The Gospel for Thursday, February 5, 2004
John 6:60-71
After hearing it, many of his followers said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this disturb you? What if you should see the Son of man ascend to where he was before? ‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. ‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset who did not believe and who was to betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me except by the gift of the Father.’ After this, many of his disciples went away and accompanied him no more. Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Jesus replied to them, ‘Did I not choose the Twelve of you? Yet one of you is a devil.’ He meant Judas son of Simon Iscariot, since this was the man, one of the Twelve, who was to betray him. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The King James version has it as "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?". The Message, a translation for very contemporary readers, says "This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow."
Even after seeing first-hand the signs and miracles and hearing the in-person teaching, many did not believe. Is it any wonder that today, still, many do not believe? Today we call it "pushing back" when people encounter something that's too hard to take. Put in any language, it's a refusal to accept.
The Sojourners Society makes the statement, "Hope is believing in the face of all the evidence and then waiting for the evidence to change." One could substitute "faith" for "hope" in that definition and retain a good measure of truth. Jesus frequently reminds us of his joy in observing belief with no precedent evidence, and his disappointment when evidence is demanded.
Having just disclosed to the assembly the kernel of his mission to us, Jesus whacks them with what might have been a sarcastic question: "So, would it make you mutter and argue among yourselves if you saw me rise up into Heaven from which I came?" That is, "if I showed you a direct, no-belief-required connection to God, would you still be a bunch of whining unbelievers?".
Some say that Jesus' use of parallels and parables, his oblique way of speaking, and his apparent attempt to make people pay attention and think -- that all these erected unnecessary obstacles for people who might otherwise have come to him. But Jesus had no intent to give yet another law or set of laws.
Israel's slavery to Pharaoh had been replaced by Israel's slavery to the Law, and Jesus wanted none of it. Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me.
A Reflection
"If it were easy, they wouldn't call it work" is a quip sometimes heard today when someone complains about her job or his boss. Why would God want to make us work to understand his love?
Up until men got organized well enough to begin to do great damage to the earth and to each other, this world was a pretty convenient, easy place to exist. Survival in the temperate zone was fairly guaranteed if you stayed out of the way of the big animals. The tiniest creatures, the bacteria and the viruses, ensured that the population was refreshed on a regular basis. And if you look at your dog, or cat, that animal's situation is pretty much what's described in the opening of this paragraph.
In the undomesticated dog world, the meanest son of a bitch, quite literally, is the leader. Nobody wants to argue with him -- until he loses the first challenge. Then it's generally over. Power is transitory, like life.
Faith and hope founded on belief, on the other hand, live on and on and on. This is being written on the 407th anniversary of the first martyrdom of Christians in Japan. A few years later, Christianity was driven underground in Japan and remained completely hidden for 250years. [I am fond of the expression that, in the US, a hundred years is a long time, and in the UK, a hundred miles is a long way.] Two hundred fifty years is somewhere between eight and twelve generations, give or take. Most of us can name our grandparents. Recollection of previous generations diminishes rapidly past that point.
Yet, the faith, the hope, the belief survived in that underground community. As it did when the first 26 were hoisted onto their crosses in 1597. As it has since He was hoisted, two millenia ago. He was raised up for us that He might raise us up with him.
And yes, there's some work involved.
7:16:59 AM 
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