"Christmas" is a shortened form of "Christ" plus "mass". "Mass" here is related to the celebration of the Eucharist among followers of Jesus Christ. "Christ" is not the surname or last name of Jesus; it is His title, meaning Messiah. "Messiah" means "anointed one". It refers to the expected Jewish king who was prophesied to come and deliver the Jews from their enemies. Jesus came however to undo the works of satan and to deliver man from his own sins. His is a kingdom of the heart, not a political kingdom.
"Eucharist" comes from a Greek word meaning to show favor, gratitude, grace.. to rejoice. Eucharist is celebrated as a time of communion. Each individual who participates in the communion celebration symbolically partakes of the Life of Jesus Christ. Collectively, each member is considered part of the Body of Christ. Christ is the "Head". His Body is also called the Church or Called Out Ones. We are speaking of life here, not buildings or statues or representation of early saints. The "church" often meets in buildings or homes. However, the building is NOT the church.
The symbols used in the Eucharist are generally a piece of bread and a small cup of juice of the grape. Communion is sharing; perhaps you know the word "communication". So what is shared in the communion time? How can that have anything to do with celebrating Christmas and the Title of this blog, Jesus as a Revolutionary?
Let's dig a little deeper into the Words of Jesus prior to His crucifixion death. The Gospel of John chapter 6 records how Jesus miraculously feeds 5000 men plus women and children from just 5 loaves of bread and two fish. Of course the people were thrilled and wished to make Jesus King right then! Everyone likes a "free lunch", yes? But strangely, Jesus withdrew. This was not the way He would rule as King. The next day Jesus gave perhaps the most revolutionary teaching any man had spoken. Let us hear the exact word of Jesus from the ESV Bible. John 6:22 to 69 says:
22On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" 26Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." 28Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" 29Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." 30So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 32Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."
35Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
41So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 43Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." 59Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
The Words of Eternal Life
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" 68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."I encourage you to study these words. There is some confusion in our world about who Jesus is. Many think He is a good teacher with similar words to Confucius and Buddha and Mohammed and Chief Seattle. But none of these men said we find life by "eating of their flesh and drinking their blood"!
What are the promises of Jesus in this part of the Word of God? First, no one can come to Jesus and receive life eternal unless God, the Father grants it. Second, whoever eats of His flesh and drinks of His blood, Jesus will raise up at the resurrection of the dead. Raised up with a new, imperishable body. Third, whoever eats of the flesh of Jesus and drinks of His blood abides in Jesus and Jesus abides in that person. Intimacy with God, relationship, not a bus ticket to heaven.
"Revolutionary" means that which brings about a major or fundamental change.
No matter who you think Jesus is, most acknowledge that He certainly brought about and continues to bring about a fundamental change. But Jesus changes the inside of a person. We are not talking about external ways to please God -- religious observances such as prayers, alms giving, fasting, pilgrimages, reading Holy Books or forms of self flagellation. Eternal life begins with the change that occurs inside the human heart, which the Word of God says is desperately wicked. Beyond man's attempts to clean and make good. Jesus brought not a sword with which to rule and conquer people. He brought His own flesh and blood body. A body which would be willingly put on a Roman cross of execution. Yes, Jesus went to the cross. Yes He died there. Yes, He is who He said He was--the only One who has seen the Father. Son of Man, Son of God. Son is talking about relationship. Jesus is NOT the son of Mary and Joseph. His miraculous birth made of Him a new man, a second Adam, the firstborn among many brothers. Jesus --perfect God, perfect Man--died as a substitute for all who will put their trust in His blood sacrifice and will repent of their sins.
Maybe you have been thinking about Jesus. Maybe deep in your heart you know you are not right with God. You know a Holy, Sinless God will not allow you into heaven when you die. You are faced with a decision. Accept God's way to become right with Him.. Unless you eat the flesh and drink His blood, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Or depend on your own good works and try and someway earn a place of favor with God.
Jesus is a revolutionary because He said that He is the ONLY way to the Father. The ONLY way to become right with God. The ONLY way into the Kingdom of God. But what could He mean that we get to God by "eating His flesh and drinking His blood"?
In Chapter Six Jesus prophesies His upcoming sacrifice on the cross. Remember, the Old Testament teaches that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Sin required a burnt offering of an animal as well as shed blood. For the life is in the blood. God's Words spoken to Noah. Jesus body would be broken but not burned. His blood would pour out in atonement for man's sins. Jesus, the Sinless Man, would take in His body the full wrath of God against man's sin. God would look upon the perfect, sinless blood of His Son and accept that as full payment for OUR sin debt. That is revolutionary, yes?
He gave His broken body and shed blood willingly as a sacrifice that man might have life eternal.
But Jesus is much more than this. He can become YOUR life now! Bread is called the "staff of life". Jesus called Himself both the Living Bread and the Bread of Life. Perhaps the dual meaning here means just as we eat food [bread] daily and our bodies digest and use it for energy and rebuilding our cells, we can be spiritually nourished by the Life of Christ who abides in each one who has by faith repented of sins and trusted in the shed blood of Jesus to atone for their sins. There is also a deeper meaning. In some mysterious way, God by His Spirit lives in each believer. We are still individual humans--retaining our own personalities. But God can abide and rule in our hearts and we are quite aware of this. If anyone abides in Christ Jesus, He becomes a new creation; the old ways of living pass away, a new way comes. Through the revolutionary new birth brought through the Spirit of God, a person has new desires, new direction, new ways of relating to God and man. There is a fundamental change in direction from being self absorbed to God focused. We become most satisfied with God Himself. Jesus gives life meaning and purpose. When we meet together with other believers in a time of corporate communion and share the broken bread and the cup, we celebrate not only the sacrifice of the broken body of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also the sustenance of His life provides me as well as the shared life we have with each and every believer world wide. Truly globally revolutionary. Part of a world wide family each member a part of one another through the sharing of the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.
But what about "drinking blood"? "Eating flesh". Ugh.. Makes me think of the cannibals of the 1800s that John Paton encountered on the New Hebrides islands.
“Jesus said to them, ‘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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life … 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 … so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.’”
Thankfully, Jesus explains, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” Jesus specifically stated that His words are “spirit.” Jesus was using physical concepts, eating and drinking, to teach spiritual truth. Just as consuming physical food and drink sustains our physical bodies, so are our spiritual lives saved and built up by spiritually receiving Him, by grace through faith. Eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood are symbols of fully and completely receiving Him in our lives. [thanks to www.GotQuestions.org for this explanation]
Author Dr. Paul Brand in his book He Satisfies My Soul adds the idea of the life giving properties of blood in a blood transfusion. Jewish law prohibited eating the meat with the blood in it or drinking blood, so obviously Jesus was not talking about a literal drinking of any blood. Just as a blood transfusion is a share life, a transferred life, so one by grace through faith appropriates the Life of Christ. What else does blood do in the human body? In addition to the energy we get as food is eaten and digested, blood also cleanses the human body. How we desperately need the cleansing power available only through appropriating the shed blood of Jesus which cleanses us from ALL unrighteosness. Hebrews 9:14 speaks of how the blood of Jesus cleanses us from dead works to serve the living God. Another exciting function of blood is it is a great fighter against invading enemies, such as germs which cause disease in our bodies. Revelation 12:11 speaks of how by the blood of the Lamb [another name for Jesus.. behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world] defeats the armies of satan, the enemy of God and mankind. The life of Jesus living in me also gives me power to resist temptations to do wrong. He suffered temptations so that He might help those who are being tempted. Truly there is "power in the blood."
So let's 'wrap this up.' Pun intended. I want to close by sharing a story from Paul Brand's Book He Satisfies My Soul. An Arabic Baptist church in Israel celebrates the communion of the Lord's Supper by each member bringing a handful of grain. Perhaps from his own farm. The grain is collectively put together, ground into flour and baked into a loaf. When taking of the bread, representing the broken body of Christ Jesus for the remission of sins, the group of believers experience a oneness of fellowship that they explain like this: As individual seeds of grain, we remain alone, isolated. After being mixed together and ground into flour and baked as one loaf we experience the life of one another. We experience full fellowship.
So we need daily to be broken and crushed of our sense of pride and self sufficiency and see the need we have for fellow believers.
So for my many other individual members of His Body, I wish you Merry Christmas; thank you for your many prayers for our family. My fellow members of Christ's Body, whether in China, the Philippines, Korea, Mongolia, Burma, Canada, Germany, Holland, the US, Brazil, Slovakia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza Strip, Jordan, African countries--Egypt, South Africa, Uganda, Tunisia, Algeria, Ivory Coast; Romania, UK, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong or Taiwan. Sorry if I forgot your country. In Christ we are one. In Christ, there is no separation. Take, eat, This is My Body, broken for you.. so we remember Him Who came to give us His Life. We also remember one another and the bond of fellowship we enjoy in Him. Let us look forward to the time when we together will rejoice around His throne.. peoples from every tongue, tribe, language group [ I want to be able to speak Chinese and Arabic. :) ] all gathered at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.. oh what a Eucharist that will be!
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