For Sunday
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Collect

Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Reading

From John 6:56-69

“Lord, to whom can we go?”

Reflection

At the start of chapter 6 of John, Jesus is being followed by thousands of people. Through him, God performs an incredible miracle because Jesus had sympathy for them. And those thousands followed him across a sea. By the end of the chapter, almost all of the people have left him.

Jesus challenges them to see what God is up to and compare it to what they are up to. He questions their motivation for following him. And he teaches them about what God is really up to.

For that everyone leaves him.

We don’t have to look very hard to find modern examples. Take for example Carlton Pearson or Rob Bell: pastors who were rejected by their followers for their preaching. The fact that these pastors were rejected for preaching traditional theology actually furthers the point—that it isn’t really about Jesus, is it?

The rise and fall of Jesus’s celebrity is capped with a tender exchange after everyone else has gone. Just the Twelve are left. A moment as potent as any in the gospels. Because this is Jesus the crowds are rejecting. Rejecting for saying that there is more to faith than showing up for bread.

Jesus turns to his last remaining followers and asks if they are planning to leave him too. And their response is fascinating: “Lord, to whom can we go?” Because there isn’t anyone else. He is “the one.”

The thing about this story is that it isn’t only the story of people rejecting Jesus for what he says to them. Or that his closest followers believe. Just as important is that Jesus reveals how the crowds and leaders are rejecting what he’s revealing about God’s love.

What parts of this message do we reject? And how do we learn to overcome it?