But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. (John 6:43)Everybody wants Jesus to be like they want him to be. When he is shown to be different, a lot of times they get mad. They want him to be a vegetarian or drive an electric car, or agree with them on their politics, to like the candidates they like, to be like them.
One reason is that the real Jesus makes them nervous. The real Jesus wanted them to change from what they are to what they should be. He wanted them to quit acting stupid and start being godly.
Jesus didn’t care a fig about politics. In Matthew 22, some people come up and ask him what about paying taxes. Israel was an occupied country with an army nobody like telling them what to do and taking all their money.
When they asked him, he asked them to show him a coin. They did.
His reply: he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God that belongs to God.” His reply amazed them, and they went away.He gave them an answer that they did not expect and that surprised them. They were ready for a debate and to argue with him. They were also sure that he would give them ammunition to try him for sedition and heresy so they could get rid of him.
But instead, Jesus said that he didn’t care. God and Caesar (or the government) were different and didn’t need to necessarily mixed.
That is not to say we don’t vote or make our voices heard about morality and other issues, but it is to say that Jesus didn’t care about politics. He was busy with more important things: mainly the Kingdom of God.
But it did say that Jesus had his own agenda. He had his own plans and he didn’t really care what yours were. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t care about you, but it did mean that he was busy doing what God wanted him to do and had no time for other things.
It also meant that he said what he needed to say even when people got mad at him and tried to get him to change his mind.
He also didn’t mind saying things that sent people away. He didn’t want a bunch of people that hung around because they thought he was a great guy who did good things for them. He wanted people who cared about what God wanted.
When he told them to eat and drink him, he was just telling them that they had to make him part of them like food is part of a person. He was not part-time in their lives. But the way he said it was also to show them that it was God in charge, not them. What they wanted may have been important to them, but not to God.
And what we need to do is quit complaining about what he has to say and quit trying to mash him into our image. We are his followers, he is not ours.
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