Are you offended?

58 I am the true bread from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever and not die as your ancestors did, even though they ate the manna." 59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 Even his disciples said, "This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?" 61 Jesus knew within himself that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 Then what will you think if you see me, the Son of Man, return to heaven again? 63 It is the Spirit who gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But some of you don't believe me." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who didn't believe, and he knew who would betray him.) 65 Then he said, "That is what I meant when I said that people can't come to me unless the Father brings them to me." 66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. 67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, "Are you going to leave, too?" 68 Simon Peter replied, "Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe them, and we know you are the Holy One of God." John 6:58-69

A sermon from The Reverend Jo Wilcoxson, Episcopal Church of the Messiah Winter Garden, FL 8-26-2012

John 6

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak Eph 6

Does this offend you?

How do we react when someone asks us if they have offended us?

How do we react to Jesus asking such a question?

He is the Jesus of the popular poem “Footsteps;” The God who picks us up and carries us through the tough places of our lives.  He is, he tells the disciples while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, ‘I am the very bread of life’, and that they are invited to find eternal life in eating the bread he offers.

And the crowds’ reaction to this divine pronouncement? “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”

Already, even before the church was founded, the complaining begins. That’s the way John writes it in his gospel: “Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about his teaching, said to them, ‘Does this offend you?’” What an honest insight! Many Christians, seem to hold the view that Jesus’ disciples sat all the time around his feet, smiles pasted on their faces as they gazed with rapt eyes upon their Master and devoured with hungry ears every word from his lips.

This is a portrait of Jesus.   The funny thing about portraits is that they can be true but still be incomplete.

Have you ever tried to get an entire family together for a portrait? There’s the discussion over when and where to take the picture. There is the discussion about what to wear. There’s the weather. There’s the politics over who will stand next to whom. There are the different opinions between the people organizing the picture and the person taking it. There’s the problem of the grandson or the daughter who could not be there.

On the one hand, the professional and glossy photograph of a happy, smiling family all turned out in clean clothes is true. It is accurate. But it is not the whole story. Looking at that one portrait tells you some important things about the family, but it does not tell you everything.

So it goes with the portrait of Jesus.  It does not tell us about the Jesus that offends people, or about the Jesus who made a bunch of his followers turn away from him. It does not tell us about the Jesus who turned to the twelve to ask them if they would also turn away. Did they rise up in defiance and shout that they would never leave Jesus? No. What does the scripture say? It says the disciples looked at Jesus and said “to whom can we go”, “where else can we go?” Really? Jesus must have thought, thanks guys…what a rousing endorsement.

They had come to Jesus to get something from Him but when it came to suffering for Him or giving to Him they quit.

Jesus upsets us all because – as Paul writes in Romans – we all fall short of the glory of God.

Make no mistake… these were not anti-religious people who were doing the complaining; this was no secular crowd thinking that this Jesus was some religious nut. The people who were doing the complaining were those who had come to church to hear him preach and teach in the synagogue in Capernaum.  The great irony in this story is that the very grace that offended these disciples was provided for them by the same Jesus who offended them. Even for those who turned away, Jesus offered himself as the very definition of grace: God’s gift of reconciliation, just because He desires his creatures, his people to be reconciled to him. No struggling toward an unreachable goal of perfection trying to earn God’s forgiveness, but instead a forgiveness offered in his Son, Jesus, who did indeed ascend into heaven, sealing the promise and delivery of a bread of life. Not just to the eleven whom stuck with him; not just to those who listened without grumbling and complaining in the synagogue; not just to those who try to live a modern day Christian version of Judaic Law; not just to the pure did God offer his forgiveness in Christ.  Jesus brought grace and the promise of life to all who would accept forgiveness in Christ’s name.

And yes, God’s grace can be offensive. It’s not fair. God’s grace offends, because that grace and forgiveness is not only reserved for those who have lived their life as perfectly as possible, but is also available for that person who comes to understand and believe at the last moment, just like the thief on the cross beside Jesus. Grace is not fair by our rules because even those latecomers also receive the promise “this day you shall join me in paradise.”

The people of God have always been people who say upsetting things.  Shoot, Moses walked into Pharaoh’s courts and said God wanted his people – Pharaoh’s slaves to be free.

Stephen harangued the Jewish leaders for failing to see what Jesus had done.  Look where it got him…stoned to death.

All of us in our lives have chances to be a little impatient and a little bit offensive in the service of Christ. We can – just like Jesus did in our reading – remind people of the important things.

The question for us is not whether we ever have a chance to do what Jesus wants. The question more often is whether we are going to be like those who turned their backs on Jesus or like those who said to him “Where else can we go?”

It has been proven down through the centuries that it is not intellectual difficulty that keeps people from believing as much as it is accepting the moral demands of Christ. Many refuse to follow Christ not because they are intellectually puzzled but because its challenges their way of living.

Intimacy with God, that is giving Him full custody of your heart, is not all warm fuzzies and smiles.  When a relationship is intimate, one person can speak openly and in correction to the other so complete honesty might flow between the two.

The next time you feel in your heart the spirit of God tugging you to do something – especially if it is something that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable – think back to those 12 disciples and ask yourself, “Do you have somewhere else to go?” Have you heard the words of life? Do you know Jesus to be the Holy One of God?  It’s okay to follow him. He wants you to. That is why he came.

You might ask then why bother following the admonitions on how to live, or attend worship regularly, or volunteer, or donate to help refugees and the needy? If God’s grace and forgiveness is readily available merely for believing in Christ, why do all the rest? To which the answer is fairly clear, at least to those who do try to live in ways that please God, and worship faithfully, and give freely of themselves in Christ’s service – that it is in participating in all of these things as a response to what God has already done - that the deep, satisfying, meaningful and abundant life Christ promised is actually found. This is the essence of what Jesus was saying to his disciples, that by immersing themselves totally in his ministry they would discover and avail themselves of the bread of life, that they would be filled and fulfilled in ways that were not possible any other way.

When we discover that Jesus is not just there to cater to our needs, but to enlist us in a cause that is greater than ourselves, a mission to bring justice and peace to the world, then we have to decide if that is what we want to do. When we realize that Jesus is here not simply to give us the bread from heaven, but to fill us with his grace and truth so that we can give bread to others, then we have to decide if we want to continue following Jesus.

So let me end by asking, does this offend you? Really?

I.N.J.