Devotion • August 24
Today's Scripture
John 6:56–69
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “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.” (NRSV)
Reflection
“This teaching is difficult. Who can accept it?”
I have participated in weekly Bible study for about seven years now. The two men’s groups in which I have participated have become singular blessings in my life. The guys with whom I’ve studied come from a variety of cultural backgrounds, vocations, and religious traditions, and each of us is at a different point in our spiritual journeys. The retired pastors in each group are especially appreciated for their lifetime of ministry.
Every now and then, the focus of our study combines with our personal reflections and reminds us of the utterly fantastical nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what our faith calls us to do in response to it. Think about it.
Our faith as Christians calls us to believe that a force we can’t see or touch created the universe and everything in it, came to earth in the form of a man to teach, suffer, die, and rise from the dead all because the force we can’t see or touch loves us too much to leave us without a way to be reconciled back to itself. In exchange for this matchless love, we are compelled to love our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and our neighbors as ourselves. Sadly, as it turns out, this is indeed a difficult teaching that many have not accepted.
But Peter’s completely rhetorical response to Jesus’s awful question rings with the resignation of someone who knows the truth. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” If not to the gospel, then where? If not to you, Lord, then who?
My weekly Bible study, with my imperfect groups of Christian men, reminds me that in one way or another, the world regularly asks us, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” And I thank God, and my Christian brothers, that we continue to respond as Peter did: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the gifts of your gospel and Christian fellowship. Please draw us into communities with each other, help us to study and meditate on your word, and give us the courage to respond to your hard teaching with faithfulness and grace. Amen.
Written by John Marr, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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