A Bible reading with some size

In a previous post, I observed that we are currently involved in the Revised Common Lectionary’s (RCL) Cycle B.  This year’s Gospel lessons come primarily from the Book of Mark.  But, in the month of August, the RCL directs us instead to the Gospel of John.  Again as I pointed out earlier, the Fourth Evangelist has no yearly cycle of his own.  Instead, the Lectionary scatters selections from John throughout the three-year rotation.  When it does so the RCL tends to employ the John readings over several consecutive Sundays.  The Lectionary avoids having isolated readings from John appear from time-to-time.  Instead, these larger blocks of material give the church an opportunity to consider a larger sweep of ideas over several weeks’ time.

 The format of the RCL is to give the church suggestions for manageable selections of scripture for consideration in Sunday worship.  While there are exceptions, the Gospel lessons don’t usually run more than about twenty verses per week.  When we consider the Fourth Gospel, we find that it resists this carving up into segments.  Chapter six moves around the Sea of Galilee geographically.  But, as a narrative, it is one long piece that requires our consideration. 

The entirety of the chapter is seventy-one verses in length.  That alone makes it prohibitive as a single reading.  (Besides everything else, “Let us stand for the reading of the Gospel,” would be met with more than a little grumbling over a lesson of this magnitude.)  Chapter six is not one long miracle story or parable.  It begins with the feeding of the five thousand and the narrative of Jesus walking on water.  Following these stories there are a series of questions to which Jesus offers replies.  These responses provide a kind of commentary on the opening action.  These reflections take up the remainder of the chapter.

The basics of bread
As we move from week to week, we find an ongoing theme throughout the chapter. That is the appearance of bread. Jesus multiplies the fish and bread in order to feed five thousand men, in addition to any family members they may have brought along. Jesus spends no little time talking about the importance of physical nourishment. We need “our daily bread.”

Bread as the Word of God
But Jesus’ observations do not end there. He goes on to make a transition in referencing bread not only as a staple of our diet, but he also refers to bread that nourishes beyond the meal table. He speaks of “the bread of life” as being the teaching of God. God’s instruction preserves our spirits in the same way that table bread preserves our bodies. Jesus is a master of taking well-recognized objects and using them to teach truths about the Kingdom of God. At various places in John’s Gospel. Jesus talks of birth, water, bread, vines, sheep, shepherds, and gates to help you and me comprehend something of the nature of God’s Kingdom. So, when Jesus moves his conversation from the bread that we make with our own hands to the bread that comes down from heaven he challenges us to use our understanding of the former to incorporate the truths of the latter into our spirituality.

Bread as the Body of Christ
That would be a good lesson in and of itself. John could have shut the teaching down there and we would have an enormous truth to ponder.  But Jesus does not leave things there.  He re-interprets “bread” yet again.  This time he gives it a Eucharistic understanding.  “Eucharistic” or “Eucharist” refers to Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, or whatever title you may use to describe the Sacrament of the Table.  There is no account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper in John’s Upper Room story.  Jesus washes the disciples’ feet.  He identifies Judas as his betrayer – if only obliquely.  He predicts Peter’s three-fold denial.  He offers a long farewell discourse before praying his high priestly prayer.  But words about bread and wine and “Do this in remembrance of me” are nowhere to be found. 

 That’s because Jesus has already done it.  He has done it in chapter six.  While much of the Jewish community has made its way to Jerusalem to observe the Passover, in this chapter Jesus is in Galilee, and there he offers his own meal to the people.  Look at the language: Jesus took the food, blessed the food, gave the food.  This is Communion language.  Even if it does not appear in the context of the Upper Room, the language is the same: 

“In the night in which he was betrayed

Jesus took bread,

and when he had given thanks,

he broke it,

gave it to his disciples,

and said ‘Take, eat. 

This is my body which is given for you. 

Do this in remembrance of me.’

Likewise, after supper

he took the cup,

 and when he had given thanks

he gave it to his disciples,

saying, ‘this is my blood of the New Covenant,

poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. 

Do this as often as you drink it

in remembrance of me.’ ”

 

The last portion of chapter six interprets bread, which Jesus has already cast in terms of physical nourishment and the Word of God, as the Eucharistic body of Jesus. 

 This all happens pretty fast.  True, the chapter is over seventy verses in length.  But looking at where the discussion of bread started and then contemplating where it ended, that is a lot of ground covered pretty quickly. 

 Jesus’ teaching does not receive universal acceptance.  In fact, talk of eating Jesus’ body prompts a large number of people to withdraw from Jesus.  Jesus is OK with that.  He has drawn a bold line in the sand and understands that just everybody is not ready to cross over to his side.

 Even though we take five weeks to move from the feeding of the multitude to the desertion of the crowds there is plenty to digest on the way (no pun intended…).  I fear that often our consideration of the Bible takes the form of single verses or even fragments of scripture.  While there are certain nuggets of truth that are worthy of our study, it is more often the case that we require a knowledge of what has gone before and what comes after – the context – before we can achieve any real comprehension of scriptural teaching.  John six is a text with some size.  It has length and breadth.  It has layers of meaning.  Even in a month we will not discover all the layers of meaning that this chapter holds.  But we can give it our all.  The word of God deserves nothing less.