Rose Hill Presbyterian John 6:53-69 Rev. Brian North March 23 rd, 2014 Not a Fan Kirkland, WA Fair-weather Fans Would it be all right if I started this morning s message with a question? We re continuing our series of messages that are loosely guided by the book, Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman. Today s message connects with some things he touches on in chapter 4 (next week will be chapter 5). And I want to ask you this question: How many of us would like for life to be a little easier? I mean, if someone were to tell you right now, Push the easy button i and life will become instantly easier for you we d all push it, right? If you re telling yourself, Nah, I don t want life easier. I like the challenge. I think you re lying to yourself at least on some level. Maybe there are certain challenges in life that we like or are willing to take on climbing a mountain, finishing a book, completing a home-improvement project, making a quilt, raising kids(!), and so forth. We like some challenge. But: For a lot of life, we want things easier we like the shortcuts. That s the reason why we ve invented things like dishwashers, washers and dryers, automobiles, airplanes, electric lights, phones, computers, and the best one of all: power tools. They make life easier. Well sometimes computers don t; sometimes they re a pain in the rear. But for the most part, they re good. I remember a few years ago I found a glaze of oil on our kitchen counter. Gwen had earlier mentioned to me that the kids had eaten peanut butter sandwiches as a late afternoon snack, and so I figured that this was some of the peanut oil that spilled over when Gwen stirred up the peanut butter (we always buy the kind that has to be stirred up). I opened the fridge, and sure enough, there was a new jar of peanut butter that had settled so that the oil was all on top. I decided to mix it up properly, since her valiant efforts hadn't been completely successful. And since I love my wife, I wanted to to the kind thing and help out. Also, since I'm a guy, and because I wanted to make the job easier, I decided to use our hand-held electric mixer to stir it up. My motto is, If the choice is between muscle power and electric power, choose electric. Why? Because it s easier. Now, the jar opening was small enough that I could only get one mixing thingy in the jar, so I stuck the one in, took hold of the oily jar in one hand, the mixer in the other, and hit the power 1
button. The jar immediately slipped out of my hands, and started spinning with the mixer, spraying peanut oil all over the counter, the floor, and myself. I quickly stopped the mixer. I was determined to do this. So I grasped the jar again, only tighter, and repeated my efforts, with the exact same results. It was a mess, with peanut butter oil everywhere! By now, I was sufficiently ticked off. Here I was, trying to properly mix up the oil, and I was paying a price for it. I had an instant grudge against my wife, because it was her fault the peanut butter hadn't been properly mixed the first time (that s another sermon ). A job that should have been easy became a lot more difficult than it ever should have been but I was trying to make it easy. So often, we want things easy we want shortcuts in life. And when things get difficult, or when they aren t going as we thought they would, sometimes we jump ship. It happens in marriages, it happens in churches, it happens in places of work it happens with fans of sports teams. In fact, in the sports world, we have a term for fans who only voice their support for a team when things are going well. We call them, fair-weather fans. They want things easy, they want victory all the time and when that doesn t happen, they walk away like with the Mariners over the last 12 years. And also like in this morning s passage, where we see some people who were disciples of Jesus leave him after he gives a so-called hard teaching. Now, these were not part of the 12 Disciples. We oftentimes call those 12 The Disciples but there were many others who were disciples outside of the 12. But for those ones who walked away: they were really fair-weather fans. Now in order to fully understand why they left, and why they thought this was a hard teaching, we need to put things in context. Earlier in this chapter, we see a crowd of people asking Jesus some questions, as they try to figure out who Jesus is and what he s all about. For instance, we read in verses 30 and 31: So they asked him, What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. The interesting thing is that in the first few verses of this chapter, John tells us of Jesus feeding of 5,000 men (plus women and kids, presumably) from a little boy s sack lunch, and he tells us 2
how Jesus healed a whole bunch of people from all kinds of diseases, and about how Jesus walked on water. And then they have the gall to ask this question What sign will you give so we might believe in you? And in asking, they reference their ancestors wandering around in the desert and the manna that fell from heaven. They seem to imply that it was Moses who caused that to happen, as Jesus replies to them, It was not Moses who has given you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. (That s part of what s going on they re checking Jesus out and comparing him to Moses, arguably the greatest leader Israel had known.) Regardless, God s provision of food what the Old Testament calls manna for their ancestors as they wandered around in the desert was a sign that God was with them, that God was taking care of them and leading them. What exactly manna is, is not known. A few Old Testament passages tell us a little bit about it that it was like flakes on the ground; it was like a seed; they would grind it and use it to make bread, and so forth. ii In fact, some English translations translate manna as bread (they call it bread here, too) because that is what was most often made out of it. The point is, however, that under Moses leadership, God gave a sign that He was with Moses and with all the Israelites in the desert, and a couple thousand years later or so, they re wondering what kind of sign Jesus is going to provide to verify that God is with him. And in his response to them, Jesus sticks with the manna and bread theme which they brought up. And the statement that gets everyone mumbling and grumbling is when he says in verse 35, I am the bread of life Jesus (John 6:35). So, just as God the Father sent manna from heaven that the Israelite turned into bread for nourishment, now God has sent his Son from heaven as nourishment of a different kind spiritual nourishment, spiritual fulfillment, though Jesus doesn t explain to them the metaphor too directly. Jesus says in verse 51 that this bread is his flesh, and whoever eats of it will live forever there s a hint at the spiritual direction he s taking this conversation. But that gets the crowd in a tizzy, and in verse 52 they start to argue among themselves over the question, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? which you can t really blame them in some ways. It seems odd. 3
(Though the fact that they were arguing over it, means some must have had some understanding of what Jesus meant, and were defending him in some way.) And then Jesus says to them what we read this morning, where he makes it even more controversial because he says that not only does eating his flesh lead to spiritual nourishment, but so does drinking his blood. That is completely heretical to them, going against all Jewish thinking because when they ate meat, the blood was always drained out. They did this because blood was considered the source of life obviously, it s needed in order to live and because blood was considered sacred, which is why an animal sacrifice was used in the most sacred part of worship. So for Jesus to say they must eat his flesh and drink his blood because he is the true bread of life that has come down from heaven well, that s just completely outside their boxes of thinking. And, let s be honest: it does sound a little strange, especially if you re hearing this and you think Jesus is speaking in a literal kind of way. And if you ve never set foot in a church before or know nothing about Jesus, please don t judge Jesus on this statement without the context. Hang in there just a few more minutes. So essentially, Jesus is using this as a metaphor, with a couple points being made. First, it s a foreshadowing of the Last Supper and what we celebrate in Communion the eating of bread and the drinking of juice or wine to remember that Christ died on the cross as the final and ultimate sacrifice. We don t believe the bread and the juice literally become his flesh and blood, but they are symbolic of his brokenness on the cross. The second metaphorical and spiritual meaning that Jesus is trying to convey: that Second, Jesus is the bread from heaven and He is more than enough to fill us up and satisfy us. We don t need to look for spiritual fulfillment in other places. In fact, spiritual fulfillment is the deepest kind of fulfillment there is, and we often try to fill it with all kinds of things that are really quite shallow: Money, our stuff, pride, prestige, power, and more. Or if we do recognize it s a spiritual need we have, so many people pick and choose a little from here, some from there, etc., and just make things up that make them happy. None of those things satisfy our deepest needs. We always want more. We always envy someone who has more. We get a promotion at work, which is nice and makes us feel good for a time but then there s always 4
someone above us in the pecking order or a friend in another line of work who seems to enjoy their job more. Or we get a raise but unless you founded Microsoft, there s always someone who makes more money that we do. We struggle to be satisfied. And Jesus is saying here that he s more than enough. He satisfies. He s the bread of life, and when we eat and drink deeply from him and what he offers, the other needs and desires we have in life pale in comparison, and he satisfies us completely. So that s what he s saying to these disciples. But to them it was a hard teaching, too difficult to live out, as they took it too literally. They didn t want to take the time to understand him, and instead rush to a quick judgment and so a number of them walk away. They re fair-weather fans. So what does this mean for us today? Are we fair-weather fans of Jesus? Have we walked away as some of these folks do? Do we walk away at certain times when following Jesus seems too difficult? First of all, I think we have to realize that it s not so much Jesus teaching that s hard, but our hearts that our hard toward Him and I don t mean just in regards to this passage, but in general. John Calvin writes in his commentary on this passage, The hardness was in their hearts, not in the saying they complain that His saying his hard, which really ought to have softened them (John Calvin). iii Let s be honest, when Jesus says stuff that makes us say, Wow that s a really hard teaching it s not usually that it s difficult to grasp intellectually like my 6 th grader s math assignments. Those are intellectually hard. In fact last year, in 5 th grade, he was doing stuff that I didn t know how to do. I remember one geometry problem that I couldn t figure out. So I took a picture of the problem, texted it to my cousin who s a home-remodeler he lives geometry, right? and asked him what the answer was. He called me back and said: They didn t give enough information, and the problem can t be solved. That s really difficult, right? That isn t usually the case with Jesus it s not an intellectual difficulty, and it s never that there isn t enough information. And it s not even that what he 5
teaches and calls us to do is difficult to carry out and do though sometimes it is, but usually it s not. Usually, what s hard about the teaching is our hearts and our attitudes toward Jesus and what he says, because we simply don t want to let his teaching be our rule for living. We re fairweather fans at some level, and the so-called difficult teachings are where we realize our devotion ends and our fair-weather fandom begins. We don t want to love our neighbor as ourselves. It s not really that difficult we just don t do really want to do it, because there are easier options. We don t want to take up our cross and follow him we d rather take up the coffee mug while sitting in the easy chair. We don t want to take the log out our own eye because it s easier to point out the speck in someone else s. In short, we d rather be consumers of what Jesus offers, rather than participants in what he s doing. It is so much easier and convenient. But it treats Jesus like he s our cosmic busboy iv : we sit and consume while he brings us all the goods. And that s exactly why Jesus says the things he does, because we need Jesus to soften our hearts. And just as a farmer needs a plow to till and soften the ground, sometime Jesus has to be pretty pointed with us, too. Recognizing that its our hard hearts, and not Jesus teaching, that keep us from following, is a huge first step to allowing Him to soften our hearts. If our hearts are softer toward Jesus and allowed his so-called difficult teachings to impact us, we d realize the second point I d like to make: Not following Jesus makes life even harder. When we walk away from Jesus teaching on something, and say, That s too hard for me to follow, we will inevitably make poor choices and life will be much more difficult than if we had followed his instruction to begin with. We do that because we want a Burger King life: We want it our way. And the fact is, Jesus challenges our way an awful lot of the time because of our selfishness, pride, power, egos, and more. But it is because of those very things that we get ourselves into trouble: Because of pride, we think we re above the possibility of an addiction; because of ego, we think we can take on more debt; because of power, we think we can treat others poorly and get away with it; Because of selfishness, we think we can have an affair and keep it a secret and so forth. Eventually, those decisions to take shortcuts, to make life easier, that don t line up with Jesus word they catch up with us, and then life gets really difficult. But if our hearts were softer toward Jesus and receptive of his 6
teachings that we perceive as hard, and if we were less inclined toward fairweather fandom, we d find that the narrow path he leads us on keeps us from stepping off into the difficult and scary terrain of life. Lastly, we see here that: Fair-weather fans only follow when they know the outcome will be worth the effort. Jesus says to them in verse 61 and 62, Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? In other words, Jesus is saying, What will your response be when I back up every word I say? What will your response be when I demonstrate to you with a sign like you ve never seen before that I am who I say I am? What will you do then? Everyone likes a winner, right? And if we re going to do the hard work on something, we d like a guarantee that it s going to be worth it in the end, that the victory will be ours. But that s a sign of being fair-weather fan when we ll only follow when we know that the outcome will be how we want it. Jesus promise in life is not that life with him will be easy. Rather, his promise is that he will be with us: in the storms of life, he s the shelter; when the waters rise around us, he s our sure foundation; in the valleys of death, he is right beside us; when we can t see our way in life, he opens our eyes; when we face temptation, he gives us a way out; when we re wandering in the desert, he provides manna from heaven. He is the bread of life. I encourage each of us to allow Jesus teachings, his ministry, his life, death, resurrection, and ascension to where he came from, to soften your heart. There are some things that he says and does that we think are too hard a pill to swallow. But maybe what s hard is already inside us, right here (our heart). Let s go where he leads us, no matter how difficult we may perceive it to be. Because: Jesus is far more than a fair-weather savior. He was up to the challenge. And he s calling you and me to be far more than fair-weather fans. Let s pray Amen. 7 i Thanks, Staples! ii Numbers 11:7-9 and Exodus 16. iii John Calvin, Calvin s New Testament Commentaries; John 1-10, Eerdman Publishing, 1995, p. 173.
iv I m not smart enough to have thought of this comparison myself though I can t for the life of me remember where I heard/read it. It was a number of years ago. 8