Soul Food

John 6:47-59

Luke 22:14-34

            When I was in school growing up, everyone bought lunch at school.  We had a cafeteria and the ladies would cook the meals so the food was pretty good.  They cooked just like they were cooking for their families at home.  I remember once in 4^th grade, the cafeteria decided to have international foods week.  So every day we had a different type of food.  So one day we had spaghetti for Italian day and another day we had chicken chow mein for Chinese day.  But one day I didn’t know what to expect because the menu said we were having soul food.  When I was in 4^th grade I didn’t know what soul food was and I was excited because I imagined it would be something very different and I was looking forward to trying it.  I remember taking my tray up to be served on soul food day and there was ham, collard greens, black eyed peas, and corn bread and I thought, “This is Sunday dinner at my Grandma’s house.  We just need some sweet potato pie.”  It was a little disappointing to find out I had been eating soul food my whole life and didn’t know it. 

            Today I want to talk about soul food.  Not the kind that my Grandma would make but the soul food that Jesus speaks about.  In John 6 Jesus makes the declaration that he is the bread from heaven and he gives life to the world.  In verses 55ff he makes this shocking statement that unless a person eats the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks his blood, they will have no life in them but whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life.  Jesus is talking about real soul food, food that feeds the soul of a person and gives real life.  But it sounds really exotic and pretty far out there.  This is one of those Bible statements that is every bit as jarring for us to hear as it would have been for Jesus’ original listeners at the synagogue in Capernaum.

            What is Jesus talking about when he says we need to eat his flesh and drink his blood?  This is zombie movie stuff, not stuff you expect to hear in church.  People were so offended at what Jesus was saying that many of them turned away from following him.  But when Jesus asked his 12 disciples if they were going to turn away from him as well, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”  Yes this is a saying that is hard to understand.  But like the 12, we need to hang in here with Jesus and find out just exactly what he’s talking about.  He has the words of eternal life, He’s the one who can feed our souls.  It’s important that we take the time to understand just what this soul food is.

            The idea of food and drink that feeds the soul, that gives eternal life didn’t start with Jesus.  It was something that goes back into the Old Testament.  In fact at the very beginning of the Bible we see in the Garden of Eden there was the tree of life.  When Adam and Eve sinned, God said that they must not be allowed to eat from the tree of life and live forever.  Their sin needed to be atoned for before they could be allowed to live forever.  The prophets speak of the source of living water which is God Himself.  Jeremiah 2:13 and 17:13 both speak of the people of Israel forsaking God who is the spring of living water.  Isaiah 25:6 speaks of a great banquet that God will prepare for all people, a feast with the best food and wine, an abundance of good things that give life and joy.  And in Isaiah 55 there is the invitation to the hungry and thirsty to come and get life giving drink and food from God, to hear the words of the Lord so that our souls will delight in the richest of food and drink, and that our souls may live. 

            In Luke 22 and in John 6 Jesus is speaking right in line with the teachings of the law and the prophets.  He’s not coming up with some new concept out of the blue but rather he’s expanding it and personifying it.  He’s saying that He Himself is the living water and the bread of life.  This is what was so hard for the people to understand.  You see we tend to think mainly of the physical.  So when I say soul food, some of you are having visions of fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, collard greens and ham, macaroni and cheese.  And that’s how the people of Jesus’ day thought.  At the beginning of John 6, Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding a crowd of 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.  Then he left the people and went to Capernaum and the crowds came looking for him there.  When they got there Jesus told them, “You are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”  They wanted more free bread and fish.  They were overlooking the fact that it was a miracle that they had gotten that food in the first place.  In fact they even ask Jesus in verse 30 what miraculous sign he would do to prove to them that he was from God.  He just did one people!  They couldn’t be satisfied because they were only focusing on the physical.  They only wanted physical food, not soul food.

            Now Jesus did meet the physical needs of people.  He healed many people, he raised the dead, he turned water into wine and multiplied food to feed thousands.  But he also consistently offered soul food.  He taught about the kingdom of God and called people to repent and turn to God.  He taught about the things that God requires of people and he corrected the religious leaders when they did things or taught things that kept people from freely coming to worship God.  Jesus knew people need soul food in addition to physical food.  Physical food is only going to satisfy us so long and then we get hungry and we have to eat again.  Physical food will spoil.  It won’t last forever.  It won’t stay fresh forever.  And if it does, we probably shouldn’t be eating it because it’s probably shot full of dangerous chemicals.  Physical food is temporary.

            Soul food, the food that Jesus offers, will satisfy forever.  In John 4 Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well and he tells her that he has living water.  He says “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  To the crowd at Capernaum he says “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  There is a food that doesn’t spoil and that never runs out and it satisfies forever.  It is food for the soul and it is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

            But still what does it mean to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man?  That still sounds ghoulish to us.  So let me try to illustrate this in a way that this congregation ought to be able to relate to very well.  I want to use the analogy of a pregnant woman.  Where does her baby get life from?  From her flesh and her blood.  Yes, the father contributes his DNA and gets the process started but it’s the mother’s flesh, the mother’s body, that protects the unborn baby and allows it to continue to grow and develop.  It’s her blood that provides oxygen and nutrients that allows that baby to live and grow.  If a baby is disconnected from its mother too early, it will die.  For 40 weeks, give or take, the mother nourishes the baby from her own flesh and blood.  Then after the baby is born, she continues to feed it from her own body, nursing it and providing it nutrients so it can continue to live and grow.  This, I think, is the picture Jesus is trying to give us when He says we must get our source of nourishment and life from His flesh and His blood.  In order for our souls to live, we must be connected to Him, receiving life-giving nourishment from Him.  The difference is that we never disconnect from Him, as the baby will eventually disconnect from its mother.  Children eventually learn to eat solid food and feed themselves and grow up to be able to provide their own food and we no longer have to feed them.  But we always need to feed from Jesus.  He is the never ending source of living bread and living water.

            This, I think, is why our practice of communion is so important.  It is a regular way of reminding ourselves that we get living bread and living water from Jesus.  As we take communion, we are re-enacting the Last Supper and remembering the words and actions of Jesus.  Luke records that at the last supper Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples telling them, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  He also took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.” 

I want us to think about that word “covenant” for a minute.  The Greek word that is translated covenant can also be translated as testament meaning legal agreement.  One way we use the word testament is in last will and testament, which is a valid translation of this Greek word.  I believe the primary meaning Jesus is using is to say that His blood seals a new and binding agreement with God, a new covenant based on God’s promises of forgiveness and cleansing from sin for all who call on His name.  But I think we can also gain great insight into the depth of this sacrifice, and what Jesus means by feeding on his flesh and blood, if we consider these words as Jesus’ last will and testament. 

A last will and testament is a legal document that spells out how a person wants to dispose of their possessions after their death.  Jesus had no possessions to pass on to anyone at his death.  He spent the last few years of his life on the road, traveling around teaching about the Kingdom of God and demonstrating it through his miracles.  If he had any personal possessions, they most likely were left with his family.  So at the Last Supper Jesus is handing on to his disciples the only thing he has left to give – his body and his blood.  This is what is going to be sacrificed for our sins.  In the Passover celebration, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and ate it at their Passover meal.  At the original Passover in Egypt, the Israelites had to take the lambs blood and put it on their doorposts so their first born children would not be killed along with the first born of the Egyptians.  They had to eat the flesh of the animal that was sacrificed so they could live.   This again gives us some understanding into what Jesus is talking about.  Just as the Israelites had to feed on the sacrifice that spared their lives, so we have to feed on the sacrifice that spares our souls from eternal separation from God and eternal death. 

The bread and the cup that we have at communion are a representation of the bread and cup that Jesus gave His disciples and proclaimed that this was true food of the new covenant and that we are to partake of these in remembrance of Him.  This is soul food and it’s not comfort food.  Real soul food demands something of us.  It demands that we look at the things in our lives that are not right, the things that separate us from God.  When we look at the bread and the cup of communion and we remember the sacrifice behind it, it should make us uncomfortable.  Even at the Last Supper Luke records that Jesus had to confront the fact that one of his disciples was going to betray him.  Judas was sitting with him at the table, eating this meal with him, planning how he was going to betray Jesus.  And Jesus knew it. The other disciples broke out into an argument about which of them was considered the greatest.  Apparently it was one of their favorite things to argue about.  Jesus had to confront their pride and ambition and remind them that he served them, even washing their feet that very night. 

He had to confront the fact that he and his disciples had a spiritual enemy who wanted to destroy them.  He tells Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” He went on to tell Simon Peter that he would end up denying that he even knew Jesus 3 times that very night.  But even in knowing that Peter was going to deny him, Jesus promised restoration – “when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”  Jesus confronted some uncomfortable stuff but in that confrontation, he offered life.

These are the things we are to remember as we prepare to take communion today.  This is soul food.  It is necessary that we listen to and respond to the words of Jesus.  It is necessary that we spend time in His presence in prayer and in service.  It is necessary that we take what He offers us, that we take it into ourselves and make it a part of us, that we may live.  It’s not always comfortable but it does give real life.

            As we prepare ourselves to take communion today, let us take the time to examine our own lives to see what’s there that Jesus needs to confront.  We are told that we should examine ourselves in preparation for taking communion so that we do not take it in an unworthy manner, meaning we confess any known sin in our lives and ask for forgiveness.  When we do, we are forgiven and as we take communion, we can remember not our sins, but Jesus who gave Himself so we could have life.