이은주목사(예수의 살을 먹고 피를 마시며 산다는 것)

To live by eating Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood
Text: John 6: 56-69

A long time ago, when I was living in Korea, I lived in Seosomun, but when I was old enough to ride a bus by myself, I often went to Hongeun-dong, where my grandmother's house was, by myself. I went to my grandmother's house for various reasons, especially when I thought that what my mother or father had done to me was unfair, to inform my grandmother, a wise judge, who was always on my side, to inform her of the injustice and to appeal to my fairness.After listening to all my stories, my grandmother said, “Why did your mother do that to our kind and smart Eun-ju?”

By the time I got home, all my resentment and disappointment disappeared, my heart was warm with the love that her maternal grandmother had filled, and I enjoyed eating delicious food. My life had regained its composure, and the steps back home were light.My maternal grandmother was a really good cook, and she was a magician who made delicious and nutritious food even when everything was scarce and poor. Anthony Bourdain, who has unfortunately turned his back on the world, but is a successful chef and TV personality who introduced food from all over the world, especially street food, to Americans who until recently had only eaten very ordinary food, said, “Where food culture develops, rich food is the best. It's not a lot of places, but a place where you have to work hard to find food." As I listened to this, I thought of my grandmother. My grandmother, who lost everything after the war and had to survive with her five children in a situation where her husband was paralyzed, continued to perform magic on the table when she had little money to buy food. So I didn't think my grandmothrer was poor. Because the magical dining table enriched the space of the mother-in-law so much.

As I was preparing this sermon, I thought of Seonjiguk among the foods my grandmother used to make. One time I was at my grandmother's house, and an old woman came to her grandmother's house with a huge rubber bucket on her head. A large rubber bucket she carefully set down was filled with a single crimson blood of ox. And the old woman scooped the blood with a ladle and put it in the bowl that her grandmother had put out. Although the red blood was a bit delicate, the savory and delicious Seonjiguk made by the magician's grandmother was enough to get rid of that feeling.The food of African Americans in the southern United States is called soul food. At a time when American law defined blacks as only three-fifths of a human being, and enslaved them, what was their diet? When they killed a cow or a pig, their blood, bones, lungs, giblets, and skins were not eaten by the white masters. Food made from such materials is soul food. My grandmother's Seonji-guk was one such dish. It wasn't until I went to Girls' Middle School that I realized that noble girls don't eat food like Seonji-guk.

There are many stories of eating and drinking in the Bible. Today we read an article in the Gospel of John. In John 2, it is written about the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine. Also, in the first part of the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John we read today, there is the story of Jesus feeding the many hungry people who followed him with the five barley loaves and two fish that the little boy had brought. Our word “salim” means to save people, but then Jesus did salim. For Jesus, this was a sign of who he was.Jesus said that he knew that people said he was “a glutton and a drinker of wine” (Matthew 11:19). He was the type of person who made wine to make the feast more fun, and made a feast for the hungry by multiplying bread, and went into the houses of tax collectors, prostitutes, and Gentiles, who should never be mixed according to Jewish law, eating and drinking with them. People's opinion of Jesus makes sense. However, today's reading does not stop there. Jesus said, “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.57 Just as the living Father sent meand I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:55-58). “Eat my flesh and eat my blood.” I don't eat meat now, but I had a good taste of Seonjiguk about 10 years ago. This is probably because I have lived for the past 4 years as a member of a community of people who follow the so-called Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Religion has been and is often used as a weapon of hate and violence in human history. We repent, resist, and live a life of faith within our own religious traditions, while respecting other religions and living in peace together. The members of this community, created with the belief that they can make it, lived on the training center campus, helped the elders' training center in various ways, cultivated fields to produce food, studied each other's scriptures together, and worshiped together. The major difference between them and those who believe in Islam and Judaism was in eating and drinking. I lived with a white Quaker woman my age and a Muslim woman in her twenties who had been born and lived in Wisconsin. One day, I cooked eggplant with eggplants grown in our field. When Amirah came home, I said, “I cooked with the eggplant you grew. Would you like to try it? I did. Then Amirah replied, “Sure!” but was somehow a little cautious. Then she said, "By the way, did you use soy sauce?" I asked 'Of course!' Amirah, who was reading soy sauce ingredients, said, ‘There is alcohol in this soy sauce. Then, I can't eat'. It was then that I first learned that soy sauce contains alcohol. So, after that, I bought soy sauce made only from soybeans, salt and water. So, Amirah was able to enjoy the food I made with peace of mind.Most of the groups that visited our retreat were Christian groups, but there were also many Jewish groups, and there were also Muslim groups. Of course, pork, which Muslims and Jews do not eat, was not used as a food ingredient. As with Islam, for Jews, you are well aware that their belief in holiness is directly related to food culture. Not all Jewish groups were like this, but therefore, when a group of people eating according to the Jewish diet called kosher came, before that group came, we made sure to clean the kitchen and tableware of the nursing home according to the instructions of the Jewish rabbi. This is called koshering. And for beef or chicken used as ingredients, only Kosher meat must be used. Kosher meat refers to meat that has been completely removed from the flesh of animals that have been slaughtered in a religious slaughter method. This is because Jews, who believe that life belongs to God and that blood is life itself, believe that slaughter that does not follow the religious methods of slaughter is an insult to God and to the living beings being slaughtered. Levicticus 17:10-11 says, “‘I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood,and I will cut them off from the people.11 For the life of a creature is in the blood,and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

There must have been an uproar when he told the Jews, who had a pious tradition to fear God, the source of life, by not eating blood like this, to break the taboo even if they only said, 'You can eat blood or eat meat that has not been drained of blood'. He said, “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” Hearing this, I can understand why the Jews complained and said, “Your words are so difficult to understand, who can understand them?” Was it not natural for many people to leave, shaking his head wildly?'

Jesus, the Jewish rabbi, could not have known that there would be such a reaction. At one time, at the peak of his popularity, thousands of people had to come and take refuge in a secluded place. Jesus said, “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 them” means to countless people including his followers, “Do you know who I am and follow me? This is me!” He declared his identity.According to the other three Gospels besides the Gospel of John, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” However, the characteristic of the Gospel of John is that he did not let people realize who he was, but that Jesus himself clearly revealed his identity by saying, “This is me.” But after hearing Jesus' self-declaration, so many people who had followed Jesus almost all abandoned him and left, and many of his disciples also left. How lonely and lonely Jesus must have been when he asked to his 12 disciples, “Are you going to leave too?”As I lead a Bible study at the Elders' Training Center, a Jewish student asked me, "What kind of Jews were attracted to Jesus?" I asked. What do you think? Who do you think might have been attracted to Jesus? In the Gospels, who found Jesus? Sick people and their family or friends? Tax collectors, prostitutes, hemophiliacs, etc. People who were defined as unclean and kicked out on the margins of society? Those who, like the rich young man, had much, but were looking for something more eternal? Those who were high-ranking Pharisees like Nicodemus, yet felt that there was something special about Jesus that they had never seen or experienced before? Women who have been deprived of opportunities to learn because they are women? Those who were waiting for the Messiah to bring liberation from the Roman Empire?People like Zacchaeus who have money, but are hated and despised by the Jews for their job of collecting taxes owed to the empire in lands that are colonized by the Roman Empire? Those who could not see hope in the Jewish traditions and institutions of the time? And I think it was probably a lot of different people. But, I think they had one thing in common. It is hunger and thirst. There must have been people who were hungry because they had nothing to eat, and there were people who were thirsty because they did not have water to drink, but they are thirsty to be recognized as a whole person, hunger for the sense of belonging of a person who has been rejected as an unclean person, and they cannot live according to their values despite having a lot of money and status. Thirst to break free from the conflicts that come from being in the world, the thirst of a person who is troubled by pressure and has no hope. . .Simply put, weren't these people hungry and thirsty for a better life?However, many have left and few remain. Who stayed, and for what reason? In particular, the first Christians were Jews, so why did they decide to break the taboo and eat Jesus' flesh and drink his blood, knowing that they would be expelled from their ethnic community? What kind of burning thirst caused them to follow Jesus?What are we hungry for and thirsty for to follow Jesus? What kind of life do we want to live?

This situation in which we cannot worship face-to-face tells us that we are still in a COVID-19 pandemic situation. Many people complain of depression, anxiety, and insomnia due to economic loss, mental anxiety, and feelings of deprivation from isolation. Professor Nami Lee, a professor in the Department of Human Systems Medicine at Seoul National University, wrote about this pandemic situation:“The pandemic forces us to face the material orientation, ignorance and irresponsibility of the natural environment, and how the fates of our close neighbors closely affect each other. In particular, perhaps one of the negative consequences of the unsatisfied psychology of pursuing new, better, and more things could be a pandemic. This is because environmental destruction without environmental considerations may continue to create new strains of zoonotic viruses. The optimism that civilization will continue to advance seems no longer persuasive as healthcare and economic systems are being shaken globally by the Covid-19 pandemic. The root of the problem is that, while science and technology are advancing, the relatively spiritual spiritual world has not developed as rapidly. Fortunately, after a global catastrophe, humanity may have a chance to see the roots of the disease as it has to face the dark side of itself and the world.”

So let's take a look at the dark side of our world. One of the news that is pouring through news outlets these days is news about Afghanistan. It goes without saying how grim the reality of what is happening or is expected to happen in Afghanistan due to the withdrawal of U.S. forces on August 16th. However, what makes this grim situation even more difficult is the fact that US military companies made huge sums of money from the US-Afghanistan war from 2001 to a few days ago. It is said that the United States poured 2 trillion dollars (2,000 trillion won) of blood into this war, and even looking at conservative statistics over the past 20 years of the war, 170,000 people including 47,245 citizens lost their lives and many others were injured. During that time, Northrop's share price rose 820% and Lockheed's 700%. Roytheon is up 500% and Boeing is up 475%.In this hour of thinking about the promise that we will be able to lead a very different life, that if we eat Jesus' flesh, drink His blood, and abide in Him, we will taste eternal life and live in Him. This industry of death, which not only kills people, but also destroys the cultural heritage of mankind, and destroys the environment, making it difficult for the living to live, is making a lot of money through war. What should we as followers of Jesus feel, think, and act in response to these facts? In response to Professor Nami Lee's painful point, "The root of the problem is that, while science and technology are developing, the spiritual world has not developed relatively quickly." Our faith community, who has a mission to cultivate the spiritual world What can I say?We will all die someday, and we are always exposed to the power of death throughout our lives. Many of the things we do to build specs, build relationships with powerful people, and get together are actually gestures motivated by our desire to protect ourselves from the forces of death. Living this fierce, calculated life, we devote ourselves to improving our own assets. And, we forget that there are some assets we don't include on our resume. Assets belonging to the spiritual world. Even though my grandmother had almost nothing to write on her resume and had no money, I think that the reason why she was able to work the magic that made her family feel rich was because her earnest desire to save her family and neighbors and the power of love were her resources. do. Such assets made Grandma see if it enriches life, even if it was thrown away by other people, spreads the wings of imagination that creates something out of nothing, and makes her hold on to the string of hope. Using those assets, her grandmother lived herself and saved her family and neighbors. At the root of it, above all else, was Grandmother's strong faith in God, the source of life. Today's scripture tells us, “Just as the living Father sent meand I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” and “You do not want to leave too, do you?”Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him,“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

The flesh and blood of Jesus are the promised gift to those who feel hunger and thirst for eternal life. I think that Jesus and those who were left must have felt this hunger and thirst. What they wanted wasn't just bread or wine. Or, even if they had come to Jesus in the first place, the nature of their thirst would have changed as they listened to Jesus. Because before Jesus said, 'Eat my flesh and drink my blood,' he already said that my flesh and my blood give eternal life, so it is qualitatively different from the bread and drink that your ancestors tasted. Therefore, the few who decided to follow Jesus by eating His flesh and drinking His blood must have been hungry for the eternal life Jesus promised.

What kind of life is eternal life? Are you referring to our continuing life in heaven after we die? Physicist Einstein said, “Time does not exist. Time is our invention. The clock just tells the time. The distinction between past, present and future is nothing more than a stubbornly persistent illusion.” I don't know physics, so I don't really understand Einstein's words. But if we look at the words, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believesin me will never be thirsty,” we can at least assume that eternity is not a future time that begins after death. Because when you eat the flesh of Jesus and drink the blood, you receive eternal life as a gift.That's why Luke's Gospel says, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." When we eat Jesus' flesh and drink his blood, the kingdom of God is already within us. Because our life touches eternity and touches the source of life, we can go on the path of life. The way of life is a way of choosing life, not death. This path is a way to live together by choosing peace over war, justice over injustice, reconciliation over retaliation, and our meal over mine. I believe that that path is the path Jesus took, and that we, who are one body with Jesus by eating his flesh and drinking his blood, must take. We, who vow not to leave Jesus, become the body of Jesus, and with the power, wisdom, discernment, and courage of His love, save people, restore the environment, and save this world that has lost meaning, values, and hope. I sincerely pray that we can work together to make a difference.