Weathering the Storm
Was Jesus losing his following because of his teachings?
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’ Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘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.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.’ He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray him. - John 6:60-71
When we think of Jesus' ministry, we envision a success. Everywhere he went, crowds appeared. It was only the leaders of the faith who were against him, right?
But in today's Gospel reading, John tells us he was scaring folks away with his talk of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and being the only way to come to God.
Maybe they thought he was crazy. Perhaps I would have felt the same way.
The lesson here may be that we will face pitfalls in our ministries as well. We may start out with great success only to reach a point where everything seems to fall apart, because of something we said or did, something we truly believe is right.
Even Jesus, who was as close to God as anyone could hope to be, chose someone who would betray him. Was that part of the plan, or did the pieces just fall into place that way?
Things won't always work out the way we hope they would. Stuff happens, and sometimes the stuff is at the core of what we are called to do.
The message I take away from this is that no matter what happens, we must stay the course, to continue on with what we believe is true, regardless of the following, regardless of the consequences.
I am sure many can relate to that. If we truly believe we are in the right, we must weather the storm and move on. But if we come to see we may be wrong, then we have a choice to make.
More to come...