Jonah Albrecht

August 18th, 2024

Pentecost 13

John 6:51-69

To Whom Will You Go? Jesus is Eternal Life!

51[Jesus said:] “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.” 52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53So 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. 54Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. 60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 66After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Over the last few weeks, our Gospel lessons have been from John chapter 6, centering around how Jesus is the bread of life. He gives the bread from heaven that does not fade away, but grants eternal life. Our Old Testament lessons have shown comparisons of God’s provisional food for His people back then as pictures of Jesus being the bread of life. And our Epistle Lessons have told us what comes after receiving that bread of life. The unity we share as Christians and the path we are to walk as children of light. Our sermon text this morning brings this theme to its conclusion. Today we echo the confession of Peter and the rest of the twelve: To whom shall we go? Jesus is Eternal Life!

John 6 contains some of the most difficult sayings of Jesus in the New Testament. Especially verses 53-56 when He talks about the eating and drinking of His flesh and blood and abiding in Him. How does one abide in Christ in this eating and drinking? It certainly seems like Jesus is talking about the Lord’s Supper here, doesn’t it? That would make sense, except for the fact that He hasn’t instituted it yet. There is another explanation: His Word.

In John chapter 1, John describes Jesus as the Word who became flesh. That is the very embodiment of God’s power, presence, will, and glory. Everything the Bible tells us about God, we see in the person of Jesus Christ. It is that same Word that Jesus, here, wants us to abide in. He wants us to remain, to find sustenance in that one thing that gives us life. Not just the breath of life we receive from God, but the spiritual life that comes through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection from the dead. Without Jesus, without His work that He did for you and me, we have nothing; we have no life in us.

That is it, there is nothing else. This is the hope we have been given and the only hope we need. Jesus often encourages us to abide in that hope, to refresh ourselves on His goodness and salvation. Why? Because we are sinful people. We don’t just forget about God just about every day, we continuously look for some other hope. This isn’t new to us, but has been a continuous theme of God’s people throughout history. While God’s people trust in God for a while, sooner or later they search for a hope that is more concrete; something that they can control. They yearn for that fruit that can make them like God; that king that promises them prosperity and wealth, that prophet that tells them exactly what they want to hear and on and on.

Rather, Jesus invites us to abide in Him, let Him be at the center of our lives and let that same Word that tells us of our salvation, be the guiding light to see how our hope in God is set on a solid foundation.

This is a difficult saying for a couple reasons. First of all, can all of our life’s questions really be answered by a book? Normally, no. But the Bible is more than just a book. The Bible is the recorded will of the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Triune God. It is the will of Him who knows all things and knows the trials and tribulations that you and I face or will face in our lives. As people who generally walk by sight, it can be difficult to give that up in order to walk by faith. And yet, even though we can’t physically see, our faith is not blind. It walks confidently in Him who founded it, created it within you, and even now sustains it.

The other reason this is a difficult saying is because it is offensive to those without faith. One pastor said, “Great multitudes will follow as long as there is no price to be paid, no contract to sign, no commands to obey, no orders to follow, no sacrifices to surrender, no gifts to offer, no commitments to keep, no burdens to bear, no suffering to share, no hardship to handle, no effort to exert, no pills to swallow, no limitations to learn, no scriptures to study, no worship services to attend, no prayers to pray, no cooperation to communicate, no battles to fight, no pledges to promise, no covenants to keep, and no standard to uphold.”

The idea of Christianity sounds good to just about everyone’s ears. That is, until they understand what comes along with it. Being a Christian is not a free pass from all of life’s difficulties and struggles. You still have to deal with sickness and death; there is depression and anxiety; there is financial struggles and disagreements amongst family. Then it can be even worse because, as Jesus says, the world will hate you. We have been blessed to live in a country that permits freedom of religion. But that is not the case across the world. Read through the world missions prayer list some time and see the depth of persecution our brothers and sisters in Christ go through because of their faith.

It strikes the same chord in people today that it did with some of Jesus’ followers back then. 65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 66After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 

Jesus’ followers, being Jews, took great offense at what He said because He was telling them that their keeping of the Law would get them nowhere. It was impossible for them to gain heaven and only through Jesus would they enter that glory. He was no longer the Savior they wanted and the went their own way. They wanted to be in control of their own salvation as they had been taught. What they were really doing was walking away from their one hope of salvation.

Through the Holy Spirit, John lets us in on the hidden details, revealing that Jesus knew which of His followers did not believe in Him and even of Judas who would betray Him. It was no surprise to Him when they left. 67So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Of course, Jesus knew before He asked the question the faith that was present in His disciples’ hearts. He asked them this question so that they had the opportunity to confess their faith. Jesus knew full well the persecution His disciples would face and how strong the temptation would be to shy away from any connection with Jesus or the faith.

That temptation was strong enough to eventually cause Peter to stumble and fall at Jesus’ trial. What about you? “Do you want to go away as well?” At the sign of trouble or tribulation, are you tempted to look for some other hope, some other direction to go that seems to be more in your control? Are you looking for something more; a need to be fulfilled because God doesn’t meet your satisfaction? I don’t know about you, but those temptations come frequently. And it is Satan, beckoning me or you to take that easy road; hop over onto the shortcut.

In grade school, my teacher was doing a devotional series on proverbs. He made this cutout of a road to heaven that we walk down. Along the sides of the road were bandits hiding behind bushes, offshoots that were windy, but went nowhere, and a lollipop tempting you to go off the road. It was an effective illustration of how narrow the pathway to heaven is and how great the temptations are to get you to go off of it. There is no shortcut, there is no easy road. The only road to eternal life is through the Son of God. Without Jesus, there is no life. There is only one answer needed to these temptations and it is in the words of Peter:

68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

For Peter and the rest of the disciples, there was one thing that far outweighed everything else: Jesus is true God and is the key to eternal life. In other words, they had been brough to faith by the Holy Spirit to see Jesus for who He really was: God made flesh to redeem the world from sin. There was no doubt it there minds, this was their confession of faith. The teachings of Jesus did not offend them, rather it caused them to grow in understanding of God’s will. They learned from Him and were prepared to lead the early Church to spread the Gospel to the corners of the earth. Sure, they could have left to back to being fishermen, or tax collectors, or zealots, or whatever else the disciples had done. But they didn’t because they recognize Jesus as being their one hope for everlasting life.

Their confession is yours as well. It is the confession of everyone who has been brought to faith by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.  To whom will you go? Will you find hope in the things of this world, or in yourself? Or is your one hope in the Son of God. Jesus Christ who took on human flesh in your place in order to deliver you from your sin? Is your hope in the one who took on the full throng of hell, endured God’s unrelenting anger and punishment so you could have a future life with Him in eternal bliss? Is your hope in the one whom death could not hold, but He shattered death’s power so that your greatest enemy has lost its power over you?

If this is your hope, then you have something more valuable than anything else in this world. You have an answer to all of life’s problems. You have the Creator of all things with you at all times to help you with all of your troubles. Don’t just take my word for it, read for yourself. Feed your soul on the bread of life. Hear from God’s own mouth the plan He had to redeem you and the plan He has for you now to be your Father, Comforter, Friend. Go to Jesus, He is eternal life for you. Amen.