Where Do I Draw the Line with Jesus?

Unexpected Bread

Roman oppression was severe in the time of our text. Jewish religious leaders aligned with Romans to secure their positions. And at times many disciples followed Jesus, far more than the twelve we commonly think of. They were all looking for a way out of their misery, to be able to live again. But we’ve noticed a sticking point or two in Jesus’ messages recently, an issue some of the people couldn’t make sense of. They couldn’t get past the thought of Jesus being the One sent from God, and they certainly couldn’t handle the talk of eating Jesus’ flesh. Those were such sticking points that most people drew the line there, turned away, and missed the real heart of his message. Life.

Jesus confronted these disciples about their discontent. He asked them directly, “Does this offend you?” Offend, implying: “does my message cause you to stumble?” or “do my words ensnare or trap you?” Or maybe more like this: “Do you believe I’m setting you up to fall?” Jesus was setting them up – to face the realities of why they were really following him. He knew who was following him for the right reasons, and who had other motives. It was time to draw the line and separate the two groups.

The more the disciples heard Jesus’ true message, the more they divided into two camps: honest seekers wanting to understand more, and those rejecting Jesus because they didn’t like what they heard. Many had reached the place of: “This is where I draw the line,” because what Jesus presented no longer made sense. He was straying more and more from the Messiah they had expected him to be. They weren’t hearing anything that aligned with how they expected him to act.

Jesus’ message had nothing to do with the politics of the day or overthrowing the Roman government. In fact, it threatened the religious hierarchy. These disciples decided to draw the line there because Jesus’ ideas of real life didn’t match theirs. As desperate as they were for a life free of oppression, they reached a point where Jesus no longer made sense. They were tired of trying to make sense of him, and unwilling to believe any longer in something they couldn’t understand.

Unacceptable Bread

We discover in John’s Gospel an important facet of belief: God makes belief possible, but humans are still required to accept it. Belief comes where God’s grace and human free will intersect. God provides the basis for belief in God’s love shown through Jesus. Jesus performs the signs and wonders, and” the Spirit gives life because the flesh alone is useless”. The Three-in-One are given to us to receive, to take into ourselves. This is an invitation to connect and be a part of the divine: God in us and ourselves in God. This is how we still see Jesus as the Living Bread from heaven who gives us life. Yet, still today something appears to be a sticking point.

The New Revised Standard Version The Words of Eternal Life

63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 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. 65 And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

Only those drawn to Jesus by the Holy Spirit of God can truly “come to” Jesus, accept and receive Jesus and become true disciples. We don’t decide to follow Jesus with logic based on what seems reasonable or rational to our senses. Two powers are at play concerning our decision to follow Jesus: the Spirit of God / Light of the World – and – “the cosmic powers of this present darkness… the spiritual forces of evil.”

We don’t talk much about spiritual warfare and the forces of evil. Maybe they seem too Sci-Fi, or perhaps even frighten us. The truth is, Holy Scripture tells us these forces exist and are active in this world. This passage shows how reason and logic could be ideal tools for evil forces to engage our minds and draw us toward darkness rather than the Light of the World. When Jesus says that “no one can come to (him) unless it is granted by the Father,” he is describing a divine invitation we can only accept through our spirits joining with the Father’s Holy Spirit. We cannot accept the invitation to be true followers of Christ through the logic and reasoning of our mind.

Does this limit God’s invitation only to some and not to others? There is considerable debate. But what you will hear from this pulpit when I am here is something I believe is scripturally founded, all are invited. All are welcome. We can accept the invitation or reject it through the free will God gave each of us. We can allow the Holy Spirit of God to draw us into the illogical, irrational Mystery of God, and accept the Father’s invitation by choosing, through our spirit, what doesn’t always align with human wisdom. Or, we can allow “the cosmic powers of this present darkness… the spiritual forces of evil” to have the greater influence on our decisions, through our reasoning. In our free will, we can reject the faith-received invitation by surrendering to the influences of human wisdom.

Uncertain About the Bread

But what bearing does this have today on those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ? Those who have professed our faith and worship the Triune God?

The New Revised Standard Version Paul Defends His Ministry

3 Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments 5 and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

“Proud obstacles” such as human knowledge and reasoning, are raised up by these evil forces against the knowledge of God.” Their concern is our knowledge of God that we receive through the Holy Spirit. Evil doesn’t want us to have experiential knowledge of God. So, we will still wrestle at times with those spiritual forces of evil, doubting things we once believed at face value. Our human wisdom will cause us to question and to doubt. We may even reach a point when something in life has gone wrong for so long that we’re tired of trying to make sense of Jesus because he hasn’t delivered us from our misery. We can think he’s just setting us up for a fall. We may be tempted to draw the line there and stop believing. But, if we keep believing, taking our doubts and honest questions to God, our faith will be strengthened.

Expect occasional doubt and confusion. Use your God-given brain, but don’t rely solely on human knowledge and reasoning. When our heart leads us toward the Light of the World, but our head’s human reasoning pulls us in another direction, my challenge to each of us is this: Let’s look to the Light, trust and believe the Truth, and rely on our experiential knowledge of God. Taking that line will draw us to Jesus and to Life.

Let’s pray.

Almighty God, we’re often much like these disciples who grumbled at Jesus’ words because they can be difficult to accept. When life gets hard and we feel abandoned or forgotten, we can doubt words like, “I am with you always.” We can reach a place where it seems that Jesus should have been there for us, but we seemed to have been set up for failure. Sometimes we might just want to draw the line right there and say, “Enough. I can’t do this anymore.” We can forget that there’s much more than this visible world. We can be oblivious to the fact that war wages around us in the spiritual realm and that we must be ready for battle. Remind us that we can capture those confusing and doubt-filled thoughts and give them to Christ. We can come honestly in prayer confessing that we don’t know what to do with them, crying out that these things simply don’t make sense. Lead us to press in to you with honest questions, honest woundings. Let us receive your healing and your renewal of life.

Thank you for loving the doubters, like Thomas. The strugglers, like the man who answered Jesus saying, “I do believe… help my unbelief.” Thank you for the many times we feel an assurance of your love and provisions, and of your power at work in and around us. Keep us mindful that doubt, confusion, and fear can always strike because this war still wages around us. Until that day when this warfare is done once and for all, let us sense your Spirit within us, and empower us to keep the faith, finish the race strong, and continue to believe. Remind us of the truth that we have come to Jesus because it was granted by You.

Amen.