Do You Also Wish to Go Away?

John 6:56-69

Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” 

For the last several weeks we have been listening to the Gospel according to John.  We have seen Him feed the 5000 who, offered the Bread of Life, nonetheless prefer the worldly bread, the mana, that fills their bellies and will sustain them only to their deaths.  We have watched Him walk on water to a boat filled with His terrified disciples.  We have heard Him stun and confuse the Jews by calling Himself the Bread of Life, when they all know that to be the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments.

Last week we heard the words with which Jesus instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion.  And in today’s Gospel He again speaks the words that define our belief in what occurs with the bread and wine in communion.  We listen with interest, but do we ever try to put ourselves in the shoes of those who first heard Jesus speak these words?  Think about it.  Think seriously about how it must have sounded to those gathered to hear Him speak.

Jesus is addressing a gathering in the synagogue.  In the past, the congregation has heard this controversial rabbi interpreting Scripture, and making astounding statements.  But today the image Jesus presents is appalling. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood…”.   How would those words fall on our ears if we sat in the synagogue that day?

When many of His disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?  And Jesus is aware of how difficult what He is saying must be for His listeners to accept.  He says, “Among you there are some who do not believe.”

The word translated as “believe” is, in the original Greek of our New Testament, “pisteuo”.  [pisstee’ro]  In Jesus day that word more commonly meant to trust or rely on.  We sit in the synagogue, hear His words, and our first thoughts as good Jews are of the dietary laws of our faith.  We are immediately greatly offended.  Our kosher laws forbid eating meat and blood together.  In fact, drinking blood is forbidden.  The verb He has used implies eating in a rude and noisy manner, the way animals eat.  And then, what He has said sounds very much like cannibalism.

 And as if all this isn’t offensive enough, His choice of location for saying this is the synagogue.  Sitting in the synagogue at Capernaum listening to Him, we are thinking angrily to ourselves, “You’re right!  Who can trust such an outrageous statement, and how dare you say such things here?”

And Jesus asks, “Does this offend you?”  The actual word in Greek translates better as “scandalize”.  Are they scandalized?  Indeed, they are. 

What Jesus has said is so offensive to some disciples, “Many turned back and no longer went about with Him.”  Disciples walked away.  Obviously they were not just folks who showed up at, as we would say, “Christmas and Easter”. These folks were committed to Jesus – at least for a while, until things got a little tough and demanding, until things went beyond their understanding.  (We really prefer things to be within our ability to thoroughly understand them.)  In their anxiety they might have said, “We like Him, but can we do what He is asking?”  The answer for them was, obviously, “No!’.

This must have hurt our Lord.  Being fully human, think how He must have felt.  Unlike us, with our pride, He would not have been offended.  Rather, it would have caused Him sorrow, seeing many who had been with Him for a while just get up and leave, because He knew what they were turning away from and leaving behind.  That is the pain felt by a loving heart. 

And then for Jesus there is an even deeper concern.  He called the twelve together and asked them, point blank: “Do you also wish to go away?”

Jesus knew that He had to tell them all that He had said, He could not keep quiet about the Truth, and many disciples had left.  Now He had to know where the Twelve stood.  Think of the tough questions that we have had to ask in business, at home, socially, or at church.  How have we felt about asking question whose answers affect the lives of those we are asking?  In such situations we are uncomfortable.  Jesus may well have felt uncomfortable too, but beyond that He surely would have been deeply concerned as He asked the Twelve if they were also going to leave Him.

Sometimes, no matter how strong our convictions, or how great our desire to journey with Jesus may be, when things get tough, or demanding, or go beyond our understanding, we may want to walk away, to find a spot in the wilderness away from the pressures around us.  Sometimes when we are faced with a truth that’s almost too hard to take, we want to just go home and cry.  We are Jesus followers in this present day, we strive to be as close to Him in our daily lives as any disciple, but even those closest to our Lord can be faced with situations that deeply try our faith.  But - that is how it is meant to be.

Being Jesus’ follower is not easy or comfortable.  It is not meant to bring us worldly security or satisfaction.  It is quite the opposite.  We must sit in the synagogue and reflect.  What have we been expecting from Him?  Have we felt He has not lived up to what we thought He would be and do for us?

If you have not yet reached that point in your relationship with Jesus, where the question, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ applies to you, personally, you will.  If you still hear only comforting words in the Gospel, and have not yet begun to feel uncomfortable and challenged, then much still awaits you. 

To be a follower of Jesus is meant to put us in direct conflict with ourselves, with our limited vision of reality, and with the world.  It requires a change in us, and an alteration in our lives.  No one likes this kind of change, but eventually each of us reaches that point where we must choose, and unquestionably, initially it seems easier to walk away.

It is so much easier to continue on a familiar path, to rationalize, to cling to what we already know.  But to be faithful is not meant to be easy, because to be faithful means we have to put aside personal views and worldly values, we have to alter our vision of reality. 

We are called to accept Jesus, what He has taught us, what He has commanded us to do, all of which go against what the world finds normal and acceptable, goes against what we find comfortable and familiar.  The way of Jesus, the way of Love, is the Way of the Cross.

In the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus discovers who will leave, and who will remain with Him.  He finds out who is a logical, reasonable thinker, and who is not.  Our faith is not logical.  It is all based on Love, our love for our Lord and His command to us to love one another.  But in order to love, much is required of us.  Kind words to those who perhaps are not kind to us, generosity to those who may not themselves give - gentleness, patience, even when we may not understand fully why these virtues are called for.  We are the people called to be “yes” before the world, even when the world supports and endorses “no”. 

If you do not think following Jesus should be daily challenging and new, you have missed the point.  All of us, at times, prefer comfort, the familiar, the ability to judge by worldly standards, but that is not what is required of a true follower of our Lord.  Jesus calls us, not to the familiar, but to the hard, illogical, unsettling way of Love.

“Choose this day whom you will serve.”  Jesus wants to know from each of us, “’Do you also wish to go away?’”  May we answer with Simon Peter, “‘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.’”

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, we have chosen to follow You, to promise You ourselves, our souls and bodies, to call You friend and Lord; enable us we beseech You, to surrender to You our pride, acknowledging that without You, we are nothing, to surrender to You our hearts, that they may be filled with Your Love, and to surrender our lives to Your service, knowing that in this way we will find contentment, peace, and joy, all this we ask for Your love and mercy’s sake.  Amen