Day 18: All for one - and one for all
More than a Post-It Note, sticking with someone, through thick and thin is admirable. Some of us are good at sticking with people. Some of us know who we should stick with, and who we should not. Maybe a few of you are the “sticky” type, and people stick to you! Either way, are you in a group that is “stuck together”? What does it take?
I don’t do a good job of staying connected to people. High School and College reunions, not the kind of person who attends them. Not staying “stuck” to friends who I was together with during earlier chapters of my life is something I regret. Somehow, I allow the present-day pressures of life to interfere with maintaining these relationships. As I write these words, a faces and names come to my mind and I wince.
Why bring this situation up? Because at the end of Chapter 6 in John’s Gospel we see such a scene. Jesus has just said some really hard things. He has said some crazy things.
(This is the fourth post in a series on John 6. You can read part one here, part two here, and part three here.)
He knows he has said crazy things—and many people just simply walked away from him.
There are some that have been with him every day. That’s right, every day. To be a disciple is to literally follow your Rabbi everywhere. You do not merely want to know what the Rabbi knows, you want to be like the Rabbi.
And your Rabbi has just said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood…”
Jesus sees all the people leave, and he turns and says, “How about you, bubbas? You leaving, too?” (At least that is my translation of verse 67).
Peter speaks for the twelve: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” And Jesus answers: “Did I not choose you…”
Do you remember I asked you if you thought Jesus was crazy?
If you are trying to put him in the “nice, sane, teacher” box, or even the box of a “great world leader”, then you leave.