John 6:60-69

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost  -  26 August 2018

Rev. John Derme

“People are leaving the church!” I could be talking about the way that the number of people in our nation who call themselves Christians is statistically declining. Or I could be talking about the number of members in our Wisconsin Synod. You probably know somebody who has left this congregation. And we would unfortunately be accurate if we were saying that some people fall away from faith and leave the Holy Christian Church of all believers.

People are leaving the church. It’s not a new phenomenon. Church members have been trying to keep other people from leaving ever since there has been a church. But more than any church member or even elder, Jesus wants to keep people from leaving his Holy Christian Church. People are leaving, so today Jesus asks you, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

Jesus had performed an amazing miracle, turning five small loaves of bread and two small fish into food for more than five thousand starving people. With this miracle, Jesus showed everyone present that he is God and that he loved and cared for them.

It seems that with this miracle, Jesus reached the peak of his popularity during his ministry here on earth. He had more people following after him than ever before. But Jesus didn’t use his miracle to gain fame for himself. He used it as an opportunity to bring up the people’s need for the Bread of life. Over the last several weeks, we've seen how he used the miracle as a conversation starter to invite them to put their faith in him. Sadly, many of the people didn’t appreciate Jesus’ invitation. They grumbled. They argued. “How can he say these things?” But Jesus offered it again: “Eat the bread of life and live forever!”

Not only did the people who didn’t like Jesus decline his offer. In today's Gospel, John tells us that many of his disciples said, “This teaching is too hard. I’m not going to listen to this!” Now, we’re not talking about the twelve disciples, but we’re also not talking about people who hadn’t heard Jesus speak before. These were people who had been following him around and listening to him teach as he went from place to place.

Jesus knew what they thought about him. So he responded. “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?” --- “If this offends you, just imagine how offended you will be when you see me on the cross. If you can’t believe in me now, will you be able to believe in me then? No, you aren’t prepared to follow me to my crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.” --- “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” --- "If you try to understand my teaching according to your human understanding, you won’t be able to accept it. You must have the Holy Spirit, and understand it according to the understanding he gives. When you listen to my words, the Holy Spirit will come to you. Then you will have eternal life. Then you will have a right relationship with God.” --- “Yet there are some of you who do not believe. … This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

Couldn’t Jesus have been a little easier on them? If they were struggling to accept his teaching, maybe he should have showed them a little more patience? No, these weren’t struggling Christians. These were unbelievers who refused to trust Jesus as their Savior. They may have been following him and listening to him, but their faith was elsewhere. Their faith was in their own observance of the law. Their faith was in a messiah who would become their earthly king and rule their nation and give them bread. If they weren’t looking for a Savior who asked them to put their faith in him, then Jesus was right: they wouldn’t be interested in a Savior who suffered and died.

Do you know about anyone who is that kind of disciple of Jesus? Many people today consider Jesus to be a good teacher. They are happy to listen to his commands to love and help others, because they think they are keeping his commands. But they don’t listen to anything that he says about how he has showed us God's love, that he has suffered, died, and risen again from the dead. Many people today trust in Jesus as a source of blessings for their lives on earth. But they don't care about what he has done to bless them spiritually. They choose to interpret Jesus' words according to their own understanding and reject what the Holy Spirit would like to teach them, because that would be too hard for them to accept.

In fact, the Bible is full of teachings that are hard for people to accept. What are we to do about it? One answer that many people have decided is the best is not to talk about these unappealing teachings. "Focus on the things that most people agree with and forget about the rest. That should keep people from leaving the church." But if that’s your plan, what do you say when people ask about those parts of the Bible? And how are people supposed to grow in knowledge and faith if you’re ignoring all the issues that could cause problems? That plan will never work, because the most important teaching in the Bible – that God became a human being to suffer, die, and rise from the dead to take away all of your sins – is the most offensive of all, because it means that you and I and all people are filthy sinners, who could not do anything to save ourselves from hell. And if we dismiss that teaching, then we have no Christian faith, and before we know it, we’ve left Christ’s church ourselves.

“Oh, but we would never compromise the Bible’s teaching.” It’s easy to say that right here and now. But what if the person who is offended is your spouse or your parent or your best friend? How much harder is it then to stand up for Jesus’ truth? We must be on our guard, because we will not only be tempted to soft-pedal those hard teachings to others, but we may even be tempted to see those as an offense and leave the church.

Just as people leave the church today, people walked away from Jesus. John writes, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” Earlier that day, these people had wanted to make him king. But when they thought about what Jesus asked them to do, they didn’t like him so much, after all. They went back to the lives they had been leading before they started following him. Not everybody left, however. Jesus looked at the twelve disciples and asked, and now he looks at you and asks, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

Here in the church, you hear Jesus’ words proclaimed in their truth and purity. Here in Christ’s church, you receive the sacraments correctly administered. Here at Shepherd of the Mountains, you gather together for fellowship and encouragement from your fellow believers. As a member of the Holy Christian Church you gather with all believers in heaven and on earth around the throne of God and thank him for what he has done to save you. You do not want to leave too, do you?

Here in the church, Jesus speaks to you. Here in the church, the Holy Spirit comes to you. Here in the church, the Spirit has given you life. Here in the church, the Father has enabled you to come to his Son.

Now you can understand Jesus’ words! Now you can accept them! You see that he went to the cross, to the grave for you. You see that he rose from the dead and ascended for you. You know he paid for the times when you were tempted to hide his teaching or leave his church. You see that his words have created faith in you and given you eternal life with him!

You do not want to leave too, do you? What then shall we do when other people are leaving the church? What shall we do when they are offended at Jesus’ words? We do what Jesus did. His words bothered those disciples, but that didn’t change anything. They were the very words that they needed to hear. Again he told them to listen to his words and believe!

When you have the opportunity to speak with people who are offended at Jesus’ teachings, show them love the way that Jesus did. Remind them that Jesus died and rose again to save them, and that every other truth in the Bible points to this central teaching. The Holy Spirit works powerfully through the gospel you share. But even if they leave the church, the Holy Spirit may still work on their hearts in the future through your words. And you will have given glory to God by displaying the confidence in his words that he has given to you.

When Jesus challenged the Twelve to answer whether they were going to leave, Peter’s answer on behalf of the group proved that the Holy Spirit had been at work in them. You wouldn’t be able to answer Jesus’ challenge either, unless the Holy Spirit had come to work in you. But because Jesus’ words bring the Holy Spirit and give life, you can answer boldly with Peter. You know his answer, not because you heard me read it before, but because it is your answer: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”