[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.
