I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. John 6:51

“Location, Location, Location.”

Not only is this cliche an important guide in terms of considering the desirability of a piece of property, but it is also helpful in looking at a particular portion of scripture.

In this week’s case, we’re still talking about the sixth chapter of John in which Jesus identifies himself as the Bread of Life. And when he goes further and instructs his disciples to eat his body and drink his blood, we quickly make the obvious connection to the celebration of Holy Communion.

The interesting nuance here is that this is not happening “on the night in which he was betrayed,” as we usually say in our communion liturgy. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus institutes the sacrament we call Holy Communion during his Last Supper with his disciples. That has forever linked the sacrament to Jesus’ death.

There is a last supper with Jesus and his closest followers in John. But rather than focusing on bread, this version emphasizes that Jesus came to serve, especially made evident when he stoops to wash his disciples’ feet. Jesus instructs his disciples to do as he has done but he never mentions doing it in remembrance of him.

Certainly John, which came later than the other gospels, knew of the tradition of the Lord’s Supper. The question is why did he relocate his talk of eating his body and drinking his blood to the middle of his gospel.

What is this relocation trying to teach us?

I think the point is that Jesus is the living bread–catch that? The key word here is living, not dying. What difference does this make? Jesus, as the bread of life, is connected to the living Jesus, not the dying Jesus. Rather than offering himself on the night he was betrayed, he offers his flesh to eat in the middle of his ministry. What difference does it make to imagine Holy Communion as a marking of Jesus’ life and not a memory of Jesus’ death?

And listen to the promises that are just piled one on top of the other in this chapter:

• “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (V 51)
•  “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day” (Vs. 54).
•  “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” (Vs. 57)
•  “Whoever eats me will live because of me” (Vs. 57)

Notice that all of the promises are in the present tense, not the future.

All of this attention to location should point to one central claim — life. And life, according to John, means that what you need for your life to be sustained God provides, that life is abundant now, not just in the future.  Eternal life is not something you can conveniently and conventionally postpone to your future but is your promise in the present, that any claim about life with Jesus, life with God, means an abiding, a unity, a reciprocity, and oneness. It means real relationship, here and now, life that is not a remembrance of Jesus’ past life or a hope for a future life but life lived in the moment as God’s grace upon grace.