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"Would-Be
Followers"
By
Dr.
Mickey Anders
South
Elkhorn Christian Church
Lexington,
Kentucky
August
23,
2009
Text: John
6:60-69
“After this,
many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”
I remember
reading a story 20 years ago about a lodge half-way up a popular
climbing mountain. The author described
the lodge as a warm,
inviting place with good food, a fireplace, comfortable chairs and big
picture
windows. It was positioned just about
half-way up the mountain so that climbers could stop there and rest
awhile
before finishing their difficult journey the rest of the way up the
mountain. But the author described it as
the saddest place in all the world.
According to
the story, there were always a few people who gave up the climb at the
half-way
house. They were tired.
It was cold.
They had had enough. So they
decided to stay at the warm lodge. They
would wave as their fellow climbers made their way off toward the
mountain
peak.
But slowly,
surely, a sadness began to set in. Those
remaining in the lodge began to question their decision.
They imagined the beautiful view from the top
of the mountain, the view they would never see.
And then as the climbers began to return to the lodge and
describe the
wonders of what they say, a full scale depression always set in on
those who
chose not to go on. Half-way is the
saddest place in all the world.
“After this,
many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”
This is a
surprising sentence because we seldom realize what really happened in
Jesus'
ministry. We focus on part of the story
and conveniently ignore the rest. By
most modern standards, Jesus was a failure.
Oh, it
started well enough. His ministry began
with the calling of the disciples. One
by one Jesus approached these strangers and said simply, "Follow me"
and they did. They dropped their fishing
nets, left their boats and followed him.
Or in Matthew's case, he dropped his tax books, and went after
Jesus. In no time at all, Jesus had
twelve devoted disciples following him everywhere.
Then came
the healing ministry. The crowds were
simply stunned when he healed the blind, the lame and the mute. He even cast out demons successfully. Never was there a demon who refused to obey
him.
When Jesus
spoke, everyone knew he was different.
They said, "He speaks with authority, not like the scribes and
Pharisees." The crowds thronged to
him to hear his homey stories he called parables. They
left talking about the meaning of the
stories, and months later they could still remember them.
Children
loved Jesus as well. Remember that scene
when the Disciples tried to prevent the children from coming to him. He said, "Let the children come, for to
such belongs the Kingdom of God."
We remember
all these positives. And we recall that
the crowds grew and grew. On one
occasion, four men brought their lame friend to be healed and they
couldn't
even get him through the door. They
climbed up on the roof and tore a hole to let the man down at Jesus
feet. And we have talked four weeks ago
about the
feeding of the 5,000, and that did not include the number of women and
children.
We remember
it all as one success after another. Who
wouldn't want to follow Jesus?
But there
were hints along the way that all was not well.
We just ignore them. From our
post-Resurrection perspective, we can even view the cross as a positive. At the time, it was the worst of the possible
outcomes.
"After
this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."
We know that
not everyone approved of Jesus' ministry.
Of course, the scribes and Pharisees did not.
We read about their lack of faith all through
the gospels. And we envision them as the
bad guys wearing the black hats so that we will know they are bad. But in fact, the Pharisees were the stalwarts
of Jesus' own religion. Jesus was first
and foremost a Jewish man. It was quite
telling and disheartening that the people of his own religion fought
him all
the way to the cross.
Remember
when Jesus came back to his hometown of Nazareth and preached a sermon. It began well enough, but then Jesus started
meddling by suggesting that God had been at work among foreigners who
were not
Jews. By the end of the sermon, the
people wanted to kill him. I suspect
there are few seminary students who would stick with the task if the
audience
of their first sermon reacted by wanting to kill them!
The reaction of the people in his hometown
led him to say, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own
hometown."
"After
this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."
All through
his ministry, there were those who turned back.
We usually forget about them. In
Luke 9, we read, "As they were going along the road, someone said to
him,
'I will follow you wherever you go.' And
Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests;
but
the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'"
To another
(Jesus) said, "Follow me." But
he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead
bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of
God."
Another
said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those
at
my home." Jesus said to him,
"No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
kingdom
of God"(Luke 9:57-62).
Remember the
rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking what he needed to do to
inherit
eternal life. Jesus listed some of the
Ten Commandments, and the young man responded that he had kept all of
them from
his youth. Then Jesus said, "If you
wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to
the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me" (Matthew
19:21). But the young man went away
grieving, for he had many possessions.
"After
this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."
In our text
for today, we find it was the hard words of Jesus that led to many
turning
back. Verse 60 says, "When many of
his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult;
who can accept
it?’"
After four
weeks of studying the sixth chapter of John, we can understand what
they were
saying. Not only did Jesus feed the
5,000, he also claimed to be the Bread of life; he compared himself to
the
manna that came down from heaven in Exodus; he said those who believe
in him
would have life; he even bordered on cannibalism when he insisted that
only
those who eat his flesh and drink his blood would have eternal life. These were, indeed, hard words to understand. Jesus message was not for the faint of heart.
But there
were other hard words that Jesus spoke as well.
"Take up your cross and follow me." “Love
your enemies, and pray for those who
hate you.” “Go sell all that
you have
and give it to the poor and then come follow me.”
“It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for rich people to enter the kingdom of
heaven.” “Do not repay evil
with evil, but overcome
evil with good.” “Do not store
up for yourselves
treasures on earth.” “Do not
judge, or
you too will be judged.”
"After
this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."
The
interesting thing is that Jesus does not go running after those who
left him
because of his hard words. He doesn’t call out and tell them he
was only
kidding, and they shouldn’t take it so seriously. He
doesn’t plead or argue or
take it down a notch. If you think about it, he’s rather
uncompromising. And in the end, he is left
with fewer to do
this great work than when he started.
As the
thrust of his ministry becomes clearer and clearer, the crowds grow
smaller and
smaller. At first the crowds grew as his
popularity exploded. But slowly the
5,000 became 500 and then 70. We get the
impression from today's passage that all but the twelve had left him at
this
point. And just think, in a short time
even they will flee and insist they never knew him.
At the cross, only John, Mary his mother, and
a few other women would be left.
"After
this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."
How many
times have we sung that wonderful invitation song, "I have decided to
follow Jesus?" It is a wonderfully
simple melody with powerful words. But
do you remember what the song says after repeating the title phrase
three
times? It says, "No turning back,
no turning back."
That song
comes right out of our passage for today.
It is supposed to be our answer to Jesus' question in verse 67,
which
says, "So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go
away?’"
The hymn
gives us the words, "No, we don't want to go away.
No turning back, no turning back."
But in our
passage it was Peter who spoke first.
Verse 68 says, "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.’"
Peter was
the impulsive one of the Disciples. He
was always answering questions first. At
Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked a rhetorical question, "Who do you say
that
I am?" Peter was the one who
blurted out, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God."
Here Peter's
response is a little more hesitant. He
asks, "To whom can we go?" In
1940, J.B. Coates wrote a song based on these words.
The chorus says, "Where could I go but
to the lord, Where could I go oh where could I go, Seeking the refuge
for my soul,
Needing a friend to save me in the end, Where could I go but to the
lord."
We can
imagine the plight of the Disciples that day.
They had sacrificed everything to follow Jesus.
They left their nets and tax books. They left
their families and livelihoods to learn from this itinerant preacher. They followed him because they all believed
that he "had the words of eternal life." And
over time they "came to believe and
know that (Jesus) was the Holy One of God."
Where could
they go? There were other religious
preachers of the day, but none were like Jesus.
There may have been other paths that people recommended to find
God, but
none was so clear. Jesus was so close to
God, they were comfortable calling him "The Holy One of God" and even
"The Son of God."
Where could
they go? The only other option for them
was that half-hearted kind of commitment shown by all those disciples
who
"turned back and no longer followed him." How
could they turn back? How could they come
this far and not follow Jesus
to the end? How could they call
themselves "followers" if they only followed Jesus around the
block? For them, this was the kind of
commitment that they were willing to stake their lives on.
And in fact, history tells us that everyone
of the disciples but one would die for their faith.
They were the first to sing those words,
"I have decided to follow Jesus - no turning back, no turning back."
And today,
Jesus question comes to us, "Do you also wish to go away?"
We are
following Jesus up the mountain of faith.
We come to the lodge at the half-way point.
It is a warm, inviting place with good food,
a fireplace, and comfortable chairs. We
are tired and weary. We have come so far
with Jesus. Maybe we will just stay
here.
"After
this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."
"Do you
also wish to go away?"