John 6:56-69 Does This Offend You? Grace Aug 23, 2009

James Calvert (1813-1892) was a zealous missionary who ministered to cannibals on the Fiji Islands. His faithful work bore fruit in the lives of people who were accustomed to taking the lives of others.

Years later, an English earl visiting the Fiji Islands became critical of a chief's conversion to Christianity. "You're a great leader," the earl told the chief, "but it's a pity you've been taken in by those foreign missionaries. No one believes the Bible anymore. People are tired of the threadbare story of Christ dying on a cross for the sins of mankind. They know better now. I'm sorry you've been so foolish as to accept their story."

The old chief responded with a gleam in his eyes. "See that great rock over there? On it we smashed the heads of our victims. Notice the furnace next to it. In that oven we formerly roasted the bodies of our enemies. If it hadn't been for those good missionaries and the love of Jesus that changed us from cannibals into Christians, you'd never leave this place! You'd better thank the Lord for the Gospel; otherwise, we'd already be feasting on you. If it weren't for the Bible and its salvation message, you'd now be our supper!"

It was this very thing that the Jews hearing Jesus feared He was asking them to do with Him. We have heard in the last few weeks this Bread of Life discourse in John’s gospel about the eternal life which Jesus offers to those who believe in Him and receive Him by faith. Last weeks passage talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood and that those who did not do this would have no life in them. Some of the Jews that were present had a strong argument about this and asked, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

As we come into the last portion of this discourse the disciples that are present are still focusing on the actual eating of Jesus - cannibalism. This would have been an unacceptable practice to the Jews as it would be for us, but we know it wasn’t about such a practice. They said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” Apparently many can accept it, as we see many in the church around the world today. But some of those present could not accept it. This “difficult teaching” was difficult because it was calling those who heard it to a level of commitment that they had thus far not had to make. Up to this point many had followed Jesus and been enthralled by His teaching and thrilled by the miracles that had thus far been performed, if that’s the right word. But now they were being challenged. He was saying that He was the bread come down from heaven. It was a claim which was, like the manna of the wilderness, sent directly from God. He was trying to help them understand through a metaphor, that He was God in the flesh and that to believe in Him meant life.

The thought that He had come down from heaven was offensive to them. The thought that they had to eat this bread from heaven, His flesh, was offensive to them. He basically asks if seeing the Son of Man ascend back to heaven would be convincing enough for them to believe though He knows that it would not. And so, “many of His disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him.”

Does it ever happen with you that God asks something of you which you find offensive? Does God ever ask something of you that you don’t like, don’t want to do, or maybe which doesn’t make sense to you? Is it because what He asks are hard words or is it because we have hard hearts? In reality, virtually everything God asks of us, things like: believe in Him, forgive others, love enemies or evangelize non-believers, is impossible in and of ourselves. They are only possible through the Spirit working in us but even with that, we can reject what the Spirit is trying to do in us. So the question becomes: are you really open to the Spirit who is at work in you? Open to step outside of your comfort zone and be challenged to broaden your life of faith and action. Or do you just want to stay comfortably where you are and carry on with business as usual? Many of us would prefer that latter but it’s really not the option Jesus ever offers.

He didn’t offer it to the twelve who were present that day. He asked them, “Do you also wish to go away?” It was an offer for them to leave before following Him got more difficult but it was an offer to leave without Him! And Simon Peter, God bless Him, nails it on the head. “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the holy One of God.” Exactly.

So let me end this bread of life discourse in John with a quote from C. S. Lewis. Lewis, in his book "Mere Christianity," makes the following statement about Jesus: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.” And one day, just like the followers of Jesus in today’s story, you must choose which it will be. Will you leave, or maybe just ignore what you don’t like, because His teaching is too difficult? Or will you follow Him knowing that there IS no place else to go because He has, and frankly is, the word of eternal life, that He is the Holy One of God? Amen