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Why Following Jesus Isn't
Easy John 6:60-71
According to the Knight-Ridder News Service,
the inscription on the metal bands used by the U.S. Department of the
Interior to tag migratory birds has been changed. The bands used to bear
the address of the Washington Biological Survey, abbreviated
Wash. Biol. Surv.
until the agency received the following letter from an Arkansas camper:
"Dear Sirs:
While camping last week I shot one of your birds. I think it was a crow.
I followed the cooking instructions on the leg tag and I want to tell
you it was horrible."
The bands are now marked Fish and Wildlife Service.
It's frustrating to be misunderstood. We go to great lengths to keep
from being misunderstood. And we want to be understood, not only when we
speak or try to communicate with others, but also as a person. Have you
ever had trouble getting your point across?
I am sure that we all have had this kind of frustration from time to
time. And we are not so sure whether we are the problem in the way we
communicate or whether the person to whom we are talking is not
listening well.
During the last few weeks we have been studying words Jesus said that
were hard to understand.
Last time we noted that Jesus said (53-56):
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. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever
feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Eat flesh and drink blood it would have been at this point in time, I
would have said something to Jesus like, “Would you like to rephrase
that? You are starting to sound kind of weird.” But Jesus stuck with it
Because Jesus’ mission was always to get people to look past the
material and see the spiritual. The people had been stuck on the
material. After all, the day before Jesus had just fed over 5000 people.
He had, in effect, become to them, the all-you-can-eat buffet man. But
when, Jesus claimed to come from heaven and be the bread of life, the
people could not stomach it. Jesus, though, was encouraging them to look
beyond the obvious temporal world, and see the eternal.
As we come to this last section of verses in chapter 6, we see this
frustration come to a disappointing end for some that had been following
Jesus.
In the recorded incident of John 6:60-71, we will find six turn of
events of what it is like to follow Jesus. This text takes twists and
turns as we see the conflict come to a climax.
The disturbance (60-61).
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying;
who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples
were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?”
A struggle begins because the real Jesus is not always easy to listen to
or follow. For many, Jesus had been easy to follow at this point. He had
done great things. He had performed miracles and healings. He had fed
over 5,000. It is easy to follow someone who does those kinds of things.
But now it was getting more difficult. The text tells us that they were
listening. They were taking it all in, hearing with appreciation. And
they were rightfully concluding that this was hard. Following Jesus was
no longer going to be an easy task, because He was saying things that
disrupted and upset the orthodoxy of the day.
Jesus knows, by the way, that He is doing that very thing. And He also
knew what their attitude was and how it was with them.
The explanation (62-65).
“Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was
before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The
words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some
of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those
were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he
said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is
granted him by the Father.”
Did they really need one more miracle to understand Jesus?
Jesus asks, “What if you saw me rising up into the sky returning into
heaven from which I came? Would that help you believe?” Or I would have
put it like this:
“If you would continue to the end and saw me ascending into the heavens,
thus removing my body from the earth, you would understand that I am not
talking about flesh and bones, meat and blood, but rather I am talking
about what those things symbolize, that ‘it is the spirit that gives
life, and the flesh is of no help.’”
But there is not going to be another miracle for these. They have the
opportunity to believe, because they have heard the words of Jesus.
But Jesus words must be understood spiritually if they are going to be
understood at all.
The people have not grasped the spiritual meaning of His words. They
have locked into the physical and literal meaning and are failing to see
that these creative utterances have the power to give life. For if they
take them to heart and consume these words, they will be transformed.
When they are taken in and become part of us, an eternal change comes.
Jesus also continues to communicate that no one can naturally believe on
their own. The life-giving ministry of the Spirit must draw them. This
means that those who cannot grasp His words lack the Spirit.
In the big picture of things, this means that Jesus knows that not
everybody is going to be with Him.
But He is well aware of the cost. Jesus serenely goes on His way,
because He knows where He is going, whether anyone follows Him or not.
The grand exodus (66).
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with
him.
We can’t help but feel a great deal of sadness at this point. It had
been looking great. The enlargement campaign had been very successful.
But the grumbling had turned to arguing, which then turned into
rejecting. Everybody, except the Twelve, deserted Jesus. These people
were like the rocky ground in the Parable of the Sower. They had quickly
embraced Jesus without fully grasping what it would mean and cost. Now
they had withered away.
On another occasion, Jesus would say “He who is not with me is against
me.”
This certainly applies here as well. There had been many that followed
Jesus as disciples, but they did not really believe Him in the way He
was defining His mission and ministry as the Messiah. They had had their
temporal needs met, but now He was rearranging their spiritual
priorities. This was more than they had anticipated, so they were out of
there. But in doing so, they showed their “true colors.” They were not
for Jesus. They were against Him.
The test (67)
So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
In today’s church, we think bigger is better. But not Jesus, He thinned
the ranks. All that is left are the Twelve. So Jesus asks them the
question that expects the negative answer, “You want to go too, don’t
you?” It was a determining test, for them and us. What do you really
want? The process or the product?
The people that had left had loved the product. People were getting
well. People were being fed. Life was good. But Jesus was pointing to a
process, for in the process is a relationship. For, simply, what we are
to really want is Jesus Himself.
The grand proclamation (68-69).
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you
are the Holy One of God.”
Simply the true believer does not quit!
The true believer does not quit, because He cannot quit. It is Peter, of
course, that gives the response. I can imagine Him saying something like
this:
“Lord, You are not easy to live with. You embarrass us and, at times,
You frighten us. We don’t always understand You, and yet, Your words are
the most remarkable that have ever been heard. They explain us. They
explain life to us. They satisfy us and we are held here by them.”
You see the true believer becomes more convinced in time. They had been
a part of the process and they were more convinced than ever. Again, I
imagine Peter saying:
“We have seen you. We have believed and we have come to know You. You
fit the prophecies and fulfill the predictions. You are the incomparable
Christ. Where else would we go?”
Peter nailed it, except for one thing
The spy in the camp (70-71).
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of
you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he,
one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.
Peter was wrong at one point—not all of them believed. There was one
that did not fit—Judas. I suppose we all find it amazing that one can be
so close to Jesus and yet so far from Him. How can he see all this, hear
all this, and not believe?
He had the privilege of being taught by Jesus. He had the privilege of
time spent with Jesus. Jesus had extended the privilege of choosing him.
Judas went out with the Twelve to do ministry. He was even trusted with
position of treasurer.
At this point in Jesus’ life, He announces that there is a ”devil” in
their midst. It was an unusual statement and full of meaning. For this
means that Judas was always resistant, always opposed and always out for
himself. He was never in line with the mission and ministry of Jesus.
We have to be careful because there are those that appear to be with
you, but they never have been and never will be.
Outwardly, Judas was a disciple. Outwardly, he was a lover of Jesus.
Inwardly, he was a traitor and an enemy. For ultimately, Judas was only
about Judas.
There was a manager in a large company whose sister passed away and her
funeral was scheduled for a Monday. When he told his boss, the boss said
that she died so that the manager would have to miss work on the busiest
day of the year. He then asked if they could change her burial to
Friday. The boss said, “That would be better for me.”
I am sure we all react to the audacity of this boss. Life (and death) is
not always convenient! But when it comes to Jesus…
Do you view the message of Jesus as inconvenient? I hope so!
He should be inconvenient to us. His words should offend the sloppy way
we do church. His words should offend our haphazard witness. We want a
fellowship that is easy, relaxed and nonchalant.
The issue always is whether we are willing to take Jesus as He is, or
whether we repackage Him to suit our own preferences. Some of us want a
Jesus who is a patsy, not too tough, not too clear, not too demanding,
not too anything, bland and blah. We want a Jesus who is easy, who makes
no demands, who doesn’t strain the brain. Anything more is too
difficult, and we’re out of here.
We have a tendency to desire a “god” in our image rather than submit to
a God who conforms us to His image.
According to this text, there are three different responses to these
words of life. Some of us will believe as Peter, perhaps not always
doing it well, but ultimately be faithful to the end.
Some of us have started well, but we will drop out when we no longer
feel our needs are met. We are more interested in the product we receive
rather than the process. We don’t want to be bothered with studying and
understanding these words of life. So when we are enticed to do the
wrong thing, it is rather easy to fall for the lies. Because our
approach to our faith is lazy, we are characterized by compromise. Thus,
we will rationalize our behavior, deliberately go contrary to God’s Word
and eventually drop out, telling ourselves it was just a phase in our
life.
Some of us stay with Jesus for own purposes. We want to appear to be a
Christian, but we are not. We are only for ourselves and will ultimately
be a defector.
I am not hear today to judge where you are among those responses, but I
do know that I have seen way too much of the second and third responses
in my life.
So I want to encourage you to follow Jesus. Go for the process of
knowing Him, even when it is hard to understand Him…even when it is hard
to follow Him
We follow Jesus (No Matter How Hard It Is!).
Some animals have the curious habit of steering a straight course, no
matter what obstacles may be in the way. A black bear swimming in the
water, for instance, will not turn to the right or left for any
reason-boats, floating logs, reeds, or whatever.
Large tropical snakes will slither right over a boat or canoe rather
than go around it in the water. Some turtles are so determined to
proceed in a straight line that they will push headfirst all day against
a telephone pole rather than go around it.
We may laugh at these animals for their stubbornness or stupidity; but
they are only following an instinct buried deep inside them. This
instinct also lies deep within many human beings. Sometimes it results
in tragic or foolish mistakes. But when guided and focused by the Holy
Spirit, this instinct to steer a straight course matter what the
obstacle becomes a marvelous thing.
Jesus left the remaining eleven disciples with a tremendous task: “Go
into the world and make disciples of all nations.” What were these men
and a handful of followers against the entire world? Yet their
single-minded determination to follow Jesus, inspired by the Spirit,
turned the world upside down.
If we are Jesus’ disciples, we too carry within us the seeds of that
determination. We can either dismiss it as foolish stubbornness or bring
it to God’s Spirit for focus and direction. Around us is a world that is
waiting for a handful of people to turn it upside down again.
I want to challenge you to remember that today when we come to the
table, we come because of Jesus. He has offered us, as the bread coming
from heaven, words of life. We have partaken of these words and found
them sweet and true. We know Him as our Savior and Lord.
We practice “communion” because we are to remember the death of the Lord
Jesus. We take the bread to remind us that it was by the body of our
Savior that our salvation came. He died in our place. He became our
substitute.
We take the cup to remind us that it was by the blood of our Savior that
our salvation came. He died for our sins. He became our sacrifice.
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