Jesus called twelve to become His disciples. But multitudes followed Him, listening to His teaching, being healed of diseases, eating 5,000 fish sandwiches that He created with a simple prayer of thanks. People love a leader who says poetic things and gives away food. Everyone was drawn to Him; Jesus was the biggest thing to happen in their lifetimes.
But then He began to say hard things, enigmatic things that no one understood:
“I am the Bread of Life … I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh … My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me and I in him … The one who eats this bread will live forever” John 6:48, 51, 55-56, 58.
Jesus’s followers were offended by these statements:
“When many of His disciples heard this, they said, ‘This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?’ … From that moment many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him. Therefore Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘You don’t want to go away too, do you?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, where would we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. We have come to believe that You are the Holy One of God” John 6:60, 66-68.
Put yourself in Peter’s shoes: You have a wife and family. You gave up your fishing job to follow a traveling preacher around Israel. And He does work amazing miracles, but Rome is still crushing Israel under the empire’s weight. Little has changed. People are deserting Jesus, His followers are turning back, going home to their families and neglected jobs. Perhaps in her last letter your wife asked you to consider doing the same. It is hard for her to manage everything without you. Suddenly Jesus offers you a way out. Maybe you can walk away from this dusty life on the road? And you think about it for a beat…
But there’s no way.
“Lord, where would we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE” John 6:68.
Do we agree with Peter? Do we understand the critical nature of the words of Jesus? Do we love those words, study those words, and truly believe that these are the WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE?
Do you share Peter’s conviction: that the words of Jesus—the words of the Bible—are more important than ANYTHING ELSE? These are the words of eternal life.
No one else can offer that, no religion, no self-help book, no self-care guru, no online “influencer,” or “mindfulness” coach.
Only the word of God contains the message of eternal life. We should sacrifice everything to embrace the Word.
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Household Words: 