is my flesh on behalf of the life of the world.” In Old Testament times, animals were sacrificed on the altar of the Temple on behalf of the sins of the people. The life of the animal was taken in place of the life of the sinner. The theological term for this is something we call substitutionary atonement, where one life is sacrificed in the place of or on behalf of someone else’s life, someone else’s sin.
So when Jesus tells us that “the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,” he’s actually pointing to his death on the cross. He’s pointing to that day when His body – His flesh – will be beaten almost past the point of recognition and will be nailed to the Roman cross. He’s pointing to the day when the blood will drain from the nail holes in His hands and feet and the even larger wound that the soldier’s spear made in His side. He’s pointing to His sacrifice – the ultimate sacrifice – of His sinless life on behalf of our sinful lives. He’s pointing to His death that will accomplish the conquest of sin, death and the devil – giving believers the εὐαγγέλιον – the Gospel, the good news – of salvation.
When Jesus spoke to the Jews at Capernaum, His words divided the crowd into two groups: believers and unbelievers. Verse 53 of our lesson is directed to unbelievers. Listen again to what Jesus tells them: “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.” No life. No eternal life – only eternal death. These are words of the Law, pure and simple. They are words spoken to unbelievers, to people who had no faith in Jesus. Referring back to John 6:44 from last week’s lesson, they have not been “drawn to Jesus” – they have no faith in Him. They are doomed by the curse of the Law – they are doomed to eternal death and damnation. SOS – the Law shows our sin.
Verse 54, however, is pure, sweet Gospel. “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Whoever believes in me – whoever has been drawn to me – whoever has been given to me – has been forgiven and has been redeemed from the curse of the Law. Jesus continues in verses 55 and 56: “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 believers in Christ, as men, women and children who have been brought to faith, we do, indeed, abide in Jesus – and He abides in us. We stay in Jesus, we remain in Jesus, and Jesus remains and stays in us. SOS – the Gospel shows our salvation. This is pure Gospel that Jesus gives us and all believers in these verses. This is good news – the best news we could ever hear!
Nine years ago next month my brother died of a sudden and massive heart attack at the age of 43. He had been raised Lutheran just as I and my sister had been raised – but by the time he left to go to college, he had essentially walked away from his church and his faith. His wife insisted on a non-religious funeral, and it was only after my father’s strenuous objections that we were able to include the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm – the Psalm that had been my mother’s favorite prior to her death one year before my brother’s. As I sat at that funeral I heard many people describe my brother as a good man who had done many good things – as if to say that those good things would take care of him after his death. But all I could think of were the words of Isaiah 64:6: “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Or as many of us first learned those words in the King James Version, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
I’d like to think – I’d like to believe – that in his final moments my brother confessed his sins and died a believer. I’d like to think that someday I will meet him again in heaven. I’d like to believe that he died not under the Law of John 6:53 – but in the Gospel of John 6:54.
I’m willing to guess that many of you – perhaps even all of you – know someone like my brother. If so, I’d like to invite you to make a call, make a visit, make an attempt to share the Gospel with that person, to share the good news that Jesus died for his or her sins. For as our Lord Himself promises: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” SOS. The Gospel shows our salvation.
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