Feb 10 2022 Day 289 John 6:22–7:9

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.



Here’s where I get tripped up theologically. At the same time, I remember the context of John, a persecuted group desperately trying to keep themselves safe from those who were persecuting them. They were tortured and executed, and John’s language is exclusionary and protectionist because of it. John was written after the preceding three gospels, which contain many similarities. Some thing John was written 100 years later. In context, that would be like me writing about the roaring ‘20’s, with authority, without access to a library or the internet.

I am not suggesting that John’s not a true Gospel. But it is largely the source of the criticisms of anti-Semitism and religious exclusivism. Given the context and later date of the writing, I am not sure those two sub-plots are as timeless as the parts about God’s only son, and love. Now that I’ve proven my heretical nature or ignorance, I’ll continue.

The last day. That could be some point in the future when Jesus returns and we have some sort of rapture. I don’t know if this will happen, but if it happens in my lifetime, I hope I’m raised up at that moment. If it doesn’t happen in my lifetime, as it hasn’t happened believers since Jesus’ time, I still won’t know what it means, and whether there will be a communal last day.

Another interpretation is that the last day occurs on the day of our last mortal breath. We each have a literal last day. I don’t know what will happen on that day, but I hope that I am lifted up and meet Jesus. And other than the occasional story or book about it, we don’t really know what happens on anyone else’s last day. I just have to have faith that it will be a good day.

And if the last day is when we meet Jesus, there is a third interpretation, and it’s that saves us in case the one preceding two are actually accurate. In our lives, in our world, we have the opportunity to meet and see and serve Jesus dozens of times a day. I believe Jesus is in every person I meet (Christian or not), and that I’m called to serve them. If this is true, today is the day I will be lifted up and meet Jesus. Yesterday was the day. Tomorrow is the day. Every moment is the last day, and every moment I can be lifted up.

And if I behave like that’s true, when my life comes to an end or when the collective rapture happens, I believe I’ll have another last day, be lifted up, and meet Jesus all over again.