For Sunday
Proper 16B
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
Reflection
During this whole section, referred to by many as the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus challenges the people following him. And for many, it may be striking to notice that many of them go away. This might mess with our conviction about the attractiveness of Jesus; where many of us are taught that Jesus himself does the work of bringing people into the faith. This is at the heart of signs declaring “Jesus Saves” in inner cities and on barn roofs. We’re often taught that if we just “bring someone to Jesus” then Jesus himself will do the rest. And yet, here in John 6, Jesus sends many people away. Why?
The easy answer is that, as Jesus says earlier, they aren’t following for the right reasons (remember, they tried to make him king by force!). I’ve heard this offered in recent years as a defense of abuse or authoritarianism in the church! Or to dismiss the bulk of Christians as the “wrong kind” because we supposedly don’t “sincerely follow” Jesus.
The context offers a simpler response. Jesus is suggesting that people simply have the wrong idea; about him, God, and faith. In other words, he is trying to push people to see beyond their physical needs, beyond the material of their own, personal lives, to see what it is that God is doing in the world. Because this is what they are obsessed with (e.g. being fed, who is in charge, what people are “supposed to do”…). But Jesus wants to free of us of this, opening our hearts and minds to the love of Christ. That this is as essential to our lives as food. That it will influence the way we behave and think—even who we are. That we are liberated from desire and power to love and heal the world.