At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-68)Some of the things Jesus calls us to do are hard. Some of them are downright embarrassing.
Witnessing is one. trying to witness to someone who doesn’t want to is a difficult proposition. And it is also a way to get people mad at you.
Standing up for Jesus in an increasingly secular society can be lonely. As our schools try to move further and further from God, the students are forced to make some choices that 50 years ago would never have had to be made.
The choices amount to: will you be a Christ-follower and do what is right even when you are ridiculed or forbidden to do so? Or will you bend to the will of a secular society and not display your faith?
When you do that and you are singled out for punishment for your faith, you are doing what God wants you to do. But, on the other hand, it becomes a lonely world for you.
When Jesus spoke, there were things that were hard to understand. And there were times when Jesus plain old embarrassed his followers. Clearing out the temple was one, preaching boldly against the religious leadership was another. In this passage, telling people that unless they ate his flesh and drank his blood, they had not part with them was really hard to accept.
What he meant of course, was that unless they made him a part of their lives like they would food or drink, he was of no use to them. They could not accept him part-time. He had just fed a bunch of people miraculously and they were expecting more. He said that food is not all there is to life.
But the way he put it was embarrassing. And a lot of his disciples left.
But his apostles stayed. Their reason: where else would we go? You can be weird sometimes, but you are from God and we believe in you.
What Jesus said and did was strange at times, and also extremely confrontational. But those who knew he was from God stayed. Those who didn’t care and were there for the free food and entertainment left.
It is difficult being a Christian. There are things you do not participate in because of your faith. And it sets you apart from the world. You are holy, and holy people are not welcomed by unholy people.
The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 2:16, said: To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
Those who see Jesus as power love him and he smells like life. Those who see him as restriction on what they want to do, view him as death.
And, when it comes down to it, he is both. Life to those who believe and death to those who do not.
People do not want to be told they are wrong. And when you do, they leave you.
Just like they always have.
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