Strengthened & Equipped!

Give up or keep going? Give up or keep going?! Give up or keep going…

How many times have you confronted that question in your life? That’s the question confronted by the disciples in our Gospel reading today—give up or keep going? And Jesus is the one who poses it.

When others who were following him decide that what he is saying is too hard and leave, Jesus turns to his inner circle and asks whether that’s what they want to do too. “What about you? You’re free to join them if you want to give up on me too.” “Have you had enough? Are you ready to give up too? Or are you prepared to keep going?” Give up or keep going!

Now that’s confronting! This is the rabbi they been following around for a while—someone who seemed to offer some hope for people who were really, really in need of hope. And now this guy is giving them a kind of ultimatum or at least the chance for them to get off the hook: “If you want to go, you can go too.”

And I know that there have been times in my faith journey when I’ve wanted to go, I’ve wanted to give up, because the story is too hard, the news is too difficult to convey, the messenger is so often misunderstood, and there’s so much baggage that has accrued to Christianity that what people sometimes think is Christian is hardly Christian at all. It’s too hard, too difficult—it’s like pushing a boulder uphill.

So just what has Jesus been saying that seems to have turned so many away? It’s pretty graphic stuff. Chew on me and I will become part of you, and you will become part of me. God is the source of my life; and I will be the source of yours; and not just the source of human life now, but of eternal life, of life in God forever.

This stuff is hard. This stuff doesn’t make a lot of sense. And maybe it’s hard for us to understand just how hard this stuff in the Gospel of John might have sounded because the imagery is so steeped in our Christian tradition; but in the first century it’s the emerging Christian story and it’s working with the Jewish story, but changing it, and change is hard!

Give up or keep going?

The disciples are confronted with a changing tradition; and it’s hard to know what’s the right way forward when the ground seems so slippery. What if you put your foot wrong? It’s not just about stumbling, it’s about whether you’re in relationship with God or not, whether you are walking in God’s way or not, so when things seem to be changing, how can you know what the right path is?

And when the way seems so uncertain, it can be very discouraging. We like nice maps, good directions, an accurate GPS. We like to know that we’re on the right path; we’re not being led astray; we are walking the path that has been set for us… by God.

Give up or keep going?

But Jesus has given them a clue—a clue to the discernment of the Spirit’s leading. He’s already given them (and us) a clue when he’s been speaking to those others who chose to leave and to those who remain, at least for the time being. “Everything I’ve said to you is life-giving. Everything I’ve said to you is life-giving.” That’s the clue! That’s the way to know the way! The good news of Jesus is life-giving!

Give up or keep going? What is the path that leads to life; and not just the sort of life guaranteed by bread, but the life guaranteed by God—life that is fulfilling and abundant and freeing—real life, the life that comes with freedom, proper freedom—not the freedom to do what I like, the freedom of acting in accordance with God’s intent without being afraid that you might not be on the right path—the freedom of being in God. Now that’s scary!

Because at first it sounds very much like I’m not in control, like I can’t plan my destiny, like I’m going to be in a straight jacket, but it’s not! It’s the only proper freedom there is. No wonder “When the people who had been following Jesus heard him say these things, many of them began to say, ‘Who can stomach what this man teaches? It is too tough by far.’” And the shutters were up! Because it barely sounds like freedom at all.

So Jesus wants to see if the disciples’ shutters have come up too. And Simon Peter responds and essentially his response is that the disciples who remain have caught on that Jesus’ words are life; and that Jesus’ life is God’s life; and that they are being invited to enter into the life of Jesus, the life of God.

And that is the invitation to us: give up or keep going? And when you’re making your decision, make sure you choose life, make sure you know what life you’re choosing—the only real life that there is, life in Jesus, life in God. Whether something is life-giving or death-dealing is the clue to whether it is of God! That is the struggle in which we are engaged—the struggle for that which is life-giving and the struggle against that which is death-dealing. That is the reality that Jesus is checking out with his disciples—do they know what it is that gives life? Do they know whom it is who gives life? Because if they don’t, they might as well leave now; because they will be defenceless. They will not be able to discern the life to which they have been called, let alone the armour which it provides them for the journey—an armour not of military might and physical strength, but of the things of God—truth and righteousness, peace and faith, and above all salvation.

So in order to keep discerning the right path, in order to keep connected to the way of life, we need to keep in relationship with God; and for the disciples, that relationship is firsthand with Jesus; and the disciples of Jesus that firsthand relationship is made possible because of Jesus who is God and did enter God’s world in order to show what real life is, in order to demonstrate what real life is, and in order to give that real life to all who only choose to ask. Give up or keep going? Live life or succumb that which hinders and even extinguishes life.

“Lord, who else could we turn to? Your words have opened our eyes to life without limit. You have won our trust and we are convinced that you are God’s Holy One.”