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.

John 6:35, 41-51 Church Growth

John 6:44  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them . . .”

Many years ago when I was a young minister who had only recently arrived in San Francisco to take up my first pastoral assignment, I went to a state wide meeting of Baptists that was being held in Southern California. This meeting attracted me because I hoped to gain information and insight on pastoral ministry from the people I met in the workshops and conferences. In particular I felt the need to learn all I could about church leadership. 

I remember sitting in a diner in Oxnard where the meeting was being held. It was breakfast time, and many pastors were gathering at this diner. In walked one of the more prominent ministers. He sat down beside me at the counter. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and to ask him how he had been successful in leading his church to grow so large. He looked at me with what I took to be a measure of disdain, and he said, “I suppose we pray a lot.” 

His remark ended our conversation, and at the time I felt rebuked, but I wasn’t sure why. I had asked in all innocence and sincerity for his insight, but I felt I had said something wrong and that I had offended him. Looking back, now, after many years in the ministry I understand better his “disdain” if that’s what he meant to communicate; his abrupt answer made me think, and it helped me to reflect on what I was asking. It came to me that, perhaps, I was approaching the subject of leadership and church growth in the wrong way. I was asking the wrong question.

In the passage from John 6 the people who followed Jesus to the other side of the lake after the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 were, like me, asking the wrong question. In their case the wrong question led them to grumble among themselves and eventually to complain about Jesus and to depart the circle of discipleship. The miracle attracted them to Jesus. They liked the easy access to food and drink and the possibility that such a miracle worker could lead their nation as a king who would insure prosperity for the people. However, as Jesus pointed out to them, the most important attraction was not prosperity but the pull of God’s Spirit into relationship with the Father and Son. 

New pastors, or at least new pastors like me, are often caught up in the desire to see the institution of the church expand. That desire is understandable. Numerical growth for a church, like food and water for an individual, is necessary. If a church never replaces its membership then the institution of the church will die. However, putting emphasis on institutional survival is the same mistake that the people in John 6 made; it is the mistake that brought a rebuke from Jesus. It is the mistake that caused me to earn the pastor’s disdain in that Oxnard cafe. 

When we put our mission first then institutional growth will come as it should. Even if a church does not grow numerically it can still be used of God for purposes that we may not see. Prayer, faithful witness to the Gospel as revealed in Scripture, worship, giving and service will produce the food that lasts forever. The churches Paul served no longer exist institutionally, but their witness continues. God still draws people to himself through the witness of these churches. No church faithful to God ever dies. Individually and as churches we live in Christ, and our witness continues beyond our historical moment and brief life on earth because the work--the true work of the Gospel--belongs to God. He is the one who draws people to himself.

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Grandchildren. This week has been momentous--the birth of a third child to our son and daughter-in-law. Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy have given the new addition his nickname (which he will no doubt insist on changing as he gets older.) The temporary nickname is “Squeaker.” He is a healthy boy of more than eight pounds, but he does squeak to signal his needs and wants. For the Fiona and Freddy stories the new addition will go by the name, Frazer; however, Fiona and Freddy have decided that Frazer does not get to go on any adventures until he is old enough to sit in Pal’s lap and listen to the stories. Until then he is “Squeaker.”

John 6:1-15 The Feeding of the 5,000

John 6:14   “. . . the people saw the sign Jesus performed.”

All four Gospels record the feeding of the 5,000, and in John’s Gospel the account of this miraculous sign and the response of the people takes almost as many verses to record as the resurrection does. Clearly, for the early church this event in the life of Jesus was important. On the surface of the telling we see the compassion of Jesus for hungry people, and his response to their hunger gives us a model for our own ministry to the needy. However, Jesus spiritualized this event so that the miracle more importantly became a sign of salvation than an act of compassion for the physically hungry. Jesus said to the people who received the food that he had distributed, “. . .you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.” (John 6:26-27)

Following the example of Jesus and taking a spiritual interpretation of this feeding ministry we observe that Jesus used this event in the wilderness, first, to confront his disciples with the fact of their spiritual scarcity. They did not have the ability to feed the people, physically and more importantly spiritually. Philip, exasperated with the instructions to provide food for the multitude of people, complained to Jesus that it would take eight months of wages to give everyone even a bite to eat. (v.7) Before we can see the miracle of provision the church first acknowledges its inadequacy. We cannot feed the hunger of people for God. We cannot even fill our own spiritual need for God. We look at what little insight we have, and we are like Andrew who looked at the five barley loaves and two fish, and said, “how far will they go among so many?” (v. 9)

However, it happens in John 6 and in the church again and again that we witness the power of God when we acknowledge our own limited resources. When we face our spiritual scarcity then we hear Jesus say to us as he said to his disciples, “Have the people sit down.” (v. 10) We stop looking at our empty pockets and our scarce resources and we simply follow the instruction of Jesus. When we do we discover that the people will be able to eat their fill with food left over. (v. 12) When we simply give people the Gospel of Christ, not in our own strength, but in obedience to the instructions of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, we discover a spiritual abundance that fills our deepest hunger and the hunger of those to whom we preach. 

God revealed this Gospel principle to Paul. He wanted to be strong, but he suffered an infirmity that made him weak. He pleaded with God to have his infirmity, his thorn in the flesh, removed. Then he heard God’s response, “. . .my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) The church receives power to feed the spiritually hungry when it recognizes its own limitations, its spiritual scarcity, and awaits the instructions of Jesus who will say at the right place and the right time, “Have the people sit down.”