More Liturgy: You Have the Words of Eternal Life

This is from a children's CD, but it is the exact tune of the liturgy sung before the reading of the Gospel passage every Sunday in the Lutheran church where I grew up.

Alleluia, Lord to Whom Shall We Go? (track 5)

I still freak out a little inside every time I read words from liturgy in Scripture. Originally, every discovery was a surprise. As a kid, I didn't realize how much of what I had memorized from my wooden pew was actually straight from Scripture. As I grew up, each time I found the words I could already sing and recite within the Bible, they would take on more meaning, and I would feel all the layers of the words peeling back and unfolding with new meanings when I would sing them each Sunday, now knowing the Scriptural context too. Even now, seeing them in Scripture thrills my heart, like they're a gift God has planted in me from all those years ago, and like the gift is being reopened and renewed each time the words are read, heard, sung, or said again.

I wrote in my journal during a sermon on John 6 (where the words for this moment of liturgy originate) at Grace Community three weeks ago, "We sang [John 6:68] in liturgy during Scripture reading almost every Sunday of my childhood, and it still gives me goosebumps now. I don't know what it is about it. I think it's the humility of it. 'What else can I do? Who else could answer my need?' ONLY YOU, JESUS. ONLY YOU."

Now, rereading John 6 again (yes, I mean to be redundant), I am looking closely at why Peter uttered these words, "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Jesus had just asked, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" 

Why were people leaving? People were leaving because Jesus had just called out the crowds for drawing near to Him just because they had eaten of the miraculous loaves and were looking for more food. "Do not work for food that spoils," He said, "but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." Then He went on to say ludicrous things like the work we must do to do what God requires is just "to believe in the one He has sent" and that we are supposed to eat Jesus's body as bread and drink His blood. I can just imagine everyone getting really weirded out and starting to try to slip away unnoticed as He kept saying it over and over and over.

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."
That sounds comforting enough, but He didn't stop there.
"I am the bread that came down from Heaven."
That's hard to believe when everyone listening knows good and well He's the son of Joseph and Mary.
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." 
Um, what? The Father has to draw us? Who says we even need to come to Jesus anyway? Are we not sons of Abraham?!
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Wait, what?
"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
Okay, this is creepy. Maybe we're misunderstanding something, but, no, He keeps saying it!
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me."
Now He brings up manna again, which was all everyone was asking for anyway-- Give us bread, Jesus! Like Moses did!
"Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

I don't know how much of the crowd remained after this, but here's what the disciples had to say:

"THIS IS A HARD TEACHING. WHO CAN ACCEPT IT?"

And Jesus's response? Point blank, matter of fact, no sugar coating or breaking it down into easier pieces:

"Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."

Here, Scripture says "From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him."

"Many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him."

But what was Peter's reply? Good ol' Peter!

"LORD TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. WE BELIEVE AND KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE HOLY ONE OF GOD."

I'm not sure I actually get all of this eating flesh and drinking blood stuff. I mean, I know how years of theological study have broken it down into some formula I could spout. But I don't really know that I know what Jesus was talking about. I agree with the disciples that it is a hard teaching!

But I also agree whole-heartedly (Praise God, because if this passage means what I think it does, this could not be without God's choosing it!) with Peter. I believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

I can turn to no other.

There is no other.

He is bread. Life. God. All.

Jesus is and has the words of eternal life.