The people left Jesus. Literally walked away from, John says in his gospel. Your teaching is too hard they complained. So they left him.
And it's here where Jesus, wondering if anybody was going to stay with him at all, asked his most loyal disciples if they too wanted to bail? Peter says, "Lord, where could go? You have the words of eternal life?" And from that moment on we have Christianity...
Believing about Jesus is not the same as believing in the God whom Jesus worshiped, indeed, the God whom Jesus is. It has to do with commitment, with passion, with desire. To believe Jesus is God is to accept some pretty difficult things to accept, to trust in God's undying love in spite of the available evidence or lack thereof. To live with Jesus to to live in a mystery, within an opaque shadow of hope and dreams, filled with suffering, and oftentimes despair. Living with Jesus, the Christ of God, is not for the faint of heart. There is sometimes too much failure to comprehend, and yet we strike another match and move on...
So we have this song
And if you want, you can also listen to a sermon I gave on this topic recently.
May your tables be full and your conversations be true.
Your Blog Steward
- Scott Frederickson
- Omaha, Nebraska, United States
- I am more and more convinced that most congregations die from a staggering lack of imagination. Let's change that. Let's imagine a creative future with God and each other together. Drop me a line on email or leave a comment if you have thoughts on God, Jesus, congregations, the church or whatever.... I look forward to our conversations.
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