Plymothian

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³ They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house for ever; the son remains for ever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ³⁸ I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your

The Truth Shall set You Free

Truth is the correspondence of an idea with reality.  The question in this passage is whether people see the world the way it really is.  If we have the insight given by Jesus in his teaching, we see the way we truly are and that sets us free.  Jesus’ teaching shows the nature of mankind’s heart.  We are naturally evil.  That does not mean that each person is as bad as they can possibly be, but it means that each person is twisted and corrupted so that we are a living horror compared with what we should be.  Jesus also communicates a holy God.  That means that the ultimate foundation of existence is a transcendent person who has created and sustained everything.  He knows the purpose of all things and he holds all things together.  Jesus, then communicates that becoming a follower of him reconciles the Holy God with his wayward creation.  Jesus reharmonizes the creation with God’s purposes.  This requires an act of conversion.  We live in a lie.  There are many ways to ruin ourselves.  We can embrace naturalism, postmodernism, communism, capitalism or other value systems which will replace God and not lead us home to him.

All systems of belief should be compared with the nature of reality.  Naturalism explains physical phenomena but then falls apart with the truth of poetry and philosophy.  Postmodernism allows everyone to tell their whole story but misses the harmonizing unity that draws all stories together.  The truth of Jesus explains all of reality.  his truth sets us free.

Prayer

Help me to live in light of the unifying truth that Jesus reveals.

Questions

1.  How does the truth set us free?
2. Who rejected being set free?
3. Who are slaves according to Jesus?
4. Are you enslaved? By what?
5. How can the truth set you free?

²¹ So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” ²² So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” ²³ He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” ²⁵ So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” ²⁷ They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. ²⁹ And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” ³⁰ As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Warning

Jesus is warning both his ‘friends’ and his enemies.  He is letting them know that he is the judge and that they are misinterpreting him.  He lets them know that they will die in their sins.  N. T. Wright allows that this has spiritual value and talks of an eternal death, but he also refers to the immediate context.  Jesus is telling the people that they will physically die at the hands of Rome without having turned as a nation from their sin.  This reintegrates the reality of physical and spiritual existence.   We can see that sin is prevalent in the world.  Ukraine, Hong Kong, Syria, Iraq and Liberia are international reminders that all is not right globally.  However, in America and Britain we have unrest, unwanted children, rape, murder and divorce.  The environment is treated poorly and greed directs our economic choices.  We die in our sin if we die without Christ in this fallen world.

Jesus redeems the individual, but he redeems them as change agents who effect the community that they are in.  Firstly there must be constant change in the life of each individual.  We must see the sin that entangles us and we must throw it off in order to become the creations that Christ has paid for us to be.  As we are transformed we need to share the transformation with those in our families and sphere of influence.  Also, we must change how we drive, how we date, how we educate, and how we work in order to harmonize it with God’s design.  Then, when we die, we do not die in our sin.  Jesus redeems it all – in this life and the next.

Crossroads Warning Sign

Prayer

We can be discouraged as agents of change when the world does not see you as we see you.  Children are taught to be silent about you in our public education systems because you are absent from the curriculum.  Adults are silent about you because they don’t see your role in their work.  Help us to be change agents in every area of life so that people would not have to die in so much sin.

Questions

1. How does Jesus warn his listeners?
2. Do you think that N. T. Wright is correct in saying that Jesus’ warning is both relating to spiritual eternity and temporal circumstances? Why?  Why not?
3. When does Jesus say they will understand?
4. Are people in the world today dying in their sin?  Describe what you mean?
5. How are you an agent of redemption for people and their world?

 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ¹³ So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” ¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. ¹⁶ Yet even if I do judge, my judgement is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father^[a] who sent me. ¹⁷ In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. ¹⁸ I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” ¹⁹ They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰ These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

Who’s on Trial?

Much of the book of John reads like a legal case, but it is a little confusing who is on trial.  For example, in this passage it looks like Jesus is on trial and in his defence he lacks authority because he doesn’t have two witnesses.  However, as the light of the world, he brings judgement on the darkness.  In particular he is bringing judgement on the nation of Israel (who are called to be God’s light) and on its leaders.  The leaders’ defence is to state that Jesus has no right to accuse them because he doesn’t have the legal number of witnesses to make his case.  He replies that his witness and the witness of his father, God, fulfill the legal requirements in the Bible to condemn an individual.

God is making his case today, too.  He has provided the Bible as a standard to show us how we don’t measure up to his original design for the world.  We can think that’s no big deal or we can see that God has plans for us.  To accept God’s mercy and grace we have to stop our legal defence.  We have to admit that there is nothing we can do except to be saved by God.  We contribute nothing to our own salvation.

Are you able to surrender and admit that the case Jesus makes against us and our world is true.  Can you accept the verdict that we are naturally lost in darkness?  Will you come from darkness to light?

Prayer

Let us surrender and accept the verdict about our heart of darkness.  Let us crucify the old man and take on the new life of light and peace that you have bought for us.

Questions

1. What does Jesus claim to be?
2. How does this claim lead to a judicial process?
3. What is the motive for the Jewish leaders to defend themselves?
4. How is this world darkened?
5. If God still sits as judge over this world and its people, what is his pronouncement?

They went each to his own house, ¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. ³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst ⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” ⁶ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

The Story That Isn’t There

Someone found a story about Jesus and his great forgiveness.  What was to be done with it?  Was it part of one of the gospels?  Which one?  In the west the story of the woman caught in adultery was circulating quite early, but in the eastern traditions it didn’t show up for quite a while.  Jerome included the account in the book of John, where we find it here.  However, it doesn’t belong here.  the Feast of Tabernacles teaching of Jesus is broken in two by its insertion.

Should we just remove it again?  John probably didn’t write it.  However, it is a true story about Jesus with a high level of credibility.  One of the reasons that it might have become dislocated from another gospel is because of its content.  A woman is forgiven for sexual sin.  In other cultures women are sometimes seen as the reason for men’s wayward sexual behaviour.  If sexual sin in a woman can be forgiven as easily as Jesus forgives this sin, won’t we just have women seducing men at the drop of a hat?  Sexual sin was seen in the early church as unforgivable by some.  This story obviously contradicts that, so there was reason for some of the church fathers to suppress it.

However, this does reflect the grace and forgiveness that comes with Jesus.  The sin is real but the forgiveness is also real.  Jesus expects repentance as the response to such grace.  Sexual sin is a serious sin.  It involves satisfying self at the cost of another.  It is often borne out of wanting something so badly that another person is not treated with the respect that they deserve.  It destabilizes relationships and breaks up families.  It sometimes forms unhealthy bonds and addictions that are enslaving.  However, the greatest part of the sin is that it takes God’s purposes for sex and it twists them.  Sexual sin is rebellion against a holy God.  It is worthy of death.

The irony of the response is not that the woman is innocent and needs to be acquitted, but that her accusers are guilty and they need to examine themselves.  They have received mercy from God, but they can not extend mercy to a woman.  It seems that they have extended mercy to the man – he is not present.  These men probably have lusted in their hearts.  They are guilty of carrying the same corruption within their bodies.  The only one who can condemn out of a position of purity is Jesus and he chooses not to.

We need to see what our motives are when we want to see others publicly disgraced or we want justice for our neighbours.  Jesus sees the world as it is.  He understands the horror of all of our sin.  He doesn’t want to see our bodies broken and our blood soaking into the sand.  He surrendered his body to that punishment so that we could walk away forgiven and free.

Prayer

Jesus, I believe that you really did these things.  You are merciful and forgiving in ways that we are not.  Help us not to run with the crowd in condemning others and writing ourselves off too.  Help us to take on your attitude of mercy and forgiveness.  Help us to forgive ourselves of our darkest crimes and to accept ourselves as you have accepted us.  Then help us to walk in the Spirit and sin no more.

This picture challenges our cultural assumptions just as Jesus challenged the assumptions of his day.

Questions

1. Do you believe this is a genuine story of Jesus?  Why?  Why not?
2. What does this teach us about people?
3. What does this story tell us about Jesus?
4. Have you been caught up in a rush to judgment which condemned a public figure or personal acquaintance?
5. Have you extended mercy and grace to yourself and others?  How can you do this more?

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. ³³ Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. ³⁴ You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” ³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me’, and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

³⁷ On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

⁴⁰ When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? ⁴² Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³ So there was a division among the people over him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵ The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” ⁴⁶ The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” ⁴⁷ The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? ⁴⁸ Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” ⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ⁵¹ “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” ⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Preconceived Ideas

I have been raised in the Plymouth Brethren church in England.  In some ways I am Brethren.  I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.  I believe that it points us to Jesus and Jesus reconciles us to God.  I also believe that the breaking of bread is a good thing to have every Sunday at our worship service.  I see Jesus breaking bread with his disciples in scripture and he commanded us to do this in remembrance of him.  So I was shocked to find other churches do this once a month, and some even do this only once a year.  Also, we are to worship God in spirit and in truth.  I was shocked to find some people worshiping God by dancing.  Other people make banners and pictures and put them on their walls as an aid to worship.  Shocking!  Finally, I was raised with a solid belief in the priesthood of all believers.  Everyone in the church should come with a him, song, or testimony so that the whole body should be built up.  I see other churches have a single minister, or senior pastor, and the members of the congregation pay him to put on a show on Sunday.  If he doesn’t perform well enough, they fill the pew in another church that has three rings and performing ponies!

The point is that I have read the Bible and interpreted it through my tradition.  The Pharisees did the same and they were so rigid in their preconceived ideas that they missed the Messiah himself.  They didn’t ask questions on the whole, like Nicodemus did, they pronounced judgment.  However, their judgments were fatally flawed.

As we read a gospel do we read our Western Jesus into the Middle Eastern text?  Do we soften words that should split us open?  Do we see Jesus as reaching into the center of us and making transformations?  Let’s hold up to scrutiny our preconceived notions and let’s listen to what Jesus says about himself.  Let’s seek to have relationship with the authentic Jesus and see where he leads.

Prayer

Jesus, before our denominational bias we are first of all your disciples.  Let us not be Dispensational, Covenant, Calvinist, or Arminian before we are simply yours.  Let us surrender to what you will say about yourself rather than what we would say about you.

Is this the Jesus of the text or some other Jesus?

Questions

1. Who had preconceived notions about Jesus?
2. How did their views disqualify Jesus as the Messiah?
3. How did common people respond to Jesus?
4. How have you changed in your beliefs about Jesus?
5. Why must our views of Jesus be held up to biblical scrutiny?

²⁵ Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? ²⁶ And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? ²⁷ But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” ²⁸ So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. ²⁹ I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” ³⁰ So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹ Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Where is Jesus from?

Those who do not believe in the virgin birth have Jesus coming from a man and a woman in northern Israel at some time around 4 B.C.  This is when Jesus starts to exist.  Often these people claim to be in pursuit of the historical Jesus.  The claim is that the gospel writers all made up their own Jesus to communicate a message that was precious to them.  Although the gospel writings are commendable as period pieces of fiction, they are near useless as historical records of Jesus.

The earliest manuscript, often called Q, is lost to us, but it forms the core of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  This is why they contain much of the same material.  The supposed earliest gospel, Mark, does not contain a birth narrative.  However, Matthew and Luke attempt to add origin stories and so they compose conflicting genealogies and differing stories about Magi and shepherds.  The gospel of John goes cosmic and has Jesus as the eternal Logos.  This is obviously a Greek influence which equates Jesus with a philosophical concept that was put forth by Greek philosophers and Christianized by whomever wrote the fourth gospel.

To understand the historical Jesus, so the critique runs, we have to understand people had sex, made a baby and one of them was executed by Romans.  His name was unremarkable, Yeshua ben Yosef (Joshua Josephson), and the myth that grew around him has power only in the same way as tales of Frodo Baggins, Thor, or Zeus.

Here we see that people in Jesus’ day also assumed that he must have had ordinary origins.  We are not much more clever than the ancients in our opposition to the exceptional nature of Jesus.  We need to see that Jesus came through the womb of a woman, but that somehow he was eternally begotten.  It takes faith to say that Jesus was more than a man.  However, the faith proves itself true by the Messiah’s own presence in our lives 2000 years later.

Prayer

Jesus, we follow you by faith even though you died for all to see 2000 years ago.  We accept by faith that you existed before your birth in Bethlehem.  We accept that you were ordinary by design.  We wish to walk with you by faith in the days ahead.

Questions

1. From where did people say Jesus came?
2. Why did this lead to skepticism?
3. How did Jesus answer the skeptics?
4. What do people today believe about Jesus’ origins?
5. From whence do you believe that Jesus came?

¹⁴ About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. ¹⁵ The Jews therefore marvelled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. ¹⁷ If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. ¹⁸ The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” ²⁰ The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” ²¹ Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. ²² Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. ²³ If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? ²⁴ Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.”

Knowledge

According to The Seven Laws of Teaching by Milton Gregory, the first law of teaching is that the teacher knows the content.  If the content is Theology, who knows the content better than Jesus.  Jesus has skipped out on formal training somehow, but he still knows the content.  He knows more than the experts and he knows more than the lay people around him.  He knows the source.

God the Father is the object of our learning.  Al knowledge is revealed by him and all knowledge points to him.  He speaks through the skies, and the mountains tremble at his name.  He speaks through scripture, and the scriptures speak of his Son.  The Son, Jesus, has uncommon insight and we should listen to him.

For us knowledge is received by faith from the pages of scripture.  We also grow in knowledge and depth of insight as we know Jesus.  We will sometimes seem mad to those around us, but the truth of God transcends the incomplete and erroneous truths that people who don’t know Jesus live by.

Prayer

May special and general revelation be illuminated by your Holy Spirit.  may we see clearly what we are to learn from the world around and the scriptures that we have received.  Then, even if they call us mad, let us be witnesses to the truth.

Questions

1. Whose teaching does Jesus teach?
2. How does Jesus know his content (think about how he grew (Luke 2))?
3. How does Jesus know people want to kill him?
4. How do most teachers today train?  Is God central?
5. How does knowing God make a difference to gaining knowledge?

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. ² Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. ³ So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. ⁴ For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even his brothers believed in him. ⁶ Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. ⁸ You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

¹⁰ But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. ¹¹ The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” ¹² And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man”, others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” ¹³ Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

Unbelieving Brothers

It is attested that Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in him.  In other passages it seems that they thought he was insane.  If Jesus was sinless, wouldn’t that have clued them in to who he was?  I am not sure it would have.  Look at the language he uses in today’s passage.  He speaks to them as outsiders who conform to the world.  They think he is being petty about Jerusalem.  When he secretly goes to Jerusalem the crowd is talking about him leading people astray.  Jesus is righteous because he is right, however to those who are protecting their own ego and have their own agenda, Jesus falls short.  Jesus’ brothers probably see him as a prig.  Those in the community may see him as a trouble-maker.

I have grown to like these accounts, not just because Jesus’ family comes to believe after his resurrection, but because they smack of authenticity in the retelling.  I would have written a history where Jesus’ close family always saw how righteous he was.  I would have written a one-dimensional hero.  However, the gospel writers show the disciples as deluded and the people close to Jesus as unbelieving.  This all takes a miraculous reversal at the cross or at Pentecost, but the isolation of Jesus highlights his singularity.  There is no-one like Jesus and we must interpret that appropriately.

Many today see Jesus as impossible to know.  The accounts in the gospels are fictions, in their view, constructed to create a Jesus who can be worshiped as God.  Many dismiss Jesus on the grounds that we can not know who he was.  However, as I read John this time I find a Jesus who walks an isolated path, but he cultivates a sustaining relationship with his Father.  We must be unafraid to look to the Father through Christ and walk that isolated path, too.  What we will find is that we are in the company of the one who has the words of eternal life.  What we will find is purpose and a hope.

Prayer

No-one ‘got’ you Jesus.  Your disciples longed to be with you, but they did not know what Messiah had to be.  Your family mocked you and thought you were insane.  However, you had a resolve that came from your intimacy with the Father and the Spirit.  help us to walk in the same way.  Help us to be disciplined in the way we walk with you, never losing sight of the goal.

Questions

1. With whom does Jesus dialogue in this passage?
2. How would you expect these people to feel about Jesus?
3. Why do you think Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths?
4. How do people today who know a lot about Jesus still fail to know him?
5. How does Jesus’ isolation from his family help believers today?

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offence at this? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But 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.) ⁶⁵ And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” ⁷¹ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

Eleven Plus One

I find myself hoping that I am not a Judas.  perhaps I do worry too much.  Judas, though, looked like the others and lived like the others for most of his time with Jesus.  Then suddenly everything changed.  Some how he was living life in the flesh when others were learning to live life in the Spirit.

Jesus was direct and he was offensive.  He was deliberately provocative, but in so doing he separated the would-be followers from the true ones.  The true followers saw what he was really about.  They took on board his words and knew there was something unique about him.

Prayer

When the tough times come, may I be one who is shown to be of you and not a ‘devil’ like Judas.  You have the words of eternal life and so I sit at your feet.

Questions

1. Why did people take offence?
2. Why did the disciples stay with Jesus?
3. Why do you think the role of Judas is mentioned in this passage?
4. How are people today offended by Jesus’ demands on their lives?
5. Why do you stick with Jesus?

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ 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. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.” ⁵⁹ Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

Vampires and Flesh Eaters

Vampires are seemingly rooted in the Christian tradition.  In the Old Testament we are told the life is in the blood (Lev. 17:11).  Based on this passage and thinking like it, some people have decided to drink life by drinking blood.  However, Jewish people were not to eat meat with the blood still in it.  It was to be drained as part of ritual cleanliness.  Jesus’ statement that his followers should drink his blood would have sounded repulsive to those who heard it.  Eating Jesus’ flesh is also a repulsive idea if taken literally.

There are at least two ways to view this passage.  One is that we are to figuratively drink the blood and eat the flesh in the bread and wine at the Lord’s Table, Communion, or Eucharist.  We are to associate ourselves with Jesus and remember regularly what he has done for us with gratitude.  Alternatively, we must also live a life that looks to Jesus for daily sustenance and live the life he lived filled with the essence of his life.

Either interpretation above demands a really close association.  We are to be one with Jesus as his disciples.  Through regular participation in the ritual of Eucharist or through daily living dependent on Jesus we cultivate a relationship that looks to Jesus first.

Prayer

We all have our issues – hopes and fears – that lead us away from you.  Let our hope be in you and our fears to melt away.

Questions

1. How do people receive Jesus’ talk about eating and drinking him?
2. What does he mean?
3. Where did Jesus teach?
4. Are you in church and taking communion?
5. How do you eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood?