This Difficult Teaching

John 6:56-69

August 26, 2018

            Back in the early 1990’s, a movie came out about the afterlife. It wasn’t your typical film that about what heaven or, for that matter, what hell may be like. Defending Your Life had a different take on what happens when you die. Daniel Miller, a man in his 30’s, divorced, working in a comfortable job, living a comfortable but non-descript sort of life, dies suddenly in a car accident. He wakes up dead and finds himself in Judgment City; it’s sort of the waiting room of the afterlife. Arriving in Judgment City is your first stop when you die. Actually, the first stop is being housed in a Judgment City hotel room to sleep, because apparently dying takes a lot out of you and the newly dead need their rest.

            What happens in Judgment City? The name is rather self-explanatory. You, actually your life, is judged. Judgment City is where you defend your life. During the day, you are in a courtroom of sorts. Like any courtroom, you have a prosecutor and you have a defense lawyer – more of an advocate really. You, your advocate and the prosecutor watch clips from your life. Then you’re asked to defend the decisions you made or didn’t make. There are two possible outcomes – you go back to earth to live a new life and get it right this time or you go … on. The “on” is never fully described. It just means that you got it right in your life on earth, and you’re allowed to go … on.

            Judgment is not based so much on morality, but on whether or not you lived your life in fear. Morality, standing up for your convictions, doing what is right, is connected to fear. It takes courage to do the right thing. Daniel Miller, played by Albert Brooks – who also wrote and directed the movie – was not a bad or immoral person. He didn’t do anything particularly wrong. But he didn’t do anything particularly memorable either. He lived a very fearful life. It probably didn’t seem so fearful when he was living it. He lived a life that many people live. It was … fine. But it turned out that most of what Daniel did and did not do was based on fear. And fear is what you are judged on. Did you live your life in fear? Then you need to go back and do life again. Learn to live without fear. Learn to be brave, to be courageous. Learn to live without fear.

            The nice thing about Judgment City is that while you defend your life during the day, at night you can have fun. You can eat anything you want without gaining a single ounce. There are restaurants and even bowling alleys – Judgment Lanes. The majority of the people in Judgment City are old, but another person close to Daniel’s age is Julia, played by Meryl Streep. Julia’s life had been full. She definitely lived without fear, or if she was afraid, she overcame it. Daniel falls in love with Julia – really falls in love. And it’s this love that finally pushes him to find his courage. He was sentenced to go back, to live life again. Julia was allowed to go on. Without giving away the ending, Daniel changes his life … or his afterlife.

            A life lived in fear is the premise of Defending Your Life. I realize that this does not meet our Christian understanding of the afterlife. But what about our life now? Do we live lives of courage or do we live lives of fear? I pose this question because I think that fear plays a part in the passage we read from John’s gospel.

            We have finally reached the end of chapter 6 in John. Next week we return to Mark’s gospel. We get a break from pondering Jesus as the bread of life, the living bread from heaven, and especially, eating his body and drinking his blood. I mean it when I say we get a break. These words are not easy to read, to preach or to understand.

            According to the text, we are not alone in finding them challenging. Those listening found them hard to swallow as well.

            “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.’”

            Note that it was not just any old folks who struggled with what Jesus was teaching. John refers to them as disciples. These were people who had followed Jesus, who were learning from Jesus, who believed in Jesus. They were disciples, but Jesus’ teaching about being living bread from heaven was just too much for them. They couldn’t wrap their heads around it. They couldn’t go any further, and they turned back. They turned away. They were afraid.

            The word that the New Revised Standard Version translates as “offend,” actually comes from the Greek word for scandal. Jesus asked them if his words scandalized them. To go even deeper, the root of this word literally means “stumble over.”

            Do my words, my teachings scandalize you? Do they make you stumble? Yes. The disciples who had been following Jesus stumbled over his words, and they could not find a way to get back up and keep going. It was just too much.

            What about Jesus’ words made them so fearful, other than the obvious answer that delving into his flesh and blood has an “Ew! Yuck!” factor, as we talked about last week? Remember that the underlying theme in John’s gospel is relationship. Jesus, the Word became flesh, became this flesh so that we could have a relationship with him, and through him, with God. Abiding in John’s gospel is about abiding in relationship. Staying in John’s gospel is about relationship. Jesus gave up his flesh and blood so we, the world could have a new relationship, a new life with God. Considering all of this some 2,000 years later, we might think that there should be no fear involved whatsoever. These disciples who turned away just didn’t get it. They did not have all the knowledge that we have. They were afraid because they didn’t know the rest of the story, and we who do, are not afraid.

            Or are we? Think about it. What does it take to be in a real relationship, a full relationship, an intimate relationship? It takes vulnerability. It takes intense honesty. It takes a willingness to reveal ourselves, to show ourselves with all of our flaws and failings. I think this is true in our marriages, our family relationships, and our deepest friendships. Being vulnerable, being honest, being willing to show ourselves for who we truly are is a scary thing. Staying on the surface of a relationship is much safer, much easier.

            If it is scary in our human relationships, how much more frightening is it when we consider our relationship with God? I’m not talking about a relationship based on the fear that God is going to strike us down at any moment. I’ve heard that kind of relationship preached far too often. I’m talking about recognizing that being in relationship with God calls for a deep and abiding trust. It calls for a willingness to let go of control, to realize that there is more than we can understand or explain. For us being in a relationship with God the Father comes through being in a relationship with Jesus the Son. That relationship with the Son calls us to imitate the Son. That is discipleship. We seek to follow Jesus, to be his disciples. But that means we are called to do what he did, to live as he lived. We are called to love, really love in word and in deed, the stranger, the other, those who seem most unlovable. And we are called not just to pity, but to put ourselves in their shoes, to walk their journey. Being a disciple calls us to hard places and to do hard things. This is a difficult teaching, and it is a difficult doing.

            It takes courage to love like this. It takes a letting go of our fear. But when we let go of our fear, when we step up and find this courage, we have a fullness of life that is joyful and brimming, overflowing, with love and hope. This is the abundant life that Jesus spoke of. It is a life based not on fear or caution but on love.

            It would be easy to walk away. Sometimes we do just that. I know I have. We are ever walking the line between discipleship and betrayal. Perhaps we don’t betray as Judas did, but we betray when we give into our fear, give into hopelessness. But the good news is that we are covered by grace. Jesus does not stop calling; Jesus does not give up on us or walk away from us. May we summon up our courage and let go of the fear which keeps us from living full lives; lives of discipleship, lives of love. After all where else can we go, really? Who else can we turn to? It is Jesus that has the words of eternal life. Thanks be to God. Amen.