This morning I felt led to read from John 6:60-69 NIV:
[60] On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
[61] Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? [62] Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! [63] The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you---they are full of the Spirit and life. [64] Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. [65] He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
[66] From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
[67] “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
[68] Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. [69] We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
These are some very interesting verses, for we see many who once followed Jesus becoming offended and leaving. They were offended by His teaching about being the Bread of Life, and about being the Son who came down from Heaven, and how they need to eat His body and drink His blood. This was very confusing and challenging, and rather than press in to understand, the people became offended. The Greek word here is Skandalizo, which is where we get our word scandal. The word literally men's to cause someone to stumble or trip, to impede their path.
Looking at this from the people's perspective, Jesus had been healing people, casting out demons, multiplying food to feed multitudes and teaching with real authority. He was completely different than other teachers and He offered so much blessing, He was attracting people from all over. It is clear that many of the people were following Him for what they could experience and receive from Him. Everything was going well, and then He started teaching about being the Bread of Life. One can imagine if this happened in our world today, how quickly people would turn on Him if He said one thing that didn't make sense, or was challenging. We are attracted to what pleases us, but the moment that changes we are willing to leave everything and move on to something new.
I think this is often the case for many of our brothers and sisters in the Lord, those who have given their lives to the Lord at some point. They have a glorious experience initially, but then something challenges their thinking or belief or behaviour, and they quickly abandon this new faith for something different or less challenging. Maybe the excitement wears off and something new catches their eye. This is sad because they never really came to understand who the Lord really is, nor His call to them and His desire for relationship. When Jesus asked the 12 if they were going to leave, they answered that they knew who He was and would continue to follow Him, because His words brought eternal life. That is the transition that we all need to make, we need to understand who Jesus really is, and respond to Him accordingly. We need to answer the question that Jesus asked the 12 in Luke 9:20, "Who do you say I am?" Then we need to look at our lives an see if our actions align with our belief.
Relationships always give us the opportunity to look at our lives and see areas for change. The question is whether we are willing to change? This is often the root cause for divorce, selfishness and unwillingness to change one's ways to accommodate another. These opportunities for change are potential stumbling blocks, things that can cause us to trip up. The question is always whether change is worth it, are we willing to make the hard choice? Do we value the other person more than our own opinion or behavior? This is the same question we confront in our relationship with the Lord, is He more important to us than our ideas, opinions or behaviour?
The good news is that the Lord is patient, forgiving and always faithful. He is constantly drawing us toward Him, and will never abandon us, even if we abandon Him. We may outright deny Him, yet He will take us back, and continue to reach out to us until we do. The story of Peter's denial and then restoration in John's gospel are so encouraging in this regard (See John Chapters 18 & 21).
Ultimately, who else has the Words of Eternal life, loves us unconditionally and has given His life for us? So let us not stumble over things we do not understand, or challenge our thinking or lifestyle, but let us press in to know Christ as our Messiah, our Savior and Lord.
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