17.10 | When Jesus Disturbs
John 6:25-71
‘Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”’
John 6:26
I don’t enjoy buying cars.
It’s great when you have a new car. But I don’t like the process. I don’t like the parameters of engagement with the car salesman — where the usual rules of honest conversation and a fair price can be relegated in favour of truth-bending and sales manipulation. I’ve done it enough times now to spot the tricks. I’ve seen the minimisation of vehicle issues and the exaggerated rhetoric of its strengths. I’ve experienced the sting of feeling like you’d struck up some honest rapport, only to have that demolished as soon as the conversation turns to price.
Maybe I’ve just had some bad experiences.
But most of us have, at some point, come across sales techniques that essentially feel manipulative.
Jesus, today, teaching in the Capernaum synagogue, abdicates all known sales techniques. There’s no polished charm and crocodile smiles here — benefits of comfortable discipleship sold to a consumer crowd. Quite the opposite. By the end of today’s reading, most of His disciples turn away from following Him, with His teaching moves between cryptic and shocking. A day before, many of these were ready to crown Him king: now they have walked away.
And yet, Jesus’ methodology in this passage fires a question into the core of our souls, that is unparalleled in importance.
Look at what He says.
You are seeking me, Jesus said, because you had your fill of the loaves.
You are here, Jesus says, because you have basic desires that you want to have met. You were hungry yesterday, and I fed you. The bread tasted good. The fish were delicious. You had a need, and I was there to meet it. Your lives were more comfortable. Your bellies were full. You had a great story to go home and tell.
But then He takes these themes of food and drink, and drives them deeper and deeper into a metaphor that we all find utterly disturbing:
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
No wonder many walked away.
My friends, pay very deep attention when Jesus makes you uncomfortable. He will orchestrate scenarios that force the exposure of your soul. When you await the answer to a prayer. When you hear Him say things that contradict your better judgement, existing ideologies, or current life choices. When His metaphors offend our judgements and yet point to the deeper needs of the soul.
For in such moments, the deeper questions are being asked of you.
Are you in this for Jesus, or merely for His benefits?
Are you in this for Jesus, or your existing ideologies?
Are you in this for Jesus, or your belly?
Are you in this for Jesus, or what Jesus can do for you?
Are you in this for all the beauty and benefits of the Kingdom, or are you in this for the King?
In a culture of comfort and consumption, we deeply need the discomforting interruptions of Jesus to disturb the drowsiness of the consumer soul. Multitudes have been derailed in their faith because they only sought a Jesus who would fulfil their worldly ambitions. But Jesus never trains apprentices who settle for worldly appetites. He seeks a pilgrim people, an exile people, a people whose yearnings begin and end in Jesus Himself. A people who learn that every desire of this world is temporary and unsatisfying compared to the deepest yearning for the connection to God for which we were most ultimately made.
Friends, this is weighty. These are not the lightweight matters of consumer Christianity and the slippery promises of salesmen preachers.
And yet, there is treasure here, for those who can find it, that is more beautiful than you can imagine. For, in those moments of confusion and ideology-clash and hunger and struggle, we may just find that same question hiding in our soul:
Lord, to whom else would we go?
Where we begin to realise that there is no thing or person, no ideology or guru, no amount of accumulation or knowledge or health or success that will ever compare to the truest nourishment of simply Jesus Himself.
For to such as these, the treasures of eternity and the nourishment of heavenly life itself await. Always, only, exclusively, and simply, day-by-day into ages before us unimaginable,
In Him.
Reflect:
These words are meant to test the soul. They take us deep into our places of discomfort. Do not expect this to come easily.
And yet, after bringing Him all your prayers, hopes, longings and desires, remind your soul and remind your Lord, that He is enough.
Pray:
Lord,
To whom else shall I go:
To riches, to fame, to platform and prestige—
Where vain glories merely stir the insecurities of a narcissistic heart?
Lord,
To whom else shall I go:
To relationships and people, to sex and affirmation—
Where my love-starved soul endlessly seeks its healing
In the arms and accolades of those who cannot ever meet my truest longings?
Lord,
To whom else shall I go:
To the ideologies and distractions of this age—
Where dopamine screens and superficial stories
Endlessly promise and endlessly fail
To build in me foundations of substance?
Lord,
To whom else shall I go?
For I seek a life that is higher,
And a way that is larger,
And a fulfilment that is deeper,
And thus, Lord,
I declare:
That in you alone,
Is the life of the eternal,
Lord Jesus,
In Your Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Ezra 3:8-6:18 | Psalm 119:65-80