The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It

by Jamin Goggin

As the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness, they were in a land bereft of basic human necessities: water and food. When the people “came to the wilderness of Sin” (Ex. 16:1), they grumbled against Moses because they were hungry. They longed for sustenance. God had rescued them from a land of slavery, but now they found themselves in a cruel, dry land, very hungry, and no doubt very weak. God provided for their need and rained down manna from heaven. Jesus again pulls this part of the exodus story into his own life and work, proclaiming, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. . . . I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:32–33, 35). In the wilderness of faith there is only one source of nourishment: Jesus. So we come to the Communion Table desperately in need of food and drink. We present ourselves to God as those who are weak. At the Communion Table we acknowledge that it is in Jesus’ death that we have life, and it is in weakness that we find power. We read in John 6:53–56: “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ...