Eat Me

I heard about a t-shirt with an Eucharistic Icon of Jesus with a caption that says, "Eat Me."  If I am not mistaken the shirt was worn by Episcopal college students at the University of Georgia.  As you might have guessed, many took offense at the shirt.  Why?  I'm not sure.  Maybe it was too graphic.  Maybe it was too 'in your face.'  Maybe it was too disrespectful.  Disrespectful to whom I wonder?  Certainly this wasn't disrespectful to Jesus?  Like or not, Jesus said to his followers, Eat Me (NRSV translation: eat my flesh).  These are red letter words in scripture.

Sunday is the last of six lessons from John's Gospel that talk about bread (for a while).  By now the bread sermons are getting a little stale, but the Bread of Life will never go stale (take a moment to shake off that silly pun, remind yourself that puns are the second lowest form of humor, okay it is safe to move on).

These red letter words from Jesus are hard to accept.  Jesus knows this because he asks, "Does this offend you?"  What bothers us the most about this passage?  I imagine a lot of things, but I want to talk a minute to reflect how these words of Jesus expose our biggest fear-not having enough.

It is has been said that we live in a consumer culture.  I would argue that we have always been consumers but it is easier to consume today (at least in middle-upper class USA).  Even so, whether we have a little or a lot, more never seems to be enough.  More wasn't enough for our ancestors in the wilderness.  More isn't enough for me most of the time.

As Walter Brueggamann said at a lecture I attended, we live by the narrative of scarcity, under the assumption that we will never have enough.  He said this in a room full of people whose parishes had millions of dollars in an endowment.  I'll just say the whole scene was kind of interesting.

We are scared to death that we might not have enough.  This fear drives our economy.  Scarcity is the key word in the definition of economy.  In this world, scarcity drives everything we do.  Sometimes scarcity drives us to do things we might not otherwise do (steal, cheat, kill, etc.).

However, Jesus is trying to show us another way.  Jesus is giving us the narrative of abundance, the assumption that in the flesh and blood of Jesus there will always be enough.  Therefore, he says eat me and there will always be enough.  Jesus wants to live under the assumption of abundance.  Jesus wants to show us that we have no reason to be afraid if we live in him.     

Having faith in these words is difficult because they go against reality as we know it.  Then again, Jesus is trying to show us a new reality, a new way of life.  A new way of life can be offensive and difficult.  Jesus' new way of life means giving up all of ourselves to God.  The narrative of scarcity assumes that we are in control.  The narrative of abundance can only mean that God is in control.  Under our own power we will never have enough.

Are we willing to offer to God all that we are and all that we have and say, "that is enough."  That is enough for God.  Why isn't it enough for us?

I thank God that through Jesus Christ we have a way to move from not enough to enough.