John 12 Bread and Who It Really Is.

[HKHaugan]

John 12 Ch.6:48-71

Jesus' words launch a crashing explosion of spiritual reality into the mixed crowd of Jewish leaders and people assembled to hear Him teach. The hard jarring exclamation that He is the bread of life, the living bread from Heaven that, when eaten, gives eternal life. All they are willing to assimilate in their minds are images of cannibalism. They obviously are incapable at this point of thinking spiritually, seeing symbols, signs, as revelation of the unseen truth behind them. Here is a flesh and blood man telling them that they have to eat His body and drink His blood. Even some of His disciples were so appalled at the teaching that they left Him. He goes on to explain what that meant, but by this time He was being deserted.

The question has to be, 'Why does He incite such strident controversy about Himself?' Doesn't He realize that this will turn many people away from Him? Return for a moment to His realistic view of human nature (vs.26) when He chides the many who followed Him that they were only there because they had their fill of the loaves and wanted more. What is the real 'more?' Could it be that they were even willing to make Him a king (vs.15) to get their personal needs and security met? Was He just a 'meal ticket' to them?

Maybe vs.6 has the answer.

When Jesus asks Philip how so many people are going to be fed, it was to test him. Here He is among so many who followed Him. They consisted of those who were disciples, onlookers, curiosity seekers and Jewish leaders. It just might be a weeding out process. Will the real followers and disciples stand up and be counted? That's the real issue here for every person. Are you and I for real? No matter the generation that follows, when Jesus is mentioned, will we stand and be counted at the moment our faith choices and decisions are at stake? Will we pass the test? Even if we have to look deep within our own hearts and see the specifics of our need for His touch.

Something else can be seen here as well. Sin gets us to focus only on the 'now.' It's just like “OK coach, you won for us yesterday but what are you doing for us today?” Who governs our expectations? How quickly we forget. How quickly all those there thought only of that moment of Jesus' seemingly unpleasant confrontation. Quickly forgotten were Jesus' miracles of the day before, The Feeding of the 5000 and Jesus Walking on the Water. Hauntingly, Jesus' other words catch us, “Could you not watch with me one hour (Mt.26:40)?” How do we stack up to the same test from one hour to the next, from one decision to the next? How do we deal with questions we can't answer, people we don't want to be around and callings He gives us at any moment? Then those words ring in our ears, “Lord, don't put us to the test but deliver us from the evil one...(Mt.6:13)” We need to practice the other ones like when He tells us, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age...(Mt.28:20)” and “Whenever two or three are gathered in my name I am with them (Mt.18:20).” All this has got to sound familiar in our own experience. And the clincher from Jesus, “They will not be persuaded even if someone were to rise from the dead (Lk.16:31).”

Chapter 6's theme is centered in Jesus being the life giver, the eternal life giver. He feeds the 5000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish. He treads upon the water to bring His disciples from chaos to the quiet shore. Many desert Him but 12 are left and it's into them He pours Himself. He has chosen them to pass on all that He is teaching but now they are grumbling about His 'hard' teaching (vs.60). As was seen in the The Water to Wine miracle, the 'Twelve' replace the 12 tribes of Israel. Like Israel they are now being put to the test. Jesus asked them if they wanted to leave Him too. Peter replies for them, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Son of God (vs.68-69).” While they seize the moment they won't really pass the test until Pentecost.

Yet, there is still more. The chapter closes on an ominous note, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil (vs.70)!” It was Judas of Iscariot who would betray Him to the chief priests (Lk.22). That will be covered when we come to Ch.13. What is important now is to grasp that though the devil and his secular world will win the day, Jesus will win eternity on the Cross and in the Resurrection to please His Father and to save us. Jesus is living a life of faith in the company of His disciples.

But, in the midst of His miraculous life, there is a fly in the ointment, sin blinding the heart of Judas in his weakness as a greed driven thief (Jn.12:6). Betrayal is a key word and a key dynamic that has to be exposed and Judas personified greed, thievery, self deceit and relational deceit. In one sense Judas represents a strain of sin that runs deep in us all. It causes a spiritual and emotional blindness that can overtake our best intentions and result in self justification and rationalization. White lies, cutting corners, cheating here and there, decisions based on prejudice, breaking promises, playing 'one-upsmanship,' gossip and its 'I-thought-you-ought-to-know' manipulation, knifing a friend or enemy in the back for personal advancement, you name them. They all emit the odor of betrayal. Even as close in proximity as Judas was to Jesus, his heart was far from Him. And Jesus knew it. Jesus died even for Judas and the Judas in us. Paul knew and expressed a basic truth, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rom.8:39).

We are the ones who separate ourselves. David's self awareness put all sin in right perspective when he said to the Lord God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight (Ps.51:4).” That in regard to His affair with Bathsheba and his sending Uriah, her husband, into the heart of battle to have him killed. While for David this was specific, this event shows betrayal as a three dimensional product of sin. First, it is against God. Second, being images of God, it is against ourselves. Third, it is against the community of faith, the multiple images of God. Thank you Lord that you know us as we really are and have provided your Holy Spirit to lead us to repentance and your guaranteed forgiveness in our heart of hearts.

It is the fact of sin that compassion and understanding must always precede our judgment calls. Judgment begins with ourselves and how we stack up with the Word of God. Jesus says so clearly that He doesn't condemn us. That's what God's Word does and the Holy Spirit activates our heart in response to it (Jn.12:48). Now perhaps we can why Jesus, when an adulterous woman is brought before Him, tells the Pharisees “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone (Jn.8:7).” Our hearts always need to be open to allow the Holy Spirit to lead our reactions. Let the Lord call the shots.

After this five section digestion of Chapter 6 we might be able to grasp why it is such a critical link in not only establishing Jesus as Messiah but also to grasp exactly where we stand personally with Him. Then too, it carries us more insightfully into the succeeding chapters. Five signs, five stepping stones, five rungs in the ladder and two more to go and so much in between that Jesus reveals in this, John's doorway to the Kingdom,