“It’s Good and Wise to Receive The Body and Blood of Our Lord”
Thirteenth Sunday a. Pentecost, 2024
Text: Prov. 9:1–10, John 6:51-69
In the name of Jesus, Amen!
No one is offended by wisdom and life in the abstract. Everyone signs on with the wisdom in today’s OT lesson Prov. 9 as a better idea than folly, “Wisdom has built her house.. she calls from the highest places in the town… Forsake your folly, and live; and go in the way of understanding. (my own translation)” However, when it comes to concrete things, people don’t have real wisdom to discern what is good. On one hand, for example, when people receive an email or a nice letter of invitation saying how valuable and important you are, people are tempted to click on it or open it, and of course, they turn out to be scams. Even worse, some people believe whatever TV or government tells them to do, and eventually get harmed in the long run, especially spiritually. On the other hand, when Jesus invites us to eat the Bread and drink the Wine on His table prepared for us, we hesitate. No One is offended by goodness either in general terms. Most religious people would agree believing God is a good thing, and for most people in the western world and a big portion of people around the world, even following Jesus is not necessarily a bad thing. But when it comes to believing God that He truly provides the Bread of Life from heaven and to Jesus’ promise of the bodily eating His flesh and drinking His blood with believing in our heart that this true food will give us eternal life, then we may stumble at this.
Wisdom is not an abstract concept. You don’t need Wisdom if you don’t have a real life to live. You don’t need Wisdom if you don’t have a concrete problem to solve. Not only does Wisdom come from a wise person, but Wisdom is a person. Wisdom speaks calling the simple, saying, “Come, eat of my bread, And drink of the wine I have mingled.. And be blessed in the way of understanding.” The Wisdom of the Bible is the eternal Son of God. He is the One who teaches us “The fear of the LORD”. He alone has the knowledge of the Holy One. “The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens”. When God spoke the Word of Wisdom, everything came to be. The same Word of God became man and accomplished the salvation for us. Similarly, Goodness is not an abstract concept either. Goodness is a personal gift, or an action of kindness and love. Goodness is a good thing that you can receive and benefit from. True goodness only comes from God, from His gift of His Son Jesus Christ and His kindness toward us and His loving action on the cross. Unfortunately, there are SO many people who still don’t understand this. Sinful human beings tend to trust human logic instead of the Word of God. By trusting in their own logic as the bottom-line for theology, they become prideful and self-righteous before God. St. Paul says in 1 Cor. Chapter 1, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the Wisdom of God.” Jesus’ loving action of dying on the cross and rising again reconciled the irreconcilable dilemma, namely, God’s justice to punish sins vs. His love for humanity. His wisdom and power solved the biggest problem of the world that each one of us faces – death. Wisdom is a real person – Jesus Christ. Goodness is the loving kindness of God toward us, especially the bodily action of His Son dying on the cross and rising again.
Now, the question is, how does God in Jesus Christ distribute His Wisdom and Goodness to us? He doesn’t need an abstract almighty power. He gives Wisdom and Goodness to us through His Word and Sacraments. The Word IS Power of God. The powerful Word created all things and still sustains us in everyday life. But most importantly, Jesus Himself, the Word becoming flesh is the Living bread that came down from heaven for us to receive, Jesus says, “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.” At this, people stumble. “This is a hard saying! How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” the crowd responds, and many of them take offense! Many “turned back and no longer followed Jesus.” Turning back and not walking with Jesus is an illustration of apostasy, resulting in losing salvation and being condemned to eternal hell. So, do not harden your heart in this way! Do not grumble against God’s Word! Hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it instead. Peter this time got it right, he said, “Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life.” Therefore, we trust the Word of eternal life to distribute the Wisdom and Goodness of God for our salvation in His flesh and blood, which is true food and true drink as Jesus says here.
Last Sunday, the theme that I preached in the Chinese congregation is “Baked, Shared, and Served Himself”. The central idea is that when Jesus gives us the Bread of Life, He gives us Himself. I love the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread. I bet you like it too. The smell brings us the memory of a parent’s love baked into it and of all the goodness that she shared and served us. Likewise, with great Love for us, Jesus bore the sins of each one of us. The bread of life was “baked” on the cross by the fire of God’s wrath against sin. The aroma was Christ’s Sacrifice accepted by God. The end product was the firstfruit of eternal life for all humanity. Before going to the cross, Jesus already established the command and the new covenant to share and serve us His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Together with His Word of eternal life He brings to us and to all people in every time and in every place the Wisdom and Goodness of God – concretely, bodily, personally in Christ Jesus – the bread of life.
Today, Wisdom is calling you to come to the Lord’s table to eat and drink. This is a real and loving invitation from Jesus, who personally and bodily “baked” the Bread and “mixed” the Wine for YOU. May God the Holy Spirit move us to trust the Word of eternal life to discern that what we are going to eat and drink is true food and true drink– Jesus’ body and His blood. It’s truly wise, good and salutary to accept this invitation. By eating, drinking and believing in our heart that we receive the bread of life, we get all the benefits that come with it from our loving Lord.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!
