Cannibal (Day 32 of Lent)

The message that Jesus is preaching seems to be turning more people away than drawing them near.  It's easy to understand why.  When someone claims that by eating their flesh and drinking their blood, real and eternal life can be found, there's definitely some doubt that must exist in the audience.  And yet, Jesus knows this.  He asks, "Have I thrown you off yet?"  

The Scriptures say that many among the disciples are now walking away, refusing to take the risk in sticking with Jesus.  He's too radical.  He's too liberal for the likes of most people listening to these bogus claims.  I wonder if I would be one of the crowd walking away, thinking, "Man, I was all aboard til' he started talking about cannibalism and ascending to heaven.  That's just too much for me."  

As folks in the crowd start slipping away, Jesus turns to his twelve disciples and asks, "Are ya'll going to leave too?"

Peter says, "To whom would we go?  We've already committed to stick this thing out with you.  Yeah, your teachings are really hard to swallow, but we're in."

Jesus responded, "Everything I tell you is life-giving.  You can't understand the nature of what I'm telling you, but the Spirit will lead you.  You're incapable of coming to me on your own, but the Father is giving you the ability to do so."

We all have what it takes to get to Jesus and his life-giving words.  The Father has given us the ability to do so through his spirit.  Another word for spirit is breath.  Breath is required for life.  Jesus claims here that when we tap into the spirit inside of us, and take notice of his words, that we find real life.  

This is hard to swallow, just like it was hard for the people in the audience.  It's hard to swallow, because it can't be swallowed.  These teachings are not something that we can taste or touch.  They are to be believed or not believed.  Jesus is claiming that when we believe what he says, it changes everything and shakes everything down to our very core.  He's not trying to turn people away, but he's trying to draw people into lasting life.  The people who end up turning away are probably like me, wondering how in the world these things can possibly be true.  

I can't prove that anything that Jesus says is true.  I wish I could get up in front of an audience and say, "This is how I eat the flesh of Jesus, and this is how I drink the blood of Jesus."  I imagine there would be some folks pretty concerned about my sanity, and would be arranging a trip to the local nut ward.  

When Jesus says something like, "My words are life-giving," he's inviting us to believe that his words will make a difference in our lives.  There are no generalizations here.  There is no formula, no food for the senses.  What I experience in testing out the words of Jesus is going to be totally different than what someone else experiences.  That's the nature of belief.  

There is much risk involved in believing.  Since the words of Jesus counter most of the messages that pour at us from the media, family, friends, and religious institutions, it's no doubt that we walk away thinking, "How could this possibly be right?"  The Spirit inside of us whispers to not lose sight of the path.  When we pay attention to the still, small voice, we may find that our very cores all along were yearning to follow the way of the Rabbi.  How easy it is for the spirit to get drowned out by worldly calamity and popular belief.

Jesus invites us to take a huge risk, and to stay true to his life-giving words.  He doesn't ask us to explain everything away as if it were calculable and formulaic.  He simply asks us to believe.  Eventually, our beliefs become synonymous with our very breaths.  We breathe the spirit of the living God, and we find at the core of our beings that which we were looking for all along.  

There's one more thing to be noted here before I wrap this up.  Jesus accepts the crows just as they are. He doesn't tell each person what they need to do in order to follow him.  He doesn't point out each person's flaws, or tell them to come back when they get themselves right.  The people choose to walk away, but are in no way turned away.  It's the same for us.  God loves us just as we are and not as we should be.  We are perfect in His sight.  We are the ones who get so caught up in our own inconsistencies that we lose the ability to hear the voice inside us that whispers, "I love you just as you are.  You are perfect to me.  You don't need to do anything else to prove yourself to me.  I loved you way before you ever started trying to prove yourself. "

Today's Action:  Turn to the book of John in the Bible, either manually or online.  Find a verse in which Jesus gives a direction.  Test it.  Does it bring us life in our own, unique way?