Dear Fellow Redeemed:
How many of you have ever been told something that you found hard to believe? Perhaps it was so difficult to believe that no matter what the proof offered to support it, or no matter how credible the person telling you the information, you simply refused to accept it. I am confident that most of us have had this type of experience. It is in our nature to question what is hard for us to understand whether it is concerning earthly matters or spiritual matters.
In our Gospel lesson for today, we see a prime example of this concerning spiritual matters. Last Sunday, we heard our Savior telling the people and his disciples that if they eat his flesh and drink his blood they will be raised on the last day and receive the gift of eternal life. The people in the synagogue had difficulty in accepting this teaching from our Savior, because the words of Jesus were hard to understand. Jesus compared himself to the Manna that their fathers had eaten for 40 years in the wilderness. He called himself the Living Bread from heaven. This was too much for the stiff-necked people of Israel to grasp, so they grumbled against Jesus.
This morning St. John records for us the reaction of the Lord’s disciples. As difficult as it was for the common Jew to accept Jesus’ teaching, so also his disciples struggled with these words of life. Recently, the disciples were witnesses to the feeding of the 5000. For the past three years, they had seen Jesus heal the sick and the raise the dead, give sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf. These miracles showed that he had the power to do things only God could do. They listened to his teachings and they knew that his words were God’s words. However, there were some on this occasion that refused to accept his words. They failed to realize that GOD’S WORD HAS ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. For some it brings eternal death, and for others it brings eternal life.
At this point in the ministry of our Savior, many disciples had gathered around him. We have become accustomed to thinking only of just 12 disciples, but there were many more. St. Luke records for us in his Gospel how Jesus sent out 72 disciples with instructions to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is near. Jesus told them that there would be some who would accept God’s word and its eternal consequences and there would be some who would not. For the ones who did not accept God’s word, their unbelief brings eternal death. Our Savior said, "But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town" (Luke 10:10-12). Jesus warned his followers that they would encounter people in towns and villages that would not listen to them. You would think as the disciples listened to Jesus’ words that he was the bread of life, they would have believed what Jesus told them. However, St. John tells us in our lesson, "On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”(John 6:60).
There are teachings in the Bible that are very difficult to understand. But, where there are difficult teachings there are also explanations. Jesus in love for his disciples explained to them just what his words meant. He was speaking of spiritual things and they must hear with spiritual ears and not with ears of the flesh. Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life" (John 6:63). The words Jesus spoke were filled with the Holy Spirit and give eternal life. Jesus told his disciples that they needed to understand them through faith and not through the flesh, which by its nature is hostile to God.
But as some of Jesus’ disciples did not accept his words, so today there are some Christians who do not accept them either. They find the words of God to be objectionable, offensive, and impossible to accept. Are we any different from the disciples? In our epistle lesson for this morning, God tell us exactly what he expects in the relationship between husband and wife and many of us refuse to accept these words. We push the word of God aside and try to explain it to ourselves as having been written for a people who lived 2000 years ago. We say, "Times are different now. Surely, God did not mean that for us today." Instead of trusting the word of God as the truth, and using it as the guiding principal in our lives, we try to go our own way; a way that may lead to death and eternal destruction. In the Book of Proverbs God tells us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 16:25). Sometimes we do not live according to the statement: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it!"
We confess that the Bible is God’s inspired word, but when we read something that goes against our human reason or something we do not like, we simply refuse to believe it. Satan uses our stubborn human reason as a weapon against us. The Devil is very good at creating doubt in our minds when we struggle with what God has told us. He used the very same tactic with Eve in the garden and he used it on the Jews that Jesus was preaching to in the synagogue. The Jews grumbled and said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) Their sinful human reason got in the way of the life-giving words of Jesus, and so it was for the disciples. God’s word has eternal consequences. For some it brings eternal death. We can see this by the actions of those disciples who turned back and no longer followed Jesus.
Those disciples refused to accept God’s word and the consequence of their unbelief resulted in eternal damnation of their souls. Scripture tells us, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him" (John 3:36). By turning their backs on Jesus, they lost the greatest treasure in the entire world, the complete and total forgiveness of sins that God grants us through faith in his Son.
So where do we fit into this picture? We all have turned our back on Jesus at one time or another. We say we believe what God says, but do we live like it? What about the times we fail to come to church because we have "other plans?" We know that God tells us to put him first above all things, yet we cannot take one hour of our precious time to worship the Lord. How often have we been out with friends and family and heard someone take the Lord’s name in vain and we simply allow it to go with out any rebuke from us? How often do we misuse the Lord’s name instead of using it in prayer or praise for what he has done for us?
But where we have failed, Jesus has succeeded. While we are busy sinning, Jesus is busy forgiving. Where we fail to live up to God’s requirements, Jesus kept God’s requirements perfectly for us. And where God required the penalty of death for our sin, Jesus willingly, out of love for you and me, went to the cross to give up his life to pay that penalty so that we will have eternal life in heaven with him.
We have all made bad choices in our life. Nevertheless, for the disciples who no longer followed Jesus, their decision brought them the consequences of eternal death. This was more than a bad choice. It was spiritual suicide. They turned and walked away from the only one who could repair the damaged relationship with God that their sins have brought on them. But for the disciples that remained, for the ones who hung on his every word as a drowning man hangs on to a life preserver, these words bring eternal life.
Following Jesus and serving him can be difficult at times. We live in a world that has no love for our Savior, no love for the word that brings eternal life to those who trust in God’s promises. We live with this reality every day. Followers of Jesus have always had to make a stand when faced with persecution because the Bible teaches doctrines that are not popular in society. Our church body takes a stand against abortion, living together without the benefit of marriage and homosexuality; we teach a six-day creation, we practice the biblical teaching of close communion, and people accuse us of being closed-minded. People say we should be more tolerant of others and be more diverse. They say we all worship the same God. We just have many different ways of getting to heaven. However, we believe in the Triune God and that all other gods are idols. We believe the words of our savior when he says there is only one way to heaven. Jesus tells us, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) and he reminds us of this fact in our lesson for today.
It is not an easy task serving the Lord; it requires great commitment and personal sacrifice. Nevertheless, anything worth doing is never easy and God promises even greater rewards for his children. In the book of Revelation, God tells us, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).
God requires faithfulness from his people. We can see this by the question Jesus asked the 12 disciples that remained with him. Can you imagine what must have been going through their minds as the others walked away from Jesus? They see these other disciples who have followed Jesus for about 3 years turn and walk away because they would not listen to Jesus’ words with the ears of faith Then Jesus turns to them and asks, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" (John 6:67). What would you say to our Savior if he asked you that question?
Would you reply like Peter and say, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). Peter and the remaining disciples knew from the teachings of Jesus that God’s word has eternal consequences, and by clinging to Jesus, that word gives them eternal life. This was not a secret to be shared only among the apostles. Jesus boldly spoke God’s word to all who would listen. Our Savior told the people following him, "He who is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30). If we turn away from Jesus, to whom shall we go? Jesus has the word that brings eternal consequences.
If we stand with Jesus, it is only because the Holy Spirit has worked saving faith in out hearts, through the sacrament of Holy Baptism or whenever God’s beautiful gospel message is preached. That gospel message tells us that God loved us so much, he wanted none of us to perish in our sins, but to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. The Holy Spirit has worked faith in all of us, and like Peter, we can say to Jesus, "We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:69).
Some thing’s may be hard for us to believe and understand, but God is very clear in his word. It is by faith that we accept what he has said and follow it to the letter. We dare not try to change God’s word to fit our own idea of what it should say or change it because we do not like it. If we go against God’s word, we are taking a stand against Jesus and are condemning ourselves; we will live out the consequences of our action forever separated from God and the blessings he has prepared for us. If we follow his word and believe, the eternal consequences will be more than we can possibly imagine or understand; a life forever with him in his heavenly kingdom. May God grant us his Spirit that we may always accept what he tells us and with the hand of faith reach out and pull in the treasures that he has in store for us. AMEN
