Life comes with big questions. How you answer them impacts the course of your life. Will you marry me? Young love easily answers yes, but in the course of time some might wish they had a second chance to answer when their marriage hits hard times. Will you obey your parents? The first grader says, “Yes,” but ten years later the teen says “No” all too often. Will you be my friend? Will you go to college? When will you retire? Will you be able to retire? Life comes with big questions. And in our Gospel reading today from John 6, Jesus asks the most important question of your life. Its answer will chart your future forever.
For the last several weeks we have listened to the events of John 6—commonly referred to as Jesus Bread of Life Discourse. Think back to all that Jesus had done for the crowds. Jesus was merciful to them and provided food for 5,000 men, plus women and children, with only five loaves and two fish. Jesus was merciful to them and taught not to work so hard for food that spoils but for food that he would give them—food that would last giving them eternal life. He taught them that he was the Bread of Life. He promised them that whoever eats his flesh and drank his blood—a beautiful foreshadowing of his suffering and death at a cross—has eternal life.
At first, when it was about food for the belly, no one left Jesus. In fact, they searched for him, in boats, on foot, whatever it took. Why would anyone leave a free meal? When the discussion turned spiritual, they listened, but their response changed. They grumbled amongst themselves and challenged Jesus. And then the clincher, Jesus said, 51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Believe in Jesus, not yourselves and you will live. This was good news, but 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Jesus’ teaching did not make sense in their minds. They easily understood how bread made from grain grown in the ground and baked fed their bodies. But they could not understand how Jesus, a man standing before them, could give eternal life as the ‘bread from heaven.’ It didn’t make sense. It was impossible for them to accept this teaching because their human reason is what they used to lead, guide, and direct their lives, beliefs, and religion. They were completely ruined and utterly corrupted by that three-letter word shared with us by God, sin.
Jesus knew their hearts. His teaching of eternal life through faith in his flesh and blood offended them. Jesus made it clear that he wasn’t from earth with an earthly man-made religion. He was from heaven and God himself. His teaching was foreign to flesh, to human reason. His message was divine, spiritual, and eternal life giving. His word was not human philosophy, but the powerful Word of God through which the Holy Spirit gives life.
This was good news. This was the message shared with Adam and Eve and passed down through the ages with more details revealed by God until all those words and promises were made into a flesh and blood, Son of Man and Son of God, Savior, Jesus. Nevertheless, so many would not believe. They did not want spirit and life. They were thinking only in terms of the flesh. They only believed what their fallen, sinful human reason could compute, and the result, 66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Certainly, Jesus felt heartbroken as he watched many turn around to go back to empty earth only focused short lives. All he wanted to do was live, die and rise for them that they might believe in him and be saved. And most walked away. So, Jesus turned to the twelve disciples and asked, 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” That very question is for us as well, “Will you leave too?”
Leaving is the norm, not the exception. Many will turn their back on Jesus. Even one of the twelve walked away. At first, we say, “No. Never.” It’s easy to remain with Jesus so long as what he teaches and what we’re hearing is easy to swallow. It’s easy to follow Jesus so long as what the preacher and the church preaches is what I want to hear and my own human reason can accept it. Our sinful hearts easily change the words to a familiar song we learned as children, “Jesus loves me this I know…and this is all I want to know.” The Jewish crowds knew that Jesus loved them, but anything more was too much detail, truth and reality, and too much talk of sin and death, and Jesus as the only way to forgiveness and eternal life.
The temptation to leave creeps in when Jesus starts teaching his word that is spirit and life. When Jesus teaches a six-day 24-hour creation in Genesis 1 that Jesus himself attests to in Matthew 19, but that goes against the working theories. Or Jesus teaches that salvation is all God’s work; God planned it, Jesus carried it out at the cross and the Spirit gives faith to believe. But we have the freedom to make all the other choices in our life, so we think deciding and choosing a new life in Christ should be our right too. Or Jesus teaches that his true body and true blood and truly and really present in the Sacrament.
But, “How can he be in so many places at the same time and never run out?” Or how easy it is to confess sin on Sunday morning at 10:36am, but when a pastor or a fellow believer calls you to repentance in private, how easy it is to leave rather than admit sin, even when it means turning away from your Savior’s complete, gracious forgiveness. Will you leave too? Will you walk away from Jesus because his word is hard? Will you walk away because someone was honest with you? Will you walk away because the church does not do this for me or that for me. Will you leave because the pastor has this weakness or that failure. Will you leave too?
Peter had the answer. Will you leave too? 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” What a confession! I pray we all confess the same. But notice, Peter did not say, “Oh yes, Jesus. Your teaching, your word—all of it makes perfect sense to me. Ah yes, that is why I follow you.” No! Peter’s confession is far different than that. It’s more like. “I may not understand it all. But where else are we going to go? All the other teachings that fill our ears are a bunch of empty, recycled human ideas and philosophies that leave no one truly satisfied, only lulled into a false sense of security because death still comes and the judgment to follow! But you are God, not a man. You are the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen one, the Savior and Bread of Life from heaven. Your teaching and your signs and miracles reveal that you are the only one we need. You have the words of eternal life. And those word give me life, Jesus!”
Jesus’ teaching is hard. You will not always understand. Jesus is God; his teaching is divine. He is from heaven; we are from earth. There is a huge space in between. The only reason we say, “NO, I will not leave,” is because Jesus has the words of eternal life. And that’s because his words are spirit and life! The Savior’s Word breaks through our sinful human reason. The Savior’s Word convinces us by the life working Holy Spirit that what Jesus says is true—that his words are eternal life and give eternal life. The flesh and blood of Jesus cry out from his cross.
Given and shed for you. We watch. We observe. We stand in awe and wonderment. What divine love. Jesus left heaven—and that for me. Jesus never left the cross of suffering until sins were paid for—all of them…even mine, even yours. Jesus never leaves you, not even today—as in his Word to tell us, to soothe, to comfort, to uplift us in days of guilt and sin, “Your sins are all forgiven. Your mansion in heaven has been prepared for you. The promise of life with Jesus where we will never leave his glorious presence.”
Life comes with big questions. Many of those questions determine the course of your future. In John 6, Jesus asks the biggest question, “Will you leave too?” And he gives you the answer. Even if all the world should forsake Jesus and you and I are the only ones left, may God always work in our hearts to echo the disciple who went ahead of us. We will not leave Jesus because Jesus has the words of eternal life. Amen.
Gunnar Ledermann, Pastor Divine Peace Church
Gunnar Ledermann
I’m passionate about Rockwall’s vibrant community and actively engage with local non-profits and community organizations, including the Rockwall Chamber of Commerce, the City of Rockwall, and the Downtown Rockwall Association. My background includes a bachelor’s degree in Classical Languages and a master’s degree in divinity. Currently serving as a pastor at Divine Peace Church in Rockwall, I also enjoy spending time with my wife, Marinda, and our three children.
