The Bread That Unites Us

Holy Thursday

April 17, 2014

John 6:57

The Bread That Unites Us

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Communion is a proper way to speak of this Holy Food that becomes more and more special the more we eat and drink. It doesn't leave us uncomfortable like earthly food or wanting more or wishing that we'd chosen something else to eat. Communion is just the right food for hungry souls that are always fighting off death, both physical and spiritual death.

It's just the right food against death because it is alive. We eat and drink our living Savior's body and blood and through all of His gifts of Baptism, Preaching, and Supper, we are united with Him. And since we are joined to Him, we are also joined to His Father, who is now our Father, who art in heaven.

Jesus would famously say to His followers,

John 14:6-11

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

“Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own. The Father who lives in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.

When you know the Son, you know the Father. Through this vertical connection from heaven down to earth, from Jesus' holy body into our mouths, we are united to the Father, whose name is hallowed. And through Jesus' body, the Word that became flesh, His kingdom comes to you.

II.

We are fighting a common enemy, Death itself. And we have a common Savior, who crushed Death itself. So this Bread of Life also connects us to each other.

As sons and daughters of the same Son and Father in heaven, we are called to live holy lives for each other. We take and eat and then return home and enjoy our prayers together. We wake up and go about the business of life as we busy ourselves with play or go to school or stay to work at home or go out to work. There we find many chances to lose our temper or to become frustrated with the people around us. And we take many of them. But more than those actual flare-ups, we discover our real selves, demanding, bitter, and greedy for ourselves. We see the ugly rebels that we are, who only want other gods. Above all we fear, love, and trust in ourselves.

And so in Communion we seek the forgiveness that only Jesus can give. Communion isn't a mechanical cleansing of one or two weeks of our dirty laundry. It pushes our Selves out of the way, and Jesus gives us His own self.

And so in Communion we together run to Him. Hungry sinners—proud in ourselves and proud in our humility, yet this pride never satisfies us—receive the heavenly Bread of Life. And in Him, we will live together with each other, all for the sake of a heavenly Father and a beloved Son.

John 6:57

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.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.