In our gospel reading for today, Jesus tells the crowds that he has a gift for them – he will offer his very own flesh for them to eat as living bread from heaven. To which the crowds respond, “Gross! How is that going to work?” So Jesus explains to them how Holy Communion is going to work...sort of. But much of the gift of Jesus' body and blood involves a leap of faith on our part, and that is by design....
Well, we have reached THAT time of year....the time of year when you do NOT want to leave your car windows open while you're in the church parking lot. Because if you do, you will come out to find your vehicle INFESTED....by a bulging bag of zucchini! Yes, some well-intentioned church member will try to help you out by sharing from their over-bounteous blessings. What the givers of this GIFT of vegetables fail to realize, is that if we VALUED zucchini, we would probably GROW zucchini...enough for ourselves and twenty other people, as usual. But for those who don't have a garden, who need more manganese in their diet, or have a killer zucchini chocolate cake recipe - for those who are prepared to receive them, the gift that WE don't value, becomes a life-saver.
The Jews in our gospel reading today were not prepared to receive the gift that Jesus offered them. “Did he just say what I thought he said, we're supposed to EAT his FLESH?” Yes, says Jesus, AND drink my blood, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. This statement from Jesus did for the crowds the same thing it has done now for over 2000 years: it started arguments. The Jews disputed among themselves, “how can this man give us his flesh to eat”, and from the tone of their conversation, you can imagine how excited they were at receiving this awesome gift. “Couldn't he have given us a zucchini instead? At least it sort of makes SENSE to eat THAT.”
We like the gifts WE receive to make sense as well, if we are going to value them. We want to know how the gift WORKS. We can't value some new technology if we can't even put the pieces together, or turn it on, or push the right buttons. We want to know why we NEED the gift we have received. We can't value some new appliance that cooks a kind of food we never eat, or washes something we don't even own. And we want to know what BENEFIT our new gift gives us. We can't even value a gift certificate from somewhere, until we know we can appreciate what they sell, make, or serve. Once we know how a gift WORKS, the NEED it fills, and the BENEFIT we receive – THEN the gift makes sense to us, and we are prepared to receive it and value it.
And this includes the gift that Jesus has given US in his body and blood in Holy Communion. We question how it works. HOW do these wafers and wine BECOME the body and blood of Jesus? Different church denominations have argued over this question for twenty centuries! And then we question why we NEED Holy Communion. Specifically, we ask how OFTEN do we need it, and how OLD should we be to need it, and these questions have caused church-splitting arguments as well. And finally, we question the BENEFIT we receive through Holy Communion. Do the benefits include acceptance in the community, and should they therefore be limited to only members in good standing? More arguments, more divisiveness. Is it any wonder then, that as Christians we do not value the gift of Jesus' body and blood as we should? We cannot agree on how Holy Communion makes sense. “How, Why, and for What does this man give us his flesh to eat?”