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Summary
In John 6, Jesus multiplies the fish and the loaves, escapes the crowd that wants to make Him king,
comes to His disciples walking on the raging sea in the fourth watch of the night, and then preaches
to the same crowd looking for more bread. He preaches the Beautiful Gospel, and the same crowd
says, “That’s hard. Who can listen to it?” And they leave.
John 6:35, “I am the bread of life,” says Jesus.
John 6:36, “You have seen and yet do not believe.” That means that they’re dead (John 5:24). They
are the walking dead: “Dead in their trespasses and the uncircumcision of the flesh,” to use Paul’s
words.
John 6:40, “This is the will of the Father, that all (Adam), beholding the Son and trusting in Him,
should have eternal life (the life of the age), and I will raise Him up in the last day (the 7th day).”
John 6:41, “The Jews (remember John and Jesus are Jews) grumbled about Him… They said, ‘Is this
not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?’”
John 6:52, “The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to
eat?’”
Imagine if you were a Jew around 30 A.D. — you wouldn’t be thinking “a little cup of wine and a
little cracker”; you’d be thinking, “Cannibalism!?!?”
John 6:53, “So 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.’”
That sounds like a zombie. Zombies can’t think for themselves, and they travel in groups; that’s
called “a crowd.” They’re stiff because they are “stiffs”; they can’t dance. They can be found gnawing
on the living. Even worse than a zombie is a vampire. And for a Jew… unthinkable. “You will not eat
the flesh with its blood. The life is in the blood.” That was the idea behind all sacrifice in the
temple…and actually is the thing going on in every living body.
Is Jesus telling them to be Zombies and Vampires (in which case they would have life “in them”), or
is He implying that they already are (and who doesn’t have “life” in them)? God breathed the
“breath of life” into “the dust of the earth,” and Adam became a living soul. How can someone have
life in them and yet not be truly living their life?
On the 6th Day of Creation, God breathed the breath of life into each one of us, and then each of us
listened to the lie of the snake in the garden of the soul as he said, “Take the fruit and make yourself
in the image of God.” But none of us made our true selves; we each made a false self — an ego
constructed with fig leaves, lies, and fear. There is no Truth in a False Self. The Truth is the Life, and
the Life is the Breath, and God is Breath (Spirit). “In God (like air), we live, move, and have our
being,” AND the breath of God is in us, like air trapped in an earthen vessel. That’s Life in a “body of
death,” surrounded by Life. What’s wrong with us? We’re not breathing.
We’ve each been in-spired (in-spirited); the breath was breathed in. But we’re terrified to expire, to
breathe out. It seems that Jesus was the first Adam to freely surrender His Spirit back to God, to
expire. He did it on the tree in the garden on the Holy Mountain. So, He was inspired, then expired,
and God inspired Him once again. He lost His life and found it. Inspired, expired, and re-spired — that’s respiration; that’s breathing; that’s blood flow. In a body, every member constantly loses its
life and finds its life — a river of life flowing through each and every vessel.
Adam (humanity) took the fruit from the tree, which gave him knowledge of the good and also
knowledge that he had chosen the evil. Afraid for himself, and then afraid of himself, he held his
breath. “The devil keeps us in lifelong bondage through the fear of death” — that is, expiration. But
if expiration is followed by more inspiration, and expiration and inspiration, that’s respiration,
which is Life. Death is literally saving your life (the Life in you); it’s banking “your life” like manna.
Perhaps the difference between life and eternal life is like the difference between breath and
breathing. If you refuse to breathe, to lose your life and find it, you must be one of the undead dead:
A true self trapped in a false self, like a zombie or a vampire.
John 6:54, “The one gnawing (literal translation) on my flesh and drinking my blood has eternal life
and I will raise him up in the last day.”
Confused: “Gnawing and drinking”? What is that: Good or bad, Life or death?
Take a look at the tree in the middle of the garden on the Holy Mountain with that beaten naked
man hanging upon it like fruit. Is that Good or bad, Life or death?
Take a look at the broken bread and wine poured out upon the table in front of you every 7th day. Is
that Good or bad, Life or death?
A.) Our judgment is to take His Life and make it our own. That’s death and evil.
B.) His Judgment is to give His Life and make us His own. That’s the Good and the Resurrection.
So, which is it? It’s both. But our judgment is temporal and the product of a lie. His Judgment is
eternal; it’s Love; it’s Reality; It’s God.
What is that tree and that table? Maybe it’s a monster trap.
John 6:55, “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” If you were eating false food, you’d
become terribly hungry and never be satisfied. When my children were little and doubted my love,
for they had believed a lie, they would start biting and devouring one another until I would sit each
one down and say, “Look at me. That is not who you are. You are my son; you are my daughter. And
no matter what you do, I will not stop loving you.”
John 6:53, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Last Thursday, I woke up gnawing on all these words and wondering, “Am I a zombie? Am I a
vampire? And if I am, or partly am, how do I kill him?” That’s a problem with zombies and vampires
— they’re already dead. If you fight them, they often just get stronger. And if you hide them in the
dark, well, that’s where they “live” (so to speak); that’s where they walk around and do the most
damage.
In the HBO series “True Blood,” the oldest and most powerful of the vampires wants to die because
he’s sick of being dead. And so, he goes up to the roof to meet the sunrise. Sookie (which is how one
would pronounce “psyche” in biblical Greek — that is, “soul”) goes with him. “How will God punish
me?” he asks. “He doesn’t punish; he forgives,” she responds. “Are you afraid?” she asks. “No, I feel
joy . . . I want to burn.” “Well, I’m afraid for you,” she says, and she starts to cry. “In your tears,” says
Godric the vampire, “I see God.” And then, he walks into the Light, burns in peace, and disappears.
Was he punished? It depends on what you mean by “punishment.”
Did he die? Yes. That’s the second death, the death of death: eternal life.
What about hell? He’d been in hell for 2,000 years. Is that long enough for you?
And so, I woke up at 3:40 a.m., the fourth watch of the night, gnawing on the words and wrestling
with Him who is the Word at the edge of the promised land. “Am I a Vampire? Am I a Zombie? Did I
take your life on the tree?”
I didn’t hear words, but I think He said and is always saying, “Peter, look at me. And listen to me: ‘No
one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord (John 10:18).’ You think that you took my
life; but from the foundation of the world, I arranged to give my life to you, and for you, that I might
live in you, and you would live in me, choosing me in freedom as I have always chosen you. And
now you know: There’s nothing you could do to make me stop loving you. And I cannot love you
more than I do, for I have already loved you with all I am and all I have. You are not what you think
you’ve done; you are what I have done, and I am always doing; you are the image and likeness of
God.”
If you take knowledge of good and evil and judge yourself in space and time, you will turn into a
monster. But when you turn and look into the face of Christ, who is “your life,” the monster will
evaporate, and you will know, “I am who I am.” That’s not hiding the monster; that’s exposing him
to the Light of the Son.
Your monster self is your false self, your shadow self. If he’s been bothering you, don’t hide him,
don’t fight him; just walk him into the light. And Abide.
Jesus took the bread and broke it, saying, “This is my body given to you.” (He gave it before we took
it, and He gave it to you 2,000 years before you could even try.) And He took the cup, saying, “This is
the Covenant in my blood; drink of it, all of you.”
When we come to the communion table, we confess OUR SIN: that we have believed the lie and so
attempted to take His life to make ourselves like Him. And we receive HIS GRACE: Living Knowledge
that He has always given His life and made us like Himself.
And knowing Him (John 17:3) is eternal life (the life of the age); it’s faith in Grace by Grace; it’s
breathing the air — the free air — in the Kingdom of God.