How to Leave Jesus...or Not

[53] So 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....

[60] When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 

"This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" ...

[66] After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 

[67] So Jesus said to the Twelve, 

"Do you want to go away as well?" 

[68] Simon Peter answered him, 

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, [69] and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."  

[Jhn 6:53-69 ESV]

If we had the time this morning to read the entire context of these verses, we would see that in the course of a few verses, Jesus goes from being followed by multitudes to being followed by only a few.

In verses 1-4 we find that the setting is near the Sea of Galilee. The timing is early spring as the Passover feast nears. Jesus feed 5000 men with five loaves and 2 fish with such abundance that 12 baskets full were picked up afterward. The people were so impressed with this that they were ready to coronate him as king on the spot. Jesus gave them the slip. That night, Jesus walks on water across the sea. The next day the crowds find him again and come asking for more bread. The deal they try to make sounded like this:

"Feed us bread like Moses did and we will believe you."

In other words,

"We will follow you as long as it satisfies our flesh."

This is the "deal" that they want Jesus to take. They assume that a man with this kind of power must have political ambition. They make a political calculation that he is so desperate for followers that he will purchase their loyalty with favors. They even quote scripture.  Jesus isn't interested in their offer.

Instead, he makes a spiritual application to a physical event.

When we drop into this passage like we just did in verse 53 it sounds rather gruesome to be honest, but in the context of the Passover feast, Jesus is pointing out to them that his purpose is not merely to sustain them in the wilderness, but to deliver them from a curse of death.

You see, sometimes we lose track of where we are in our walk with God. These people thought they were "okay" spiritually and were in search of the physical blessings of God. What they really needed was to be delivered from the spirit of "Egypt" if you will, from a spirit of carnality, from the bondage of sin.

It was not God's original intention for the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. His original plan was for them to escape Egypt, go to Horeb and receive the Law, and then enter the Promised Land. It was because of disbelief that they failed to enter. As a result they spent 40 years in the wilderness simply existing, waiting for the doubters to die.

It is not God’s will for us to wander aimlessly in our walk with him either. Too often believers get stuck somewhere between being “delivered from Egypt” and entering a victorious Christian life.

For several verses Jesus tries to correct their theology. Then, when it becomes apparent that Jesus isn't going to feed them loaves and fish again, they start to complain.

• They complained.
•  They doubted.
•  They left.

The Crowd Left when Jesus' message did not align with their desire for carnal fulfillment. The crowd left because Jesus turned their attention from the temporal to the eternal. Up until this time Jesus has healed them and fed them. The crowd is happy to follow Jesus and enjoy the benefits that accompany him, but when the hard truths are revealed, they leave.

Many of the disciples left when the crowd left.

Just this week I heard someone say, “people follow people.” There is a difference in loving Jesus and loving the idea of Jesus. There is something appealing about rallying around a unifying force. When the crowd left, it stopped being fun. The entertainment value dropped. The prestige diminished. The disciples first grumbled, then they left.

Then Jesus looked at the Twelve and asked if they would leave also. The answer of the inner circle is instructive. Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go?...” Now in all fairness, there are plenty of places to go.

• These men could return to sea.
• They could join a political movement.
• They could go join the Essenes in the wilderness.
• They could go join the Roman Army for that matter.

But they didn't. The problem with all of these options is that they had already been close to Jesus and they knew that Jesus had “the words of eternal life.”  The difference between the crowd, the casual disciples and the twelve is that the twelve had spent time alone with Jesus. They ate with him. Slept outside in the dark with him. In short, the way they knew him is because they spent time with him.

You see, it is possible to “kinda, sorta” follow Jesus without ever really getting close to him. You are inside the fence of the Tabernacle, so to speak, but you get stuck somewhere between the brazen altar and the laver. You never move on into the Holy Place. You never gain access to the deep things of God. When you are out here it is still easy to be enticed by the things of the world, but when you enter the holy place you can see yourself in the reflection of his glory.

In the Holy Place you:

• Smell the sweetness of prayer.
• You are enticed by the showbread of his word.
• You are illuminated by the light of his Spirit.

And then, once you enter the Holy of Holies, you learn to rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

The question today is are you:

• a member of the crowd
• a casual disciple
• one of those close to Jesus

You may not really know right now, but when the hard time comes, you will know. Here is a little grain of wisdom: don’t wait until the hard time arrives to prepare for the hard time. You prepare beforehand. You prepare alone with Jesus.

God Bless.