May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing to you O Lord. Amen.
Being part of a Church and a congregation is wonderful. I often think that we are blessed here at St Ursula's. The welcoming spirit and the general unity which we find here is certainly special.
Today's gospel reading shows us that this does not always have to be the case. We see that sometimes a challenging aspect of Christ's teaching can divide an otherwise united crowd of believers.
From our point of view the exchange between Jesus and his disciples seem rather difficult to follow. To make sense of it we have to call to our minds what led to this rather conflict-filled conversation in the first place. Just one day ago Jesus had crossed over the Sea of Galilee, to a place near Bethsaida. A great multitude had followed him, because they saw his healing miracles. He had compassion on them and he miraculously healed many people.
Then, as evening approached Jesus performed yet another miracle: He fed five thousand people by multiplying just five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish.
The people who witnessed these miracles and got to eat their fill were understandably very excited. In fact, they were so impressed by Jesus that they wanted to make him king. If Jesus was not going to comply with their wishes they were even prepared to make him king by force.
"After all", they must have reasoned "This Jesus with his extraordinary powers will make a fine, invincible opponent to our Roman oppressors. With him being our king nobody is going to boss us around!".
But as so often, Jesus got away from the crowd. Later, they found him teaching at the synagogue in Capernaum. The people offered Jesus to become his followers but they attached a condition to that offer.
They would only do so if he agreed to provide them bread every day from now on – exactly like he did over in Bethsaida.
Bear in mind that at this point, we are speaking of a couple of hundreds or thousands of people who offer their followership. Anyone might be tempted to get that kind of followership but not Jesus.
Jesus' approach is totally counter-intuitive. He is less interested in mere numbers but more interested in the true state of their heart. As far as he was concerned their hearts were in big trouble. They were willing to pledge allegiance to him in exchange for a daily allowance of bread! They were only willing to follow him for the wrong reasons:
They needed him for the bread and they needed him to overpower Rome.
A genuine love for God on the other hand should have prompted them to seek to please God with their lives out of gratitude and love. instead, they just simply needed God to please them. They saw Jesus as a means to achieve their purposes, plans and dreams.
So, Jesus confronted them. He told them that they were only seeking him for the material good and for bread that does not fill. He challenged them to go beyond that and to follow him for all the spiritual benefits. Then Jesus drew an analogy. He said that he is the bread of life – the standard staple of food which every human being needs to sustain themselves. "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Whoever eats me will live because of me. The one who eats this bread will live forever.'", Jesus said.
Some people in the crowd misunderstood Jesus and accused him of promoting cannibalism. His disciples on the other hand understood the teaching. Yet, many of them still found it very, very hard to accept.
At this point, we need to bear in mind that the term disciple (which means student) is sometimes used in the bible in a general sense, and at other times in reference to the core group of the twelve disciples.
So, in this context the reference is to the larger group of followers of Christ rather than the inner core of the twelve disciples.
The wider group of disciples heard Jesus teaching and understood it.
They recognized that he was speaking in a symbolic way but still they found his message very difficult to accept.
Could the Messiah really be anything other than a conquering, military king? Yet, Jesus reference to him being the "Bread of Life" which needed to be consumed hinted at sacrifice, not at a conquest!
This idea truly bothered many of Jesus' disciples. To them Jesus' words were totally unacceptable – even so much so that they decided to turn their backs on him and not to follow him anymore. Then, Jesus turned to the twelve disciples, and asked 'Do you also wish to go away?' Simon Peter answered 'Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.'
This is truly a powerful and remarkable statement. Let me paraphrase what Peter is saying here. He is saying: "Lord, for us too, this is a difficult challenge but even if we wanted to go, to whom would we go?
Nobody else has what you have. You have the words of eternal life.
You are teaching us day by day that life is more than the "here and now". We believe – with our intellect, and our heart – that you are the Holy one of God. We know it because we have experienced it."
Peter was being brutally honest. Prioritizing spiritual treasures and personal sacrifice over gaining the upper hand against Rome and material good did probably not sound attractive to them too but the twelve disciples were willing to follow Jesus nevertheless.
Though they too were probably struggling to accept His recent claims they acknowledged that he had the words of eternal life. They recognized that their life only made sense when they were part of Jesus.
More than anything the passage today reminds us that following Jesus is not always easy. There can be times where our faith in Christ, especially our confidence in the goodness of his purposes and plans, is fiercely challenged.
It is at such times that we need to understand the true meaning of the word FAITH.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1)
We live by faith, not by sight. Faith requires a child-like trust. Though we do not understand, though we do not fully embrace it... We must trust in the goodness of our loving God's plans.
I wonder what it felt like for the disciples to be in a situation like this (Where they stand at a cross-roads and take a decision which is so different from the majority of the group of followers of Christ). I can imagine that it was not easy.
Imagine, that you are convinced that you need to keep following Jesus despite your friends, colleagues or even family members being highly offended with Christs teaching. Frankly, this can be a heart-breaking test especially when one has a strong desire for harmony and unity.
Yet, what we learn from Christ is that sugar coating his message in order to keep a superficial kind of harmony is not what he wants. Granted, that Christ can come across as harsh at such moments but we must see his underlying motive.
Christ's love for everyone is the reason why he refuses to change his message not because he rejects people. Loving people means being honest with them (speaking truth in love). Jesus would rather have us offended and challenged for a moment and gain eternal life than than never be challenged and lose eternal life.
We learned today that there are different reasons why people follow Christ. God certainly wants us to choose him for the right reasons.
Jesus invites us today to choose him for an overflowing relationship, for abundant life - a treasure far more worth than whatever we would have to give in exchange. This is a kind of treasure which only can be gained by shifting our focus unto the spiritual.
For those who fear that the emphasis on spirituality means leading a secluded, silent life, which is solely focused on the spirit: Let me just say that Jesus never asked us to neglect legitimate physical needs.
Let's not forget after all that he proactively fed the five thousand because he knew that they were hungry. In fact, we also need to bear in mind that Jesus and his disciples were often accused of having too much fun, of feasting, celebrating and breaking silly Sabbath rules as well as of healing and fellowshipping with people from all walks of life.
So, Christ truly shared his love and peace with everyone – even with those who took offence at him.
And perhaps, this is the most challenging part of being a true disciple of Christ: That we are called to share love and peace with those who take offense. Jesus never gave us the permission to look down on those who take offense. On the contrary, he called us to a higher standard of love and patience. By doing this, we share real peace with everyone, including with those who take offense at Christ.
So may Jesus himself help us to patiently speak the truth in love to those around us.
May the Holy Spirit comfort us during times of conflict.
And may God himself shower us with his mercy, grace and understanding when we ourselves struggle to embrace challenging parts of Christ's message.
Amen.
Archana Jacob