Sunday, October 30, 2011

This is a hard saying.

In John 6:35-69 Jesus is walking with his disciples and really explaining who He is. He is walking with a large crew of people who He just did the very cool feed the masses thing with. Sure, they are all followers now that He has given them food to eat. And isn't this just like people to follow whoever is keeping them fed. We are just so empty like this. If you feed us we will follow. And Jesus, being Jesus, knows who is following for the food, and He knows who is following for the bread of life. See it's not the same and this is what Jesus is teaching on that fateful day when He reduces His crew from thousands back to just about the 12.
On that day He reminds them that He is the food and that He is the living water, "For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." And there goes His mega church. The followers begin to look at each other and say, "This is a hard saying." Oh and how things never change with the unchanging God. Because at the end of the day He has so many hard sayings. This is His truth. He is all together unlike us. If His sayings are not hard we are probably not hearing Him.

And so what is the point? The point is in verse 67 and 68. Jesus looks at the 12 and He says, "Do you want to go away as well?" Such an important truth about Jesus. He is unafraid of these moments. In verse 64 Jesus says, "But there are some of you who do not believe." And then John explains that "Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe." Here is the hard word. There are those who follow but do not believe and Jesus knows it. In Matthew 22 and 23 we are told that many will prophesy, cast out demons and do good works in the name of Jesus. We are then told that He will say I never knew you. So Jesus is not afraid to ask if they want to leave as well because Jesus understands that when He reveals all of who He is, most will say no thank you. Oh, this Jesus we follow. Oh, to know more of who you are oh, to love you rightly.

But alas we arrive at verse 68 where Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and we have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Peter, who will make mistakes, knows the truth. There is no other one but this one. He gets so many things that we need to get. He gets that Jesus is Lord. He gets that believing and knowing are different and he gets that Jesus is God. Peter is witness to the truth that there must be more than this. Peter has seen followers come and go and what he knows is that believing in Jesus and knowing Him are way different. And what Peter knows is that believers will come and go and that there are no guarantees and he doesn't know much about once saved always saved but he knows that this Jesus is the eternal God and for Peter that is good enough. There is no turning back.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Who then is this?

In Mark 4:35-41 we witness the story of Jesus calming the seas. It begins simply enough. Jesus says, "let us go across to the other side." By verse 37 we see that the winds have come and that the sea is raging. We learn that the boat is filling with water. By verse 38 the disciples are running about in a panic and they wake Jesus up with what seems to be nothing short of an accusation, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And that right there is at the heart of what is on my mind.

These are His people, His chosen ones. They are with Him and they have said yes. We know they have left things behind, they have traveled with Him and have seen what He can do. And when the storm comes they are expectant, they are quite sure that He will arise and wave His hands and do something cool. After all, He has been doing one very cool thing after another. They are not in doubt in this moment, but  they are wondering if He is going to bother to save them all.
We know how the story ends. Jesus wakes up tells the winds to calm their crazy selves down and then He turns to the disciples and teaches them. It is the teaching they always struggle with. He tells them, "Why are you still afraid? Have you still no faith?" They walk away and say to each other, "who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" Indeed who is this man?

So much to see here. They have been walking intimately with Him and they are blown away that the elements obey Jesus. This is what they seem to take away from this moment. They have seen Him cast out demons and heal some sick people. They have seen Him forgive sins, (which is just a whole different point to ponder.) They have seen more in these first few chapters of Mark than most of us will see in our lifetime and yet they are still perplexed, they still go to bed at night and wonder who the heck they are following. You see, they are convinced it is the Messiah (sort of) but really they just don't know. And yet they continue to follow. They are Christ followers, for real. And the Messiah is constantly teaching them and they can't quite process His crazy stories and these signs and wonders.

But that night, on that boat Jesus reveals to them something that they let pass by, but it is something that we must not miss. He is not scolding them for having no faith after the sea is calm. He is telling them something way bigger. He is telling them That He is the Messiah, that His word is eternal, true. Where? Return to verse 35. Jesus says, "Let us go across to the other side." You see when Jesus says that we are going to the other side, He means it. The other side is a done deal. There is no maybe. If Jesus says that something is going to happen we can rest assured that it will happen. He is unshakeable and unmoveable. He is faithful to the end. On that night Jesus said to His followers, "we are going to the other side." And He meant it. This is where we need to settle it in our hearts that He will see us through all things, that there is nothing that He cannot do. When the disciples awakened Jesus in a panic He calmed the storm, but really He wanted them to know that storm or no storm we are going to reach the other side. He chastises them because He wants them to know that the storm doesn't need calming. The other side is coming. It is coming because He said so. Our faith has to be placed firmly in the Jesus said it, so it will be, place in our heart. In His kindness, He will sometimes calm the storm, but He wants us to find that place where we know the other side will be reached, even while He does nothing to calm the storm. This is where our faith meets our Messiah.