Checking Out on Jesus

August 14 2011"After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: "Do you also want to leave?" Peter replied, "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We've already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:66-69 (MSG)I wish I could take you with me to my home town of Heiningen, Germany, and have you join me for an early morning trip to one of the bakeries. Oh the smell of fresh bread, rolls, and pretzels, it is nothing short of incredible. And then to have some of that fresh, still warm, baked “manna” for breakfast, a little slice of heaven I tell you.Jesus was talking about bread, but in the end very few people were excited about what he said. In fact even many of his supporters left him after his talk on bread. He talked about spiritual bread, but like us it was hard for them to see how spiritual bread is more important than the stuff they sell at the bakery. He also stressed the sovereignty of God, that none of us can come to God merely by our own decision. That too wasn’t exactly what everyone was hoping to hear. We love to think that we are entirely free to choose as we please, especially in spiritual things.However, before Jesus declared himself to be the “bread of life,” and before a lot of people distanced himself from him, he did make bread. He took a boys lunch of five loaves and two fish and fed well over 5000 people. They were so excited about it they were going to make him king. Can you imagine what a guy like that can do with the national debt? What he could do with welfare and Social Security? And then all he could talk about was this spiritual and theological stuff.It wasn’t that they were not willing to follow Jesus, at least the healing, feeding the masses kind of Jesus, the turning the government around kind of Jesus, the make my life a piece of cake kind of Jesus, the bless me regardless of what I do kind of Jesus. But they had little patience with this demanding Jesus, this emphasizing the spiritual Jesus, this you can’t do without me Jesus, this theologically narrow Jesus, this you have to believe and change to follow me Jesus.They were more than happy to make Jesus king on their terms, what they were not willing to do was to acknowledge that he already is king and that only his rule will endure throughout time and eternity. They were more than willing to submit to an earthly king who could guarantee a daily delivery of bread, but they willingly passed on the one who offered them “real, eternallife.”In my 27 years of being the pastor of the Lake Don Pedro Baptist Church I have seen scores of people professing to be followers of Christ only to see them check out when came to submitting to Jesus’ terms, to his rule, to his agenda. How I pray you and I will echo the Peter’s answer, and live out that profession with total commitment.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans