In the Gospel of John we read about Jesus feeding more than 5000 people in one sitting (John 6:1-15) You probably have to double that figure if you include women and children. This, of course, makes Jesus a very popular figure for a while until the crowd learns that Jesus is on to them and their desire to hang around Him since He is “picking up the tab.” Our Lord, however, wants to give these people and us for that matter a lot more than just a free lunch and a nice day in the park. He wants us to quit selling ourselves short and shoot for the stars. In place of “hamburgers,” or “fish and chips,” He offers us eternal life, a clear conscience, a meaningful life, a chance to start over, and the opportunity to be part of the real “great society.” The people of Jesus day were no different than so many of us today.
We tend to measure the good life in dollars and cents, material prosperity, and creature comforts. If our “welfare check” arrives we are content with life as we have learned to know it. This current recession, no doubt, has been a wake up call for many because suddenly our fun and games have been taken away and in their place we have anxiety, uncertainty, discontent and even a sense of abandonment. But, deprivation has its way of being a blessing in disguise because we suddenly start asking some big questions like “what’s it all about,” “why me Lord,” or why is life suddenly playing this trick on me? Our “empty stomachs” cause us to notice that, perhaps, there is something else that is empty too, namely, our appreciation for the truth about ourselves and the truth about God, what we are missing and where we can find it.
Jesus tells His “fast food” junkees that He has food for them and drink for them that will take their hunger and thirst away forever. Now that’s something they would like to sign up for until they begin to hear strange talk about feasting on Jesus who is “Bread from Heaven.” (John 6:35) It gets real messy for most of them when Jesus stuns them with the invitation to “eat His flesh and drink His blood.”) John 6:54-56) It’s at that point that many “want a refund” and begin to check out. They forget Jesus miracle of the loaves and fishes, and walk away feeling cheated or having been taken when in reality they were offered a life for all seasons and heaven too. Jesus was good enough to hob nob with as long as He could deliver what THEY wanted, but not THE MAN if He offered “just” Himself. Even some of Jesus regulars decided they had enough.
It seems that for so many the life that Jesus gives does not measure up to good sex regardless with whom you have it, a good deal even if it means a bad deal for someone else (e.g. the Madoff kick), or running their own lives rather than submitting to the real architect of humanity. But we who choose to spend eternity with Jesus know that life begins and ends with Him and living with Him and for Him is what matters most. We Christians celebrate our life with Christ and with each other as we gather around the Lord’s table and symbolically partake of His flesh and blood and so renew our spiritual nature and heal our infirmities. Ignatius, an early church leader who was martyred about 110 AD called the Lord’s Supper the “medicine of immortality.” We need to get carried away with the thought that the elements of the communion are necessary to maintain our life in Christ, but they certainly give joy and reassurance as we meditate about what it cost Jesus to give us more than just a free lunch.
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