Backing Away

The ending of John 6 is distressing. Jesus has preached his heart out. He has poured his soul out. He has put the word out. He has explained, demonstrated, exegeted, and illustrated, and still folks are walking away. He is standing at the front of the line asking folks to line up behind Him and they, like five year olds the first week of school, seem not to understand the idea of forming a line. He speaks of unbelief, withdrawl, and betrayal. This is not a happy moment in the life of Jesus. But, he knew this was going to happen. He knew who would believe and who would leave. (This is not Calvinism. Not addressing this now.)  How could anyone not want to walk with Jesus? The coming to faith process is a God-process involving God's Spirit, God's Son, God's word, God's drawing, and God's granting. But, it is also a man-process involving hearing, understanding, believing, obeying, and following. God's gravitational pull is strong. So when folks back away we can see how strong human ignorance and human will can be. The forces of heaven were at work that day, but for all God threw at these hearts, only a few stayed. Most walked. Most backed away.

Let's be clear. This scene in John 6 is about loyalty to Jesus. Most of the disciples walked away from Him and his offer of true bread. But, they also walked away from the twelve. Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and the rest were watching all this unfold too. They had passed out the food Jesus created. They were involved in helping these people be seated in groups of 50. Surely, the disciples who were from the same region as this crowd knew many of them personally. They had done life with them even before they knew Jesus. They had traded with them, visited in their homes, attended synagogue with them, and walked the streets with them. These were friends. These were relatives. They had a personal attachment to those in this crowd. They watched as their master and teacher Jesus labored to teach and persuade these folks with little results. This was not just another day for the disciples. They knew they were being asked to go share the same message with others, and to gather disciples together into community. If Jesus couldn't hold a crowd without some miracle how were they supposed to do it?

I heard a phrase in school that explained how careful we must be not to draw "rice Christians" to our foreign churches. The phrase simply meant that many will come as long as we feed them rice. How do we draw people simply because they love Jesus and His church? Where are those who come and stay simply because He has the words of eternal life, and simply because we need one another, we are family? What if things had been different that day? What if the thousands who no longer walked with Jesus had come back the next day, and the leaders of these people had said, "Jesus we get it. We know you are the Son of God and that you have the words of eternal life. There is no where else to go. And we want to come sit at your feet and learn and follow and go out and teach others until we see the entire world filled with your teachings and all men will be given the same opportunity we have had to be saved?"  But, they didn't. They backed away, and returned to their self-made existence. What a great salvation was missed that day! What a great opportunity to become a mighty army for God!