Daily life with Jesus by Grahame Howard: Could you walk away from Jesus?

"Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?" John 6:67 NKJV

What a sad situation was caused by Jesus' teaching about the Bread of Heaven (John 6:22 -70). The Jews and the rest of the listeners couldn't grasp what He was implying by saying such things as, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.' (v53-54). Be honest, how would you have received this teaching, it was quite a gruesome description. But it was also one in which, you needed spiritual discernment. Of course, Jesus was speaking of His coming death and resurrection, along with Holy Communion which would follow at the Last Supper and from thereon.

William Barclay writes about three different attitudes to Jesus. Let me paraphrase. Firstly, he mentions:

DEFECTION: Many of the disciples had walked away from Him following this teaching and many others would follow. They wanted to get out of the way in order to save their own skin. Jesus was going too far this time and they knew that, one cannot challenge the authorities in such a way and, get away with it. Therefore, they ran away. They wanted from Him but, were not prepared to give back with support.

DETERIORATION: Regarding Judas, initially Jesus had seen a great potential in this man and was willing to give him a chance. Judas might well have become a hero but instead, chose to be a nothing. He turned people away from Jesus, poisoning their minds and eventually betrayed Him. It was a deteriorating time.

DETERMINATION: Peter's heart shone through at this time. He loved Jesus and they had a special relationship. When Jesus asked him if he wanted to go away as well, he answered: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.' Little did he realise that in a very short time, he would deny Jesus, to save himself.

Ideas re-written from William Barlclay's Commentary to the Gospel of John

In some places, it is getting more difficult to live the Christian life. As we've discussed in previous commentaries, people are losing their lives or their freedom for Jesus. It can only get worse as we move nearer to the End Times.

What would you do if faced with serious threats about your faith in Jesus? Would you go away, as Jesus asked Peter, or would you stand your ground with Jesus? It is a difficult one to answer. We would all like to say that that we would stand with Jesus no matter what, but would we? To give an idea, if your boss or your partner ordered you to not to talk about Jesus, although hard, you would would probably make the stand. However, when your life or your family's life is threatened could you still say no? I would like to think that we could but, obviously pray that we never have to face this.

These are the things that people are facing in certain parts of our world today. The End Times may happen in our life time, so we need to take on board what Peter's answer to Jesus was - 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.' We also need to be grateful to God that, at the moment, we are not in this position. Pray for those who are.

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle

Check it out

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B084G9S4FD/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2