CHRIST OUR PASSOVER IS SACRIFICED FOR US

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MARCH 22^nd, 2009

John 6:11 "Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them."

The feeding of the 5,000 is one of the best known stories in the Gospels. It is significant because it actually features in all four of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This is not always the case - many of the miracles and incidents only occur in perhaps some of the first three, or only in John.

As usual, when we look at Saint John's record of this event we see some differences. The first one is that Jesus' multiplication of the loaves to feed the 5,000 is called a sign. Saint John has several significant events which he describes as a sign.

The first one - at the beginning of his ministry - was the Wedding at Cana, when he provided more wine because the wine had run out. Saint John finishes the description of that miracle by saying: "This, the first of signs, he did at Cana in Galilee. He let his glory be seen."

He let his glory be seen in the changing of water into wine. So for Saint John the glory of the Christ is seen in what he does - as simple and as ordinary as it may be. There was no lightening or thunder, just this simple sign. Just ordinary situations where there was a need:

• Not enough wine for the wedding guests.
• Not enough bread to feed the hungry thousands.

There is a lesson here. In times of need Jesus will be present and supply the need. And when he does it in the form of a miracle, it is sign of who he is.

Such natural multiplications could only be performed by one who transcended creation - who was in fact divine. It is not the sort of thing we expect from Jesus. We associate him with healing miracles and other such things. But this is intervention in nature.

The multiplying of bread, and the changing of water into wine is something else, it's a natural miracle. Because it can only be performed by someone who transcends nature, who transcends creation, it shows that Jesus was in fact divine.

If Jesus is indeed God Incarnate, the feeding of the 5,000 presents no difficulty at all. But, if Jesus is something less than divine - just a wandering Rabbi who managed to cure people - then the thing he does on this day is quite incredible, and maybe should be seen merely as an act of sharing around a few loaves of bread.

That is why Saint John says that when the people saw this sign which he had done, it was a sign that they believed. This miracle was another sign of who Jesus really is, and what his true nature is. Jesus is Lord of creation because - as Saint John says in his prologue - "Through him all things were made, and without was not anything made that was made". Because Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is the one through whom everything was made, everything of creation - therefore He is Lord of creation. And that is one of the meanings of this incredible miracle.

The second thing about Saint John's record of the feeding of the 5,000 (as apposed to Matthew, Mark, and Luke) is that in this chapter (John 6) the miracle is followed by a very long discourse and teaching by Jesus about the Eucharist. The connection is quite deliberate.

For a start, where Saint John says: "When he had given thanks" Saint John uses the Greek word for thanks, which in Greek is "Eucharistesas" - from which we get the word "Eucharist" to describe this Sacrament. The connection between Jesus giving thanks, and creating the miracle, and the Eucharist itself is direct and deliberate. There is a connection between what Jesus does, and what we do today as we celebrate the Eucharist.

John 6 is full of Jesus' teaching on the Eucharist.

+ Jesus says: "I am the Bread of Life, anyone who eats this bread will live forever." A promise about the benefits of Holy Communion.

+ Later on he says: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day."

+ Again he says: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you".

As we go through John 6, we see the teaching of Jesus developing from a statement that he is the "Bread of Life" to a compulsion about the Holy Communion.

In the first century, all this talk about Christians eating the flesh of Christ led to the accusation by Pagans that Christians were cannibals. You can understand how they would think that without knowledge of the Gospel.

To the outsider, eating the flesh of Christ makes no sense - until you remember that at the Last Supper Jesus took the bread of the Passover in his hands and said: "Take this all of you and eat it, for this is my body which will be given up for you" . Words we are so familiar with.

Notice the connection. Jesus says: "This is my body which will be given up for you" - referring of course to the very next day, Good Friday.

Scholars point out that Saint John does not record the actual Last Supper on Maundy Thursday - all he has is a record of the washing of the feet, which was an integral part of the Passover meal that Jesus celebrated. Matthew, Mark, and Luke do have the Last Supper, but not the washing of the feet.

However, Saint John chapter 6 has some deep and real teaching about the Eucharist and the nature of the Sacrament, which Christ instituted in the evening of Maundy Thursday. Thus the early Church saw the feeding of the 5,000 as a sign both of the person of Jesus - the divine Son - and also an image of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.

How fortuitous it is then that in this parish on Wednesday night, five parishioners will be confirmed and three of them will receive the Holy Communion for the very first time. Then next Sunday, four of our children will receive their First Holy Communion. This is such a wonderful development of the theme of today's Gospel. And what an adventure these young people and adults are beginning in their Christian lives - strengthened by the Holy Spirit as new adults in the Church, and now receiving all the benefits of Holy Communion.

Those of us who have been doing this for quite awhile, can never fully explain the sacred mystery of the Eucharist. But all of us can speak of its blessings in our lives - particularly in times of distress, sickness, and sadness.

What is the purpose, however, of having this Gospel in the middle of Lent? It bears no relationship, apart from its connection with Maundy Thursday, to the suffering of Christ - nor his death, which we are anticipating in this Lenten season. Yet, it is the Gospel for today Rose Sunday - the day when we have a little respite from the solemnity of the passion of Lent. It is a good day, therefore to recall the graciousness with which our Lord feeds us, his faithful people, in Holy Communion.

Saint John's record of the feeding of the 5,000 invites us to a deeper understanding of the mystery of this Sacrament. For a start there is a subtle significance in the way the story opens. Saint John says: "Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand." This is a very significant statement, as inconsequential as it looks. For, unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Saint John has two Passovers in the ministry of our Lord. He has this first one at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, and then he has the later one - Good Friday.

The other three Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke only have the one - the great Passover when Jesus was crucified. So in his description, "the Passover was at hand", Saint John is already giving us a hint of the later Passover which is to come - the Passover of the Passion of Christ. In focusing on the feeding of the 5,000 - this image and pre-figurement of the Eucharist - Saint John gives us a hint of the Passover to come.

On the night that he was betrayed - Maundy Thursday - when he shared the Passover meal with the Apostles in the Upper Room, Jesus instituted the Eucharist as the abiding memorial of his Passion. And it was not just a taking of the Passover and giving it a new meaning, in a Christian sense. There was much more to that Passover on Maundy Thursday than just a Christian claiming of the Jewish tradition.

In Jesus' words, "This is my body which will be given up for you", Jesus not only establishes the Eucharist as the means by which his wonderful presence will be manifested to his people forever - but as he holds the bread and says, "this body will be given up for you", it is a direct reference to tomorrow - Good Friday - when the same body will be on the Cross enduring his Passion, and ultimately dying for the sins of the world.

That is why Saint Paul says: "Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes". The mystery of the Eucharist as a proclamation of the death of Christ is almost beyond explaining - but it goes back to Maundy Thursday and the first Eucharist given by Christ to his Church.

Finally, the feeding of the 5,000 reminds us that the death and resurrection of Christ was already fore-shadowed long ago in the Passover of the Jews. That is why Jesus' death occurred at Passover - and why Maundy Thursday was the Passover meal. It was not just a gathering of friends - it was a ritual act done every year. It was in the context of that ritual act that Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice.

The Passover in Egypt, when God saved his people from slavery, was done by the blood of the sacrificial Lamb put on the doorways of their houses in Egypt. The angel of death "Passed over" the homes of the Jews when the blood of the sacrificial Lamb was seen.

Jesus - by his death on the Cross - is the Lamb of God who frees us from sin. And by his blood sacrificed on the Cross he becomes the new Passover Lamb.

And then after the Passover, when they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, the Jews became hungry. At Moses’ pleading God sent Manna - Bread from Heaven - to feed them on their pilgrimage. Similarly, we are fed by Jesus, the Lamb of God, as we journey towards the promised land – fed with the true Bread from Heaven in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

All these images will come to a great focus as we approach Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. But even now we already have an understanding.

That is why at every Mass we anticipate this Bread of Life when we declare with Saint Paul: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast".