Wednesday 15 August 2018

Sermon 19th August 2018: Year B: 13th Sunday after Pentecost:Text John 6:51-58 – The blood of Christ cleanses us


Sermon 19th August 2018
Text: John 6:51-58 – The blood of Christ cleanses us

It must have sounded pretty strange to the people listening to Jesus today.
He’s talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
While we understand this with the benefit of knowing about the Last Supper and Holy Communion, Jesus hadn’t yet sat down at the Last Supper with his disciples to explain that the passing of bread and wine “is my body and blood”.
But it must sound just as strange to the millions (or even billions) today who don’t understand the Christian faith and the comfort that receiving the body and blood of Christ brings to Christians.
It must sound absolutely ludicrous to those who hear the words of Jesus when he says:
"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life” (John 6:54)
But have you ever wondered how that can be or have you just accepted it because that’s what you’ve been told?
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with accepting it without truly understanding how it does what it says it does.
But it does help in understanding the history of just how Holy Communion gives Christians the comfort of eternal life on Judgment Day, and as Jesus says:
“I will raise them up on the last day” (John 6:54b)
So what is it about Holy Communion that brings assurance of eternal life?
Well, firstly it is to do with the forgiveness of our sins and therefore assurance of our pardon on Judgement Day.
To understand that we go back to the Old Testament and Israel’s release from slavery in Egypt.
Moses had been sent by God to demand Pharaoh release the Israelites as fulfilment of God’s covenant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:15).
Moses went to Pharaoh but Pharaoh refused his request.
God sent 9 plagues to punish and persuade Pharaoh but his heart was hardened and he refused to listen to Moses and God.
So God sent one last plague – the angel of death that would put to death every first born in the land of every family.
However, the Israelites were given an instruction that would free them from the angel of death.
They would sacrifice a lamb and place its blood on their door frames.
Then when the angel of death came and saw the blood of the lamb the angel would Passover that household and the family would be spared from God’s judgment.
(Hence the name “Passover)
If we then think forward to the New Testament and when John the Baptist sees Jesus he cries out:
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
John sees that Jesus is the new Passover lamb whose blood ensures that at the coming judgment God’s judgment will Passover those who are covered by the blood of Christ –the Lamb of God.
That’s the significance of why we sing The Lamb of God in our liturgy as we prepare to receive the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion.
And when Jesus was at the Last Supper it was the Passover feast they were celebrating.
So this is the assurance that God has set up for us to provide us with true comfort and assurance on Judgment Day that comes from the blood of Christ covering us.
But the assurance doesn’t stop there even though that would be sufficient to give us comfort.
Once the Israelites were in the new Promised Land, God established a sacrifice system where the priests would sacrifice a lamb or other animal and the blood of that animal would be splashed on the altar to cleanse the sin of Israel.
When we again turn to the New Testament we discover another symbol connecting Christ’s blood with that assurance of forgiveness.
In 1 Corinthians St Paul says:
Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
So inside of us is the altar of God as our body is the temple for God’s presence, the Holy Spirit.
As we receive the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion we have that assurance of forgiveness as the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, is splashed onto the altar in our bodies.
So this is the significance of what Jesus is saying when he says:
"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life” (John 6:54)
So this is how God provides us with comfort and how we can be sure on Judgment Day, not because of anything we have done but by receiving from God what he has established to remove our sin.
But as the temple of God Paul says that we should live as God’s holy people.
And he says as the temple of God we should honour God with our bodies.
And we do that by living as God’s holy people.
Fleeing from things that will desecrate the temple.
Resisting temptation and making every effort to live as God’s holy people.
Or as Paul says – offer yourselves as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1,2)
Sometimes that’s not as easy as it sounds as our nagging sins keep presenting themselves.
We find ourselves doing the things that we know we shouldn’t.
It’s not easy, and Paul is the first to recognise that:
He says:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15-25)
So although we struggle with sin, God has given us confidence for the great Day of Judgment not by trying to balance away our sin with good deeds but by having his judgment Passover us by the blood of Christ as it did on that first Passover.
Luther called this a forensic justification where we are pronounced righteous rather than being judged.
Just think today how a criminal’s blood aids forensic investigations in finding guilt.
God’s forensic justification forgives our guilt because of Jesus’ blood.
That was the righteousness Abraham experienced:
Abraham believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3).
That’s what Holy Communion does for us – it credits us as righteous before God and comforts us on that day when all must present themselves before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10).
So come and eat, come and drink, the body and blood of Christ is given to you to assure you that Christ will raise you on the last day.

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