Christian Cannibalism

What shall we do with Jesus' words in John 6 about bread and blood? Across the centuries that mark the existence of the Christian church this has been a central question.

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 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. 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. - Jhn 6:52-56 ESV

Did Jesus truly speak in this instance about his flesh and blood? And did he suggest a literal eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood? Early Christians were accused of such cannibalism.

Now the story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known. An infant covered over with meal, that it may deceive the unwary, is placed before him who is to be stained with their rites: this infant is slain by the young pupil, who has been urged on as if to harmless blows on the surface of the meal, with dark and secret wounds. Thirstily - O horror! they lick up its blood; eagerly they divide its limbs. By this victim they are pledged together; with this consciousness of wickedness they are covenanted to mutual silence. -Octavius (Minucius Felix), chp.IX. 

The charge of ritual cannibalism was probably based on confused accounts of the Christian eucharist. Hippolytus of Rome tells us what actually went on at a Christian service. Words from his early eucharistic prayer, still used in some churches, date from the beginning of the third century.

". . . Mindful therefore of his death and resurrection, we offer you this bread and cup, giving thanks to you because you have found us worthy to stand before you and serve you. And we beg you to send the Holy Spirit upon the offering of the holy church and gather into one all who have received it . . . that we may praise and glorify you through your son Jesus Christ, through whom is glory and honor to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in your holy church both now and forever. Amen."

John's Gospel does not specifically record Jesus' establishing the Supper. Since John wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. there was no need. The other Gospels have this account (Matt. 26:26-28; Luke 22:17-20). John's task was to deepen believers' understanding of the Eucharist and to invite meditation upon Jesus' discussion of himself as the Bread of life. However, great problems arose over such meditation across the centuries as men sought to solve the Jewish question:

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

As a result of such attempts we have long philosophical essays, thousands of sermons, pronouncements by church councils, arguments and threats leading to wars, murders, the destruction of property and on and on. Here are but a few of the questions that have arisen.

Is the Eucharistic bread and wine truly the body and blood of Christ? And if so, how is this possible? Does a miracle happen when the words of Christ are spoken by the priest or pastor presiding over the gathering of believers so that the very substance of the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ? Granted, the bread and wine still look, taste and feel as before, but have they indeed changed? And if so, does this transformed bread and wine remain as the body and blood of Christ even after the Eucharistic celebration has ended? And does that mean that believers should worship these elements, kneel before them, even pray to them, because they are the presence of the living Christ? Is such a celebration a sacrifice anew of Christ's body and blood, even though blood is not again shed?

I will not offer answers to all these and many other related questions in this short blog. If you want to explore them in great detail (at least from a Lutheran viewpoint) I point you to an excellent book: The Lord's Supper by John R. Stephenson (2003 by The Luther Academy). Here is Dr. Stephenson's conclusion.

"The torrent of our human words, whether wise or foolish, pious or ungodly, must subside before the majesty of the words, deeds, and very being of the Word made flesh for our sakes. Luther once noted the apostles' silence as Jesus founded the Blessed Sacrament—"Here they keep silent and simply believe." Before and after all our proclamation and catechesis, their successors in office do well to hold our tongues with the Twelve. They briefly reclined with their Lord at table, and we spend long hours seated at our desks in study. True theology, which is a pondering (Luke 2:51) and keeping (Luke 8:21) of the Word to be practiced by laity as well as clergy, fitly moves from a seated to a kneeling posture as we realize how "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (Ps. 121:2). With the Magi, we fall in worship befrore our enfleshed God (Matt. 2:11). 

With other afflicted children of our first parents, we kneel to crave His aid (Matt. 8:2). With Peter, James, and John, we adore in Him the embodied beauty of God (Matt. 17:6).  True theology rejects any separation of study from piety, for the two become one in the single, two-sided reality of passive and active worship. As our minds begin by God's gift to grasp Jesus' real identity and our souls contemplate the love that He keeps on lavishing upon us (John 15:9), we shall share to the full Luther's heartfelt love of "this dear, blessed Supper." When awe-filled silence gives way to speech and song, we can do no other than cry out with our forbears in the Church of the Augsburg Confess, "For thy consoling Supper, Lord, / Be praised throughout all ages!" 

Some Hard Words Of Jesus

If you're familiar with Bible stories at all, you've heard about Manna, that strange bread that the Children of Israel found on the ground each morning during their 40 years of wandering in the Sinai peninsula. But what was it? And that's the very point. We don't know what it was. In fact, that's is what the Hebrew word Manna means, what is it?

Of course there are many speculations and attempts to find some kind of natural explanation for what was going on. Here's what the Bible says about it.

And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" (Hebrew man hu) For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. . . When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. ... 

Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 

Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'" And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations." As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 

The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. - Exd 16:14-15, 31-35 ESV

Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium (resin). The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. - Num 11:7-8 ESV

And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. - Jos 5:12 ESV

The Wikipedia article offers scholarly attempts to provide a natural explanation for Manna.

Some scholars have proposed that manna is cognate with the Egyptian term mennu, meaning "food".[13] At the turn of the twentieth century, Arabs of the Sinai Peninsula were selling resin from the tamarisk tree as man es-simma, roughly meaning "heavenly manna".[12] Tamarisk trees (particularly Tamarix gallica) were once comparatively extensive throughout the southern Sinai, and their resin is similar to wax, melts in the sun, is sweet and aromatic (like honey), and has a dirty-yellow color, fitting somewhat with the Biblical descriptions of manna.[14][15] However, this resin is mostly composed from sugar, so it would be unlikely to provide sufficient nutrition for a population to survive over long periods of time,[14] and it would be very difficult for it to have been compacted to become cakes.[15]

So back to Jesus' argument with the people who followed him after he had provided bread for thousands out in the wilderness north of the Sea of Galilee as recorded in John 6. They pointed to the Manna provided to the people of the Exodus. Jesus' response:

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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." - Jhn 6:48-51 ESV

When the people heard him say this they took it literally and began to dispute among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" - Jhn 6:52 ESV. Jesus made no attempt to correct their understanding. He simply said

"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. 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 the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 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 forever." - Jhn 6:53-58 ESV

So there it is—right in the face of the people who followed Jesus to Capernaum after the sign he had provided by feeding thousands. Did he literally feed thousands with five loaves of bread and two small fish from a little boy's lunch? There was no natural explanation for it, even though many unbelievers have suggested such silly things as that he gave them an example and so encouraged people to share their lunches with one another. Those who came after him to Capernaum knew otherwise. They did not dispute the wonder. They had witnessed it and wanted Jesus to do it again and again. The feeding had literally happened.

And now Jesus is literally saying, "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 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."

Is there any indication in John's account of Jesus' words that we should take this in any other manner than literal? The Israelites literally ate Manna, even though they did not know what it was. That bread literally sustained them for all forty years of their journey and it stopped as soon as they crossed the Jordan river. No one, neither the Jews of Capernaum nor Jesus disputed it.

Likewise, nobody argued with Jesus about what he had done. He literally fed thousands and thousands of people with a little boy's lunch. This is why they wanted to make him their king. No more working for food. With Jesus as the head of this new government, all they had to do was line up and accept the daily handout. The miraculous Manna would once again be available. What a deal!

So now when Jesus says that he is the Bread that provides eternal life, where do we find the right to say he's talking symbolically or in picture language? It certainly sounds like he means us to take him literally, like he really does want us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. At least that's how the text reads.

It also appears that this is John's account of Jesus pointing to what was later called the Lord's Supper in which, as Jesus and his disciples were eating the Passover, he took unleavened bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said,

"Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." - Mat 26:26-29 ESV

So we're facing the same dilemma as many of his disciples at Capernaum. When they heard his words, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" - Jhn 6:60 ESV

A hard saying indeed. Who can listen to words that seem literally to say eat my flesh and drink my blood? It just doesn't make sense. There has to be another explanation, a more natural one. Many, many disciples of Jesus right up to the present day try very, very hard to soften his words.

We'll have to pursue these hard words next time.

Mysteries, Sacraments And The Great Tradition

In earlier blogs I wrote about traditions, about handing down the teachings, about how the correct word passes on the correct concept and about mysteries and sacraments. Now is a good time to tie all this together.


Jesus is the truth revealed to us, the truth about how God forgives sinners. The mystery is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins. God the Father raised Jesus up on the third day as the great sign that he has accepted Christ's sacrifice as the full and complete payment for those sins. That's the Gospel, the good news, the Word of God and, yes, The Great Tradition!


However, no one can by his own power accept or chose to believe this Word of God and embrace Jesus as his Savior and Lord. We cannot and do not receive him as Savior. By nature we are his enemies and insist on justifying ourselves. So we are involved in a deep and wondrous mystery, the mystery of how or why anyone believes in Jesus. We accept this mystery, as do millions upon millions who have and who continue to believe in Jesus. And that is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. Unless the Holy Spirit works faith in a person's heart, he remains an unbeliever without the forgiveness of sin. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God, the gospel, to create faith. And the Spirit works to keep that faith alive. 2 Corinthians 3:12-14 speaks about being transformed. The whole chapter speaks about the Spirit pulling away the veil to reveal Jesus as the Christ, the promised Messiah. As we gaze upon Jesus and realize what he has done for us, we are changed and transformed from glory to glory. The Holy Spirit does that through the Word of God.


With this in mind, we can tie together the whole discussion about the sacraments or mysteries, as the Eastern Christians still call them. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the Gospel, God's Word of mercy and forgiveness to us, the Great Tradition. Through them the Spirit shows us this mystery of God's love in Christ. And the more we return to our Baptism and to the Supper, the more the Spirit transforms us from within. We become more mature children of God, changed by His Spirit from glory to glory into the image of Christ.


These mysteries, these sacraments, are then part of the Great Tradition that must, notmay, be passed on. God's Word of good news does not come to us only by preaching. It also comes to us by water, wine and bread. Does the Bible speak of other ways by which God's Word, the Gospel comes? I'll take that up next time.

Mysteries, Sacraments And The Great Tradition

In earlier blogs I wrote about traditions, about handing down the teachings, about how the correct word passes on the correct concept and about mysteries and sacraments. Now is a good time to tie all this together.

Jesus is the truth revealed to us, the truth about how God forgives sinners. The mystery is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins. God the Father raised Jesus up on the third day as the great sign that he has accepted Christ's sacrifice as the full and complete payment for those sins. That's the Gospel, the good news, the Word of God and, yes, The Great Tradition!

However, no one can by his own power accept or chose to believe this Word of God and embrace Jesus as his Savior and Lord. We cannot and do not receive him as Savior. By nature we are his enemies and insist on justifying ourselves. So we are involved in a deep and wondrous mystery, the mystery of how or why anyone believes in Jesus. We accept this mystery, as do millions upon millions who have and who continue to believe in Jesus. And that is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. Unless the Holy Spirit works faith in a person's heart, he remains an unbeliever without the forgiveness of sin. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God, the gospel, to create faith. And the Spirit works to keep that faith alive. 2 Corinthians 3:12-14 speaks about being transformed. The whole chapter speaks about the Spirit pulling away the veil to reveal Jesus as the Christ, the promised Messiah. As we gaze upon Jesus and realize what he has done for us, we are changed and transformed from glory to glory. The Holy Spirit does that through the Word of God.

With this in mind, we can tie together the whole discussion about the sacraments or mysteries, as the Eastern Christians still call them. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the Gospel, God's Word of mercy and forgiveness to us, the Great Tradition. Through them the Spirit shows us this mystery of God's love in Christ. And the more we return to our Baptism and to the Supper, the more the Spirit transforms us from within. We become more mature children of God, changed by His Spirit from glory to glory into the image of Christ.

These mysteries, these sacraments, are then part of the Great Tradition that must, not may, be passed on. God's Word of good news does not come to us only by preaching. It also comes to us by water, wine and bread. Does the Bible speak of other ways by which God's Word, the Gospel comes? I'll take that up next time.

 

Your Labor Is Not In Vain

John's Gospel is packed with Jesus' teachings during the hours He gathered with His disciples to celebrate the Passover, Thursday evening of Holy Week. All through these teachings He constantly reminded His disciples that He was to die and that they would all desert Him. One of them would even betray Him. In that dark hour He was to fight His final battle with the ruler of this world. Yet even in His death He would not betray them whom He called His friends. So they must abide in Him as branches abide in the vine. His words must be held continually in their hearts. Then they would bear fruit as branches of the grapevine do (John 15:1-8).

Much of this they did not understand. Later, when the Spirit of truth came, He would guide them into the truth. Then they would see and understand: "A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me" (John 16:16).

After Jesus' wonderful prayer to His Father (John 17:1-26), He went with them across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray (John 18:1-2).

In all of this He says nothing about the Lord's Supper, mentioned so prominently in the other three Gospels. Or does He? Not in these chapters, but many feel that John records Jesus' teachings about the Supper in John 6 as He calls Himself the Bread of Life (John 6:48-51). In those verses He calls us all to look back to the story of ancient Israel's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness of Sinai.  All through those years they survived by eating the strange food called manna. The word is a question in Hebrew meaning, "What is it?" They never knew. All they knew was that it was there every morning and that it kept them alive until they entered the land of Canaan (Exodus 16:31-35; Numbers 11:6-9; Joshua 5:12).

The manna was very humbling. It taught them that they were totally dependent upon God's mercy, forgiveness and blessing. His creative Word produced it for them. It was not of their doing. They could not reproduce it nor save it. When they did it became rotten, stank and bred worms (Exodus 16:20). No it was their daily bread, nothing more, nothing less.

So Jesus describes Himself as our Bread of Life. His flesh is food indeed and His blood drink indeed (John 6:55). His flesh is for the life of the world. He who eats of it will not die as did the Israelites in the wilderness. Instead he will live forever! (John 6:51). Hard to believe, but that is the promise.

On this Thursday Christians around the world recall Jesus' institution of His Supper. We do not try to provide logical explanations for the meal. We do not analyze it. That's not its purpose. It is and will ever be a mystery. We eat of this bread and indeed it is bread. We drink of the wine, fruit of the vine. But over these earthly things He speaks His Words, "This is my Body . . . This is my Blood." And we each individually are nourished again for our personal journeys. We are assured that our sins are forgiven, forgotten and removed. So we go forth from the Supper renewed, strengthened for the next leg of our journey. And all the while we are confident that though our bodies will perish another mystery awaits us. This perishable, mortal body will be changed and we will put on immortality. Death will be swallowed up in the victory that is ours in our risen Lord (1 Corinthians 15:51-58):

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

Eternal Life Here And Now

Over the years I've used many different approaches to the study of the Bible for both personal and professional spiritual growth. For instance, when I served full time as a parish pastor I spent most of the week studying the texts for the upcoming Sunday's liturgy--the appointed OT lesson, Epistle and Gospel lessons. More often than not, liturgical churches of many denominations used the same lessons. I usually preached my sermon on one of those same lessons. My study then served to strengthen my faith and, in turn, allowed me to share what I was hearing from God's Holy Spirit with my parishioners.

More recently I've been working my way through one of the Gospels--in the original language. While I have studied both Greek and Hebrew I've never felt I was a master of those languages. And in these days I do not need to be, because some wonderful helps are available either on CD, DVD or online. One of my favorite online resources is the Blue Letter Bible. One doesn't need to be a master linguist to use that website, I find. Of course, it is most helpful to be able to read the languages, but beyond that the work of discovering things like the tense, verb form, etc. is all done for you. A less extensive, but nevertheless helpful website is Bible Gateway with all those translations by which you can compare how others viewed the passage before you.An approach I've been using this summer is to read a book by a systematic theologian in a devotional manner. That is to say, I've been studying a couple theologians' works very carefully, meditating and pondering the Scriptures quoted as I do and opening myself to the guidance of God's Spirit for my personal life. The book I'm currently using is from the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series, XII: The Lord's Supper by Dr. John R. Stephenson. As I read Dr. Stephenson's words today I was very comforted when he pointed me to the words of our Lord Jesus recorded in John 17:3:

"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.""Eternal life," writes Dr. Stephenson, "is not merely a future state, but rather the one true life whose fullness we already possess, albeit hiddenly. Along with His presence in the other means of grace, Jesus sacramental presence sustains the struggling, pilgrim church as a prolepsis of His future parousia."

Now there you have it, a sentence by a theologian with mysterious words and phrases like means of grace, sacramental presence, prolepsis and parousia. I'll do my best to translate and share why this became so important to my heart this day.

When Jesus comes to us, he comes through means, not directly out of thin air as some suggest. He comes to us through His Word, our Baptism, His Supper, the words of forgiveness spoken by another believer and through the words and thoughts of others based upon His Word. These are the means by which His grace and mercy enter our lives to strengthen and confirm our faith.

The Bible further teaches that the same Jesus who was crucified upon the cross of Calvary is present in the Lord's Supper. In this Supper He is as bodily close to us as He was to Mary and Joseph, His disciples and apostles. In His Supper He meets us to comfort and encourage us with His presence.

The Supper thus becomes a prolepsis. In it we have a foretaste of what is to come - we with Him and He with us forever. Meanwhile we await His parousia, His return in glory. However it has been two thousand years that we have been waiting. Where is He? The answer lies in the promises and reminders from the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:8-9):

"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
It's coming. It truly is. This is as certain as the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Meanwhile, we are not anxious. We already have eternal life in Him. He has claimed us. We are His. He is with us, here and now in bodily form in the Supper as He says, "This is my Body . . . my Blood." So we are patient, because we knows He wants everyone to come to repentance and find in Him the joy that we already have.

The wonder is we have so much to look forward to. So we join the early church in that prayer spoken in the Aramaic language used by Jesus: Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus. Come back and make all things new. Come Lord Jesus. Come even now in the blessed Supper to be with us, to comfort and strengthen us for the journey that still lies before us. Be for us the Bread of life, our Manna in the wilderness. Come, Lord Jesus, come!