It may not be about the sacrament, but it is sacramental. That was the sparkly line of a chapel sermon that was brought back to my mind recently. John chapter 6 is called the bread of life discourse. We started reading it last week and will complete it next week. Which causes a problem in hymn selection. After you burn all the decent “bread of life” type hymns in the first week, and go with the secondary and standard praise ones the second week. What do you do the third? I guess take vacation. Half kidding, although the connection between the hymns and the texts certainly becomes looser than I like.
Some of the meat behind that sparkly line – not about the sacrament, but is sacramental – is that Luther himself was strident that John 6 had nothing to do with Holy Communion. It was not about the sacrament. Of course with Luther so much was about polemics. He was always in a fight with somebody. In this case the fight was over the Word. John 6 is one of those places where a spiritual or allegorical reading is very natural. When Jesus says “the bread of life that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:51)” and commands you to eat it, immediately jumping to the Lord’s Supper is natural. Most of us can’t imagine a way to take that without jumping to the Lord’s Supper. Luther insisted that gave too much away and missed the reality of what John was writing. And any spiritual or allegorical jump could not just be made up, but it had to be grounded in the reality of the Word.
In this case the reality that Jesus is confronting is Jewish unbelief in who Jesus is. They are happy to be the recipients of Jesus’ miracles. They would like the bread he multiplied. They ask about what signs he will perform. But they do not believe what the signs testify about. If you look up the definition of sacramental you will have to go to an old dictionary for help. The current online ones are much like our simple reading of John 6, sacramental means “pertaining to the sacraments” and nothing more. You’d have to find one that still has multiple definitions or uses where you would find a definition something like “an outward visible sign of an inward grace.” The sacraments themselves – baptism and the Lord’s supper – are specific instances where the grace of God is promised attached to visible elements. We Lutherans define the sacraments themselves with three points: 1) Instituted by Jesus, 2) Visible elements, 3) For forgiveness. Baptismal water is not simply water only, but the water connected to the word. But before you talk about the sacraments which are means of Grace, you must talk about faith in Christ alone. The bread and the signs and the wonders that Jesus performed were the outward visible signs pointing at His grace. The sacraments themselves rest upon faith in the one who instituted them.
And that is what Luther insisted John 6 was about. Jesus himself is the sacrament of God. “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And 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 (John 6:39).” The Grace of the Father has appeared in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. And this grace of the Father is for you. “But the Jews grumbled about him, because he said ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven. (John 6:41).’”
And this is the crisis of all sacramental things. When you see them, you know. You no longer have an excuse. Christ has been placed before all mankind. “They will all be taught by God (John 6:45).” We have all been taught by God. This Christ, this cross, this resurrection, these Words are for you. “Truly, Truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life (John 6:47-48).” We have seen. We know. We do not have an excuse. Walking away from the bread of life, is walking away from life. All sacramentals are two edged swords. Used properly in faith they cut the knot of our problem with sin. But used improperly, in disbelief or blasphemy, they are deadly to ourselves.