John 6:51-61 God's Hyperbole: the Church

John 6:61 “ . . . Does this offend you? . . .”

Jesus offended the people who had witnessed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.  In words most shocking he said that he was giving his flesh for the world to consume. Going further he said, “ . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (6:53) Later in history the enemies of the church would use the words of Jesus and reports on the observance of the Lord’s Supper in order to charge Christians with human sacrifice and cannibalism.

Hyperbole shocks. By definition hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally. For Jews the idea of eating blood was unthinkable, just as cannibalism was. They knew that Jesus, a Jew, did not intend to be taken literally. Thoughtful people, then and now, even if they are adverse to Christian faith, understand the use of hyperbole. By taking offense at his language the people around Jesus were able to avoid facing the authentic challenge in those words. It was easier to be shocked at his words than it was to engage with him on the meaning of salvation and the claim of Jesus to be God’s redemption.

The church is God’s hyperbole. The church often shocks and offends the world. Perhaps, the world takes offense at the pious language of an evangelical preacher or the exuberance of a Pentecostal. Perhaps, the world finds Catholicism too ritualistic or the Anglican way too self-important.  In the eyes of the world all churches are equally subject to the charge of hypocrisy, and it is true that seldom does the church live up to the message it preaches. The church is flesh and blood. It is human. Being shocked at its failed humanity is to miss the point of hyperbole. It is to avoid the real offense of the Gospel. 

The claim of Jesus to be the incarnate God and the means of salvation does offend. His claim shocks us with the seriousness of sin; in order to remove sin the shedding of blood is necessary. God comes in Christ to give that blood. The offense of the Gospel is the message of the cross, the impossibility of human works bringing us to God and the realization and acceptance that salvation comes only by the grace of God’s work in Christ.

As the church, the body of Christ, and the hyperbole of God we will always offend. All our efforts in ministry are shockingly human. Yet, it pleased God to entrust to the church the message of the cross, and the real offense to the world is the cross. Foolishness to the world but to all who have heard and answered his call it is the power and wisdom of God.