[Day 170]
John 6.66-69
From that moment many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him. Therefore Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God!”
There is so much excitement. Jesus has fed thousands of people, and the crowds are desperate for more. You can almost hear their feet running along to Capernaum looking for Him. Jesus then offers them more than mere bread that goes stale and mouldy. He offers them Himself – the bread of life, ‘bread’ that will last forever, ‘bread’ that is in fact His body offered as a sacrifice, torn up to feed the spiritually hungry.
But Jesus’ teaching is hard. People are offended. They came wanting more signs and more bread. They came bringing their friends along for entertainment. They came wanting an easy life, a nice time, a lovely chat. And yet Jesus has the nerve to tell them that they can only come to God through Him. He is the bread of life that has come down from heaven – Him, the son of a carpenter from Nazareth.
And then He goes even further. He tells them that life isn’t anything to do with our flesh. Life is only through the Holy Spirit. If our bodies are to be fully alive, then they need to be full of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t saying that our bodies are bad or that flesh is evil. No, this is saying that for our bodies to become fully alive, we need to be turning to the right place – Jesus Himself. It’s no good trying to find life from other sources, we will always be dissatisfied and hungry for more. Simon Peter gets the answer right. Where else can we possibly turn to? Who else can we possibly go to?
The message that Jesus brings is offensive to many. All religions do not lead to God. Heaven is not on the end of spiritual searching. His teaching is hard. We do need to die to ourselves for Him to live in us. We do need to take up our crosses and follow Him. We will be persecuted and ridiculed, mocked and looked down on. But where else will we find bread that gives us life in all its fullness, and lead to eternal banqueting with our Heavenly Father?
What is God saying?
I believe that God is saying:
Are you ‘lazy’ enough?! Do you have enough time on your hands to know what God is doing and always carry the capacity to increase as God leads you to? Or are you always so busy and hectic, fighting one fire after another, that you cannot see what God is doing?
