This sermon was preached on Sunday 25th August 2024 at St Peter and St Paul Church, Langham.

You can listen to this sermon here.

Reading – John 6:56-69

When you go to a pub or a restaurant, there are three types of people in your life. There are those in the first group of people, the people who never pay at the end. If it is because you are out with children or grandchildren, that feels acceptable. We had my thirteen year old cousin with us this week. She obviously doesn’t have a job, so we paid for everything. That is to be expected. But if you are out with your adult friend who never offers to pay, we consider that poor form. That’s the first group.

The second group of people are the people who will fight it out to pay at the end—the ‘you got it last time, I’ll get it today’ sort of people. Good people, we like these people. We like these people. We want to keep these people around in our lives. But our favourite is the third group of people. These are the people who always insist on paying the bill, the people who say ‘first round’s on me’ or who sneak away to discreetly pay the bar tab. We might hate to admit it, but these are our favourite people. I remember fondly of times going out into town with grandma as a child, knowing that if you were with grandma, come lunchtime, we were definitely going to KFC, and I knew that I was never paying. What a win. In some ways, I feel a bit bad for having this attitude, but at the same time, I am sure I am not alone in this. Most of us have a friend who we know will always offer to get the first round at the bar, and we are very much aware of it when we go to the pub. You don’t have to put your hand up to admit to it. But have a think to yourself about if you have that sort of person in your life. If you can’t think of anyone, you are probably that person for someone else.

Please know that for every grain of truth, there might be in this, I say this all in light-heartedly in jest. But it’s true that we can see in life that some people become more interested in what they can get from a person rather than in the gift of who that person really is. This is what the crowd were doing with Jesus. Over the last few weeks, we have been journeying through John 6. It starts with the feeding of the 5,000, which is then followed by Jesus walking on water. Then, after that, the same crowd from the day before at the feeding of the 5,000 came looking for Jesus again.  In John 6:24, you can see the crowds, not being able to find Jesus, hop into their boats and go to Capernaum looking for him.

The crowd finds Jesus on the other side, and they say to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’[1] Jesus sees through their question and their search for him. He says, You have not come here to see more of God’s power and the amazing and life-changing person Jesus is. You have come because yesterday I fed you really well and you have come to get the same again. The crowd have come to Jesus thinking, well, it was an open bar yesterday; surely it will be the same today. Now, I don’t want to dissuade us from believing that God is a generous giver, because he is, but you can see that the crowd were missing the point. They were more interested in what they could get from Jesus rather than in Jesus himself. Jesus tells the crowd to stop looking for earthly food and instead look for the heavenly food of eternal life. I hope that you recognise that Jesus is employing a metaphor because the crowds did not. Jesus said don’t look for physical food for you, but the spiritual and heavenly food that feeds your soul for eternity.

The crowd, however, are still fixated on physical food and what they can get out of Jesus. They say to Jesus, well, what will you give us? What signs and miracles will you perform? Do you remember how when the Israelites were in the desert with Moses, God sent bread to them in Manna, falling from heaven? Honestly, this fixation on bread must be infuriating for Jesus. He is saying that he is the bread of life, he is food that gives life, he is the daily bread, the daily provision you need that will give you life not just for a day as earthly food does, but eternal life. But the crowd aren’t interested in this. They complain and say, ‘Who is this Jesus anyway?’ They miss Jesus’ message.

Look at our reading today. ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.’[2] This is the key to eternal life. When our lives become about turning to Jesus, having Jesus as our daily sustenance. When we do that, then we see Jesus is present in us and our lives. Jesus, who conquered death and is risen to eternal life, abides in us with his eternal life. Jesus is the bread that will make you live forever. This sounds great. What could be better? You would think everyone would jump up and say, ‘Yes, Jesus, I’m in. I want you to be in my life.’ But we see that the crowds struggled with what Jesus said. They were complaining about what Jesus said, and they found it difficult to believe. Why? I wonder if it’s because they didn’t get what they wanted from Jesus. They came to Jesus to get bread to eat, and when Jesus says I am the eternal bread of life that you can receive, they weren’t interested. So, a lot of the crowd and followers of Jesus left because they were not getting from Jesus what they came for.

It’s easy for us to see how the crowd walks away from Jesus and say, ‘What are you doing? Can’t you see that you are missing out on God himself in your lives for all eternity?’ We might think, to ourselves, ‘I wouldn’t do that.’ But as we discussed at the start. Are there people in your life who you know that you think more about what you can get out of them rather than valuing the person themselves? Be honest with yourself; do you treat Jesus in the same way? Why are you a Christian? Do you love Jesus and want him to be at the centre of your life because there is nothing better in the whole of human history? Or are you a Christian because it’s nice to have God on your side when you need him or because having friends at church is great for the social side of things? Or it gives you something to do on a Sunday morning? Now, I want to clarify that these are valid positives to being a Christian, for which I am personally very thankful. For some of us, this is how we begin our journey of faith. These are good things. But if this was all I was interested in, then I am missing out on the full joy and blessing of who Jesus is in my life. It’s loving Grandma’s M&S platinum credit card rather than Grandma. But I want a relationship with my Grandma, not her credit card. Do you want a relationship with Jesus, or do you just want what he can give you?

When challenged with these honest words from Jesus, a lot of the crowd and his disciples left him and never came back. They weren’t interested in Jesus. They didn’t want Jesus, just what he could give them.

Jesus then turns to the twelve disciples and asks them, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’[3] That’s a scary question. Jesus asks his 12 best friends if they want to be his friends for him or only because of what they think he can offer. Then Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’[4] I love this reply from Peter. ‘Lord, to whom can we go?’ Peter understood that nothing else and no one else could give them the fullness of eternal life. Jesus was, is and will always be the best thing. Think about it logically: no one turns down the excellent, glorious food at a wedding breakfast to eat, the dry, squished cheese sandwich they have been carrying around all day. When the best is offered to you, why would you give it up? Jesus is where the best is found. Why walk away from that?

When you think about being a Christian and following Jesus, what do you think? Is it the best thing in your life? Or is there something else you think is better? Or if you don’t think something else is better, do you act like something else is better? It could be work, family, friends, hobbies etc. All good things that God wants us to enjoy. But compare them to Jesus.  Honestly, which one would you build your life upon? What is going to satisfy that yearning deep down in your soul? Only Jesus. Only Jesus is the bread of life. Only when we eat Jesus’ bread will we never be hungry. Only when we drink Jesus’ blood will we never be thirsty. Jesus alone satisfies and gives us eternal life. This is eternal and full life today, not as some insurance policy for when we die. It’s full life today. Why would you turn it down?

If you feel you have been choosing other things over Jesus, today here at church is a perfect time to decide afresh who you will choose. What is going to be the thing upon which you centre your life? As we come to share in Holy Communion, ask yourselves, when you come to eat the body and blood of Jesus, do you want Jesus to abide in you? Or do you just want what you can get out of him? Remember, Jesus isn’t a credit card. He is a person who loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. Jesus wants to be a part of your life. Why would you turn that down? He alone has eternal life.

Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’[5] I ask you today, to whom else can we go?

Amen.

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[1] John 6:25 [NRSV].

[2] John 6:56 [NRSV].

[3] John 6:67 [NRSV].

[4] John 6:68-69 [NRSV].

[5] John 6:68-69 [NRSV].