“The Promise”

Scripture: John 6:35-51

It amazes me that for the three and a half years that Jesus walked this earth that so few people believed him! Have you ever thought about that? Here is God – walking among us, teaching, preaching, healing, raising people from the dead, having an incredible effect on the lives of so many - amazing most of them - and still, doubts were far more prevalent than was belief. Why couldn’t Israel accept Jesus for who he really was?

I have a theory that I’m going to offer - it might be right, or it might be completely off track, but regardless, here it is – the people had trouble believing because of his humanity. In physical appearance, he was too much like us, and that was not what Messiah was supposed to be. In attitude, he was, for all practical purposes, too humble – Messiah was supposed to be powerful and majestic. And his voice? It wasn’t much different than yours and mine – it didn’t boom, it didn’t pierce, it didn’t astound. Jesus, in appearance, was plain and ordinary, and he could blend in easily with any crowd – there was nothing physically special about him.
But when he taught, when he touched, when he stooped to help, he was unlike anyone else in all the world. He spoke with authority. His touch was pure power. His demeanor was elegance. His teaching was to the point – maybe too much to the point for most folks! And yet, most could only see what he did for them, and they totally missed all that he was offering to them.

Jesus was an enigma, and very few would ever figure him out.

Read John 6:35-40

It was those first two sentences that threw everybody. They heard “I am the Bread of Life.” They heard that Jesus will keep them from ever being hungry or thirsty again! And when their minds centered on these strange words and tried to figure them out, they never heard the rest of the salvation message that he offered to them.
‘You have seen me, and still you do not believe.” How do we imagine Jesus looked in those days? What do we think he would look like if he walked in our front door this morning? Would we know him? Probably not! At least not until he began to speak, offering some teaching that was completely new to us! Some would understand and accept it, but I’m afraid that most of us would miss his point. It wouldn’t fit! HE wouldn’t fit! And we would completely miss the reason that brought him into our lives.
Jesus wants us to focus on what we see in him, and not just on what he may look like. When we see him at work in our lives, when we see him in faith in our hearts, when we feel his touch on our wounds and hurts and failures, these are the times that we come to know who he really is. But will we miss that, too?

Jesus’ message today is the same as it was 2,000 years ago – it hasn’t changed one bit, even though some folks want it to. He has come to us from heaven, and the desires and motivation and the will to share all that has come to him is intended solely to bring glory to the Father. And the only response that we need to make is complete and trusting faith in him. And when we do, the Father will promise eternal life to us. That’s the message – not a single thing that is new.

The problem, though, is that he would probably begin with a few words that would stretch the faith in all of us, possibly even to the breaking point. Maybe he would look straight into our eyes and tells us that we have failed him – that we are too hung up on the things we do and say, and don’t love him nearly enough, and that unless something changes, we may fall far short.
After hearing that, would we be able to focus on the rest of his words for us?

Read John 6:41-42

Would we respond any differently? They had known Jesus from the time he was a baby. They knew his parents. They had seen him grow up. They knew his brothers and sisters. He was the same Jesus who had grown up in the sixth house past the synagogue. They may even own a table or chair that he had built! He’s one of us, so how could he be Messiah God?
We have the teachings of Jesus, we have the teachings of Israel, and all we have to do is study them, and discuss them, and seek to understand them, if we truly want to come to grips with the full significance of his life for us.

In 2004, Mel Gibson wrote and directed a movie called “The Passion of the Christ”. Remember that? It was a powerful depiction of the two days that led up to Jesus’ crucifixion, and it was a huge box office success. The problem with the movie was that it was extremely graphic, and the brutality and violence that it depicted turned a lot of people off. Did it go too far? Did it go beyond the reality of Jesus’ beating and execution? No – if anything, it may have been softened a bit. But even in our violence prone world, we didn’t want to see this thing lifted up on the “big screen”. And many totally missed the message of salvation that was portrayed.
It’s all about where we focus our lives.

Read John 6:43-51

We may not see Jesus with clear eyes, but he knows everything about you and me – and that includes our doubts and our fears and our failures and every attack that we have made against someone else. But this will never deter him – he tells the people that they can only believe in him if the Father has called them, and that can only happen when we listed to him and receive Godly wisdom from him.
If we only listen to those first few words – that “No one can come to [Jesus] unless the Father … draws him”, we will begin to believe that God has predestined that some will be called, and others will not. But when we see the next words – that if we listen and learn from God, that it is then that we will be called – we discover that it is dependent on our receptiveness to his word, and not on the Lord’s judgmental hand!

Jesus even offers us a reason as to why we should believe in him – that no one has seen the Father except for the one who the Father has sent to the people of earth! That’s Jesus! And he then goes on to offer the divine promise that is made to the people – that if they believe that Jesus is the One who has been sent from God, they will receive eternal life.

And he even explains the comparison that he has made between himself and life-giving bread. He uses a bit of Israel’s history to explain the meaning of “Bread of Life”. Manna was the life-giving bread from heaven while they were wandering in the desert. They refused to trust God, they refused to honor God, they proved their doubt of God over and over, they were completely unworthy to receive anything from God – and still the Lord sustained their lives through it all.
Jesus tells us that while it was physical manna that sustained the people in their wandering, it is his “Spiritual” manna that will sustain us for eternity. The people had to believe that the manna would nourish them, and then they had to go out every day to gather it in. And we, too, have to believe that Jesus is our Bread of Eternal Life, and we have to be welcoming of him in our lives, every moment of every day.

The people had to gather and eat the manna every day if they were to live, and we, too, must consume this spiritual manna throughout our lives, if we are to be nourished in God’s sight. The manna came from heaven, and so does our Bread of Life. The manna had to be chewed and swallowed if it was to do them any good, and the spiritual manna, representing the sacrifice that Jesus made for us at Calvary, also had to be offered and broken and accepted if it is to do us any good.

Today, we receive the elements of communion in the form of bread and juice.

When we receive the bread, know that this represents the Jesus Manna that sustains us both now and through eternity, and is a sign from God that, by faith in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and made worthy to receive his gift of salvation.
When we receive the juice and hear that this is the “cup of a new covenant”, remember that the Blood of Jesus, given in humility and sacrifice at Calvary, represents the promise of a relationship that is eternal, but one that can only come by faith in him.

Jesus offered this promise 2,000 years ago, and we are still trying to come to grips with the depth of its meaning. And, quite honestly, we keep trying to make it too difficult! Just remember verse 40:

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and [they] will be raised up at the last day”. That is the promise of Jesus – it is sure, it is trustworthy, and it is offered to you.

Accept his promise, and you will live.
Refuse it, and you can’t.