Pentecost 14 John 6:60-69 “Enabled By God”
Joshua 24:1-2a & 14-18 Ephesians 5:21-31 John 6:60-69
There was once a young boy who was visiting with His uncle and they started talking about Sunday school. The boy, with excitement and wonder in his eyes, was telling His uncle about Noah’s ark. However about halfway through his explanation of what he had learned, his uncle interrupted him and asked, “You don’t really believe that story, do you?” Of course when one is asked a question in this grammatical way, the person asking the question expects that the response will be negative. But much to the uncle’s surprise the little boy said, “Yes, I believe Noah really did what the Bible said God told him to do.”
Even though the little boy was being pressured to agree with a non-believer, he stood firm in his faith. In today’s Bible lessons, we also see some people who stood firm in their faith even though the teachings were hard. In fact there are many accounts in the Bible that the world finds hard to believe.
In last week’s gospel reading is one of the hardest. Let me read it to you; “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” (John 6:51-55) When Jesus told those present about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, however, His words did not sit well with many of them.
The disciples knew the Old Testament lessons and prophesy. They believed in creation, Noah and even the account of Elisha making the iron axe head float in the Jordan River. (2 Kings 6:6). They believed in the promise God made with Abraham to send them a Savior.
The knowledge Jesus had of the Old Testament, His miracles and preaching had attracted many people to Him and they wanted to share in His miracles and to learn from this Rabbi. Some even believed Him to be the promised Messiah. Nevertheless, when Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life come down from heaven, whose flesh they must eat and whose blood they must drink for eternal life, they found it hard to accept.
What Jesus had said was not hard to understand, He spoke plainly but their intellect rebelled. The Congregation of followers found this to be a hard teaching indeed. Many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.
Even when Jesus Himself speaks God’s invitation, it can be rejected. The words Jesus spoke were easy to understand but many left that day because His words were hard to accept. Many who had committed themselves to following Him now returned to their past lifestyles and to life as it was before they had heard of Jesus.
Think of leaving Jesus for a moment. That would free up every Sunday for you to enjoy. When the church asked you for a donation, you could say that you no longer follow Jesus. You would have no religious commitments, no promises to keep, no tithing; you would be free to life to the fullest. Sure you would still do your best to be a good person, the only difference is you would no longer listen to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Moreover, there are many experts in the world to teach you how to be successful and have a better life.
Sounds tempting doesn’t it? But if you have tried to turn away from Christ, and live life to the fullest without Him, you have found a life that is not fulfilling. You have felt the loneliness deep down in your soul that hungers for the Word. Yet have felt that there has to be more to life than just life in this world. You are not alone in your thinking. Many in the world have this hunger; this searching for what they call spirituality.
Even so, many people by nature do not want to follow Jesus Christ. They would much rather be on their own, doing their own thinking, and living their own lives free from the teachings of Jesus Christ. Even for believers, the teachings of the Bible are at best hard for us to obey. Take our Epistle lesson for example, “Submit to one another out of Reverence.” “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives must submit to their Husbands. Husbands love your wives as Christ love the Church.”
To those who do not know Christ as their Savior, the teachings found in Scripture are not only hard to understand and but they are impossible to believe. And as Jesus tells you, “No one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled Him.” Please take note that those who rejected Him wanted to be His disciples, but they found His teachings unacceptable and they stopped following Him. They were not willing to make a commitment to follow Jesus as the only way to obtain eternal life. Those that reject His message turn away from Christ’s way of Salvation and look elsewhere.
Without a doubt, Jesus was saddened when so many turned away. Jesus turned His attention to the twelve. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked? Jesus expects them to give a negative answer by the way He words His question. He is pushing them to tell Him what they believed from the very depths of their hearts. Such a confession would enable them to remain strong in the midst of all the defection.
Essentially what Jesus was asking them was, “Do you still want to be followers? Even after my comments about me being the bread of life. Even after I said you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood? Even after so many have left. Will you go along with the crowd and reject me also or remain as a remnant of those faithful to Me and my Word?”
Now, a person who is spiritually blind cannot see unless the Lord turns on the light. Once the light is turned on, a person is enabled to see down the path that leads to eternal life. Peter let His light shine as he spoke up for the twelve, “Lord to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life.” He admits He knows of no other way than through Jesus Christ.
Peter--moved by the Spirit filled faith found in Christ all that was necessary for Salvation. He acknowledged man’s need to go somewhere for spiritual answers. He saw Jesus clearly as the only way for mankind to have their spiritual needs satisfied. Even though Peter and the twelve did not understand everything that Jesus had taught at that point, they remained willing to remain by Christ’s side.
Over time those who remained loyal to Jesus learned that He has an unconditional love for all those who are willing to follow Him. Christ’s love that goes beyond our understanding led Him to the cross where He took all of our sins upon Himself. Upon that cross, Jesus died for His bride the Church and through His death He paid for the sins of all mankind. Those who are baptized by Him are washed clean by the water and the word. He takes us poor miserable sinners and cleans us up; makes us spotless so we can be united with Him for all eternity.
And He feeds us with His real body and His real blood at the Lord’s Supper thereby renewing and refreshing our souls with life eternal. It is through His Spirit that He enables our spirit to have hope in this life and in the life to come. Eternal life is God’s promise to all who remain followers of Jesus. As our Psalm tells you all, “the Lord redeems His servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in Him.” In Jesus Name, Amen.