So, here we are on the last of our
John and the “Bread of Life” sayings. It may seem that we are hearing it
“one…more…time!” but this is a defining moment in this Gospel reading. It is significant
because it is calling us to make a choice. This repetition of “I am the bread
of life” is not meant to bore or drag out the saying of who Jesus is.
This saying is to impress upon all
who have been following Jesus, who JESUS is! This is being used for all the
people gathered at the time, who are now called disciples (meaning follower) to
make a decision as to who this man is; is he just man, divine being, or both.
Their decision time has come. For these people, if they are going to continue
following Jesus from this point on, then they have to decide; is Jesus the Son
of God or not?! Their moment has come! All this time that they spend
questioning each other as to who he is has come down to this one point in time.
It is their defining moment as a follower of Jesus. It is their Kairos moment;
A Kairos moment is God’s appointed time to act. It is a moment in time when the
Holy Spirit draws near to do a special work in and through a person or group.
The Holy Spirit creates and orchestrates Kairos moments. So this is their
Kairos moment
I believe that it is important to
realize what is at stake for these people who are at the point of decision.
They are hearing Jesus say these words and they realize that there is more to
the picture here. You see, there is another Greek word in this passage; it is
the word used to define what is “difficult to hear” and “what offends;” it is
the word “scandalize” from where we get our word scandal. What is scandalizing
about what Jesus is saying? Is it that the Romans require worshipping their
emperor’s as Gods? Is it recognizing that God is in the world with them and
among them listening, watching, teaching, healing, etc. Is the scandal
following this person who claims to be the Son of God and they may believe that
they have to abandon their understanding of who God is?
The answer could be any one or all
of those things. It was a big deal not to worship the emperor as God. It was a
big deal to acknowledge that God was in the world and this person, this Jesus
is the Son of God. All of this would change their world forever, if they were
to believe! Nothing would be the same! It would all be new and uncharted
territory! Who could blame them for being scared or even terrified?! They would
have to take a leap of faith and that required a lot more than words.
I think we can relate to these
disciples. We, too, are in a place where it is our decision time. We have heard
Jesus saying “I am the bread of life” just like they did. This is our moment to
look upon Jesus word of eating flesh and drinking blood…”that unless we eat and
drink, we have no life in us!” That Jesus is the true bread from heaven; that
Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, offers himself up for our sake so that we will
be forgiven…so that we will have life everlasting IN US! So that God’s promises
are passed onto us and so that we know that we are worth so much to the God who
created heaven and earth and ALL that is within them.
We are brought to that decision
time. This is the time where we are called to acknowledge the scandal, as well.
We are brought to it every week in our communion, our confession, and our
worship. We are brought to the decision of confessing who Jesus is; is he the
son of God, is he the one who sacrifices it all so that we have that same
forgiveness and life eternal? We are brought to the time where this flesh and
blood will change our lives, change the way we think of the world, and the way
we think of God.
We might be tempted to say, “of
course!” But realize something that the people of Jesus time acknowledged long
before us. The crowd and the disciples of his inner circle acknowledged this is
hard! It is difficult! It means that we open ourselves up to be vulnerable
people; to allow God to see who we are, our success, our failures, the things
that make us confident, and the things that may make us appear to be weak. We
open ourselves up to reveal it all to God. It is not easy giving our lives over
to God! Giving who we are over to God is difficult in a world that does not
want to acknowledge the presence of God let alone the existence of Jesus. I
can’t tell you how many times I see people saying in one form or another how
God doesn’t exist or that God is an imaginary friend. Sometimes we are the ones
that get called names for believing in God, let alone uttering the name of
Jesus.
We live in a world where society
wants us to believe or maybe idolize the things that society determines we
should worship. We are pulled everyday towards the latest and greatest, the
thing that will take care of me, and the idea that “I only need to worry about
me and who cares about anyone else!” Society wants us to take the easy way and
let the issue of the day rule our thinking, beliefs, our words, and our
actions.
It is not easy being a disciple of
Christ. Sometimes it means doing the difficult thing and not giving in to what
society would have us do. Sometimes it means, actually loving our neighbor who
needs a ride for medical treatment, holding the hand of someone dying rather
than writing that person off, or sitting with someone and listening. Sometimes,
being a disciple means inviting the stranger into a place where they can be who
they are and being mindful that God has used you to invite one of God’s
children. Sometimes it means doing the difficult thing and showing compassion
and grace…that same compassion that God had shown for us in the sacrifice of
God’s only Son on the cross.
While it is difficult, it is not
impossible. It is not impossible because God has called all of us to this
decision point. God calls us all as individuals and as a community. To be
together, to be strong together; or whenever one is seeming to have a moment of
weakness, we are all called to be their strength for them, their words of
prayer, and as Luther says we are called to carry their faith and lift that one
person or whole community up.
See, the Good News is that even
while this may seem to be difficult, God does not abandon us! When some of
those people left, God did not pack his bags and leave. God remained…the Son of
God remained because he knew there would be some who stayed. Even they,
eventually, took off at one point; BUT God still did not abandon them. God came
back to them three days later.
It is the same with us. God does not
abandon us. Jesus is here in bread and wine, flesh and blood calling us all to
eat and drink so that we may have a life that is transformed by grace, love,
and compassion. Jesus is calling us to the scandal of life eternal because of
the sacrifice he made for our sake. So this, brothers and Sisters in Christ, is
our Kairos moment: AMEN!
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