Thursday, October 30, 2008

The vision of him was the death of me

Sometimes I wish it were easier to follow Christ. I wish the cost were less.

John 6 was important for me today.

v.60 "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?'"

Jesus then essentially calls his disciples out, saying that "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." (63-64a) Notice that Jesus doesn't coddle them, softening his stance and accomodating their needs so that he won't lose numbers.

The disciples reaction is predictable "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." (66) Following Jesus is hard. It requires absolute committment. Many (not a few) of his disciples weren't up for it. Bummer. Bigger bummer that I can relate.

But I can relate to this next part as well. "So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered him, '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.'" (67-69)

Yeah, I could walk away from it all. But this world does not compare to what I've tasted and seen in Christ. You could say that Christ has ruined me. In such a good way.

2 comments:

ashpad said...

dear joshua,
i did not realize that you blogged until today.
although i will most likely not have as much of a reading commitment as laura, i hope we can still be friends.
love, ashley

Josh Koehn said...

Yup, I'm a blogger. I don't ask for the type of committment Laura made, but you are certainly welcome to still read it once in a while, if you feel so inclined. But no, it will have no bearing on our friendship.