Sermon Tone Analysis

Theology and Imagination?

The goal of this study is to explore the theology behind the Lord’s supper and how Christ Himself explained this concept.

Notes:

1.) Five barley loaves and two fish.

“This is not bread and wine, both are required for communion context”

2.) Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, (He thanked God for the provision or asked for a blessing, nothing to do with the last supper, or communion) he distributed them to those who were seated.

So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples,

3.)“Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

God always provides more than enough, in fact he gives us leftovers that we may share His spiritual provision with others.

Our faith is NOT self-centered, it is a faith based on the love of God.

As such we should share the remainder of spiritual food that he provides to us with others.

God wants us to use the grace he provides to the fullest extent and to not waste that which He provides.

This implies responsibility regarding our Master’s provisions.

On an earthly level there was not enough food to provide even a small snack to the number of people.

Jesus was making a point about His ability through His father to provide spiritual food at any level, and that His resources were not limited in number.

Notice he splits common small barley loaves, and two fish into enough to feed 5000.

All were well fed and full to the extent that there were leftovers.

God is not limited in provision.

“Jesus was providing for the people out of his grace and mercy and supplying them richly.

And in this miracle we see that God provides for our daily needs just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread.”

Luther says in the small catechism, “What is meant by daily bread?

Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

~faithlife.com/sermons/84527

The point of this Miracle is the spiritual abundance God provides to us and His plan for providing Christ and our response, that is belief in Christ as our eternal source of life.

Of course it also shows us His power both over the physical world and His daily blessings, and that of the spiritual world!

“So far this has nothing to do with communion”

1.) Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

(These people wanted more food, they were hungry.)

2.) “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

3.) “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

4.) For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

God is spirit, so His bread and provision is therefore spirit, especially regarding giving life to the world, belief in the one He had sent, and that our source of eternal life is that spiritual source.

A few excerpts by Dr. Michael Heiser:

Jesus links the idea of food that endures to eternal life to himself and to belief in Him.

Our tasks as Christians is to believe on “Jesus-the food that endures eternal life.

“ You could say that our job is not to eat, it is to believe.

Believing was the eating-not the other way around.

The bread that is the point of analogy to Jesus isn’t what gives life to the world but rather it is Jesus, the one who comes down from heaven.

What gets people to heaven is belief in Jesus, not the bread that represents Jesus, or belief in the bread that represents Jesus, or belief that the bread represents Jesus.

In other words, the object of faith is a WHO, not a WHAT.

Now for the challenging bits :)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

“Referring to Himself” 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.”

“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.

(Spirit)

A short section from Dr. Michael Heiser (I prefer his views here I think they make sense in light of the synoptic’s and context of John.)

“Here’s where the confusion usually starts, but it’s not hard to parse what Jesus is saying here if we do two things:

Allow what is written/said earlier to inform this section-as opposed to starting with this section and then reading IT back into what was said earlier; and

Filter what is said here by what Jesus says afterward.

What he says afterward is completely consistent with what he said before this section.

So the key interpretive issue is, are you going to start with the “eating flesh” language and use it as a guide to comment on Jesus’ preceding and following explanations, or are you going to let Jesus’ explanations be the guide to the “eating flesh” language?

If you let Jesus’ preceding and following explanations actually explain this middle part, it’s easy.

If you don’t, you end up thinking bread becomes flesh, and then having to explain why you never poop that out, since Jesus says that he (his flesh and blood”) abides in whoever takes it.

Supernatural constipation?

I don’t think so.

Here we go . . .

In light of Jesus’ preceding explanation that sets up the “eating flesh” language, it’s obvious Jesus doesn’t want people to think the following:

That he is literal bread

That he’ll become literal bread

That literal bread will become him

That what’s flowing through his veins is wine, or that it will become wine, or that wine will become his blood.

Does Jesus assert any of these ideas in the passage?

No-there is no declaration that any of these things is going to happen.

There’s a running analogy going on, but Jesus has made clear that what gets you to heaven is the one (the person) that came down from heaven.

This is made clear again from verse 57 – 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.

“whoever feeds on me will live” – we have three options for understanding this:

1.) Whoever literally eats Jesus’ literal flesh will live.

At least some of the Jews thought Jesus was saying something this nutty, which is why Jesus corrects this perception in what follows (see below).

Besides, the OT law forbade the consumption of human flesh () and blood (; ).

2.) Whoever eats some literal bread that I will give him will live.

Now for a lesson on the obvious, but something hidden in plain sight apparently: Notice that Jesus never hands out any bread-in fact, is NOT the Last Supper scene.1

In all three synoptic gospels the Last Supper, upon which the Lord’s Supper is based (at least according to Paul!), Jesus does two things after he has made the connection between his broken body and the bread, and his blood, the wine, and the new covenant: (A) he washes the feet of the disciples, and (B) he tells them one among them will betray him.

John doesn’t record the Last Supper like the synoptic gospels do, and the synoptic gospels don’t have the footwashing-but ALL four gospels have the announcement of the betrayal, and in John it comes in -20, completely disconnected from .

Frankly, there is good reason to exclude the passage from the communion / Lord’s Supper issue entirely.

This is actually my preference, since none of the actual Last Supper passages have any language like this (eating flesh, drinking blood) and this passage is not John’s version of the Last Supper scene.

It’s totally unrelated, at least if we care about context and the flow of the life of Jesus in the gospels.

I included it here because I’d be expected.

But in reality, it’s just part of the mythology that has defined the Lord’s Supper.

We KNOW absolutely what is behind the Lord’s Supper since Paul tells us (“the same night in which he was betrayed he took bread ….”).

That ain’t happening in , so this #2 option doesn’t work either.

(3) Whoever feeds on me = whoever believes in me.

This is precisely what Jesus has been saying up to this point.

He isn’t talking about literally eating ANYTHING at any time; he’s talking about believing in him.

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

But there are some of you who do not believe.”

It is the Spirit that gives life, and has not said ANYWHERE in that one gets the spirit by eating literal bread or flesh.

Jesus says, “What I’ve just told you (my words) are spirit and life.”

This is easy to reconcile with what he said before-that all of this is an analogy.