The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY (Retired)
The long reign of King David came, eventually, to an end. He died, as all of
us will, and his body was laid to rest in his capital city, Jerusalem. His son,
Solomon, assumed the throne, probably one of the very few peaceful changes of
leadership found in the Bible, where most changes in government were the outcome
of war, murder or uprisings of one kind or another.
Solomon had learned many things from his father, David, and the most
important of those things was to walk in the ways of the Lord, as Scripture puts
it. David, having committed his share of sins, had found out the hard way what
happens to those who do not follow God's ways, and he apparently took care to
pass this knowledge on to Solomon. And so it happened that shortly after Solomon
became king, God spoke to him, and asked what gift he would like to help him
rule the country.
Solomon's response was very unusual. Instead of asking for wealth, power,
enlarged territories or other things that would go to "increase his hat size,"
as we might say, he very sensibly asked for wisdom to properly rule his people.
The Lord was so pleased with Solomon's response that he granted the request for
wisdom, and added also the gifts of power, wealth, long life and an enlarged
kingdom! All of these gifts combined with Solomon's natural skills and his long
studying of King David's life and ways, make Solomon probably the first
super-king, the first king to rule justly and mercifully and at the same time
have immense wealth, power and fame.
Let us now go on to the Gospel, the story of Jesus of Nazareth, one of
Solomon's descendents.
You will recall that Jesus had fed five thousand men, and also their women
and children, with a small boy's lunch of a few rolls of bread and a few dried
fish. All these thousands of people had eaten their fill and the gathered
remains of this immense picnic filled twelve large baskets.
During the next couple of days, Jesus was confronted several times by people
who had eaten of the food, and by the Pharisees. He explained several times the
meaning of this miracle, and made it clear that he wasn't doing wonderful things
like this just to satisfy the curiosity or the desire for excitement of the
crowds, but for a specific purpose: to teach them that he himself was the
Messiah, and possessed divine power; to help them understand God's great
generosity in providing for the needs of the people; and to help them understand
better the great event in Jewish history, the Exodus, upon which much of their
religious beliefs depended.
And finally, Jesus explained the symbolic significance of this generous
provision of bread. I need to tell you that this is John's equivalent of the
story of the Last Supper, which the other Gospel writers use to explain the same
things. It is on all these explanations together that our use of the Sacrament
of the Holy Eucharist rests, along with our regular reception of the Holy
Communion.
What Jesus told the people was very clear and simple: I am the bread
from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I
give for the life of the world is my flesh.
This was enormously shocking to the people who heard them. If you've read
your way through the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, you know
that it condemns the idea of cannibalism. Torah also says that it is wrong to
eat meat with the blood in it, that is, raw or rare meat, because blood is life.
(That's why, to this day, Jews always cook their meat well-done after giving the
meat plenty of time to drain the blood out...that's what makes it kosher.) But
here Jesus was, telling the people that the bread he was giving them was his
flesh, and the wine that he would give them, he told them another time, was his
blood. These were shocking statements for the people to hear, and many of them
simply walked away from Jesus, refusing...or not being able to...listen to and
accept what he said.
We need to do a little detective work to make clear to ourselves exactly what
Jesus' meaning was when he made this statement.
First of all, most of the people of Israel were poor. They were farmers, or
tradesmen who worked with their hands. Most of them did not earn enough to eat
meat regularly; meat was for special dinners, for feast days. The everyday diet
would be bread made from a cheap grain such as barley, because wheat was too
expensive, and probably some cheese and fruit. There might be some vegetables
too, in season. And so, bread was the common word for food, any kind of food.
Bread is what there was to eat, most of the time, for most people.
When we eat bread, or anything else, it becomes part of our bodies. We really
have an intimate relationship with bread. (Nowadays a good many people use the
word bread to mean money...and they seem to have a pretty tight relationship
with money and what it will buy, too!)
And so Jesus was definitely not recommending a change to a cannibalistic
diet. What he was talking about was simply that the bread he had given them, up
on that mountain meadow, nourished their bodies. But he had also given them his
teaching, as they sat there all day listening to him. That bread, or teaching,
which was his very self, nourished their souls. And the point of Jesus'
teaching, as we all know, is that if we pay attention to his teaching and try to
learn from it and let it change our lives, brings about an intimacy with Jesus
in our own lives. We take in what and who he is, and as we understand it and
digest it, we invite Jesus to live in our hearts and grow into us, so that we
are actually, as the Prayer Book says, inviting him to dwell in us so that
we can also dwell in him.
But, of course, a lot of the people who heard him did not take time to think
through what he said. They didn't think at all, they reacted...which is another
bad habit most people have. And so they walked away. They never got or
understood Jesus' message at all. And that is true of many people today, also.
The disciple John usually uses the word bread to be a symbol of
life, especially of letting Jesus come into our life and shape and mold it
in accordance with his teachings. John uses wine or blood as a symbol for
sacrifice, reminding us that this new life with Jesus is paid for by his
sacrifice of his life on the Cross. Later in John's Gospel, he uses several
chapters to explain this in detail, how the bread and wine of the Holy Communion
feed our bodies and our souls and help us permit Jesus to come into our lives
and hearts, live there and form us into Christians or Christ-followers. (John
doesn't use the word "Christian"...it hadn't been invented yet.) And he spends a
lot of time in those chapters explaining that just as God and Jesus are united
in an indivisible way, so we will be united with Jesus in the same indivisible
way if we accept him into our lives. Jesus ends this long speech in the Upper
Room, in these last chapters of John, by promising that if we accept him in his
body and blood, he himself and God the Father will come and live in our hearts,
and we will share in the eternal life they offer us, forever.
All of this helps us understand the importance of the Holy Eucharist, and of
our regular reception of the Holy Communion. Later on, when we come to the time
for us to receive Communion today, you might want to make a small silent prayer
as you walk up to the altar rail: Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, make it
your home, and make me more and more yours. This will be one of the
wisest things you have ever done, and it will help you remember that God and his
son, Jesus, love you so much that they want to be part of you and of your life.
Amen.
