Every summer, before I leave on a trip, I remember to make copies of a few important things, just in case they get lost or stolen. That includes things like my credit cards, my Driver's License and my Passport. I hide those copies somewhere in my luggage where hopefully I can remember where they are, just in case!
But I notice something when I make copies, that I almost never pay attention to. When I make copies, I turn the cards and the Driver's license over and I make copies of the back side as well as the front. And there, on the back, in really small type, is the reminder that these things which I think of as "mine" really aren't mine. They belong to the bank, or the State of MD, or to the State Department. And in fact, these groups can take these things back from me at their discretion even though these things have MY name and MY picture on them, and that (theoretically!) only I can use them ...
But all those things are written in small type where most of us don't see them very often, because like most of us, I don't like to be reminded that things I think of as "mine" really aren't mine...
Now as we've been reading through the 6th chapter of John's Gospel in these past few weeks, Jesus began to talk about the "bread of life." And the things that John records Jesus as saying begin to morph from talking about bread to talking about flesh. And then flesh and blood. And then eating Jesus' flesh and blood. And as that happens, people get more and more grossed out. They wonder what the heck Jesus means. And they get more and more offended by the language.
Clearly, some of this revolves around the image of eating flesh and drinking blood. That's especially true because consuming the blood of anything was forbidden by kosher laws. Blood, it was believed, contained the life essence of the animal. And life belonged to God, so you couldn't consume it... (which is why the blood was always offered in sacrifice...)
So when Jesus moves into talking about eating flesh and drinking blood, he's using language that's frankly gross. He's defying a basic tenant of accepted religious protocol. But he's also saying one other thing that people really didn't want to hear: they didn't like being reminded that the life they thought they had really wasn't theirs.
All life - the life of animals offered in sacrifice as well as the lives of the people listening to Jesus - belongs to God. It comes from God. It's a gift from God. And it isn't anyone's possession that they can naturally hold onto and keep forever.
If you want life, says Jesus - real life that goes on forever - it's a gift that comes from outside yourself, just as the food and drink that sustain life have to come from outside of yourself. So when Jesus says that you have "no life" unless you eat his flesh and drink his blood, he's using the image of blood as the bearer of life, and saying that if you don't receive life from outside of yourself - that is, if you think life is your own personal possession instead of the continual gift of God - you don't really have life.
There are quite a number of biblical commentators who say that this whole section of John's Gospel is really Jesus' "sermon" on the meaning of communion, since in spite of all this talk about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, there's no narrative in John's Gospel of the institution of communion.
And while it may be impossible to prove that premise one way or the other, when we receive communion, Jesus is making the same point he was making in today's Gospel reading.
And the point is this: life is not a natural possession of human beings, but a gift from God himself. Like your credit card or your Driver's license or your Passport, it may be in your possession, and stamped with your name. It may be yours to use and you may get yourself into trouble if you use it unwisely. But in the end, it's not yours. It's God's...
