Jn.6:66-69 – As a result of this many of His disciples left, and would no longer walk with Him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to leave also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. And we have already believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
Apparently a lot of the people who were following Jesus in His time of popularity were caught up in the excitement of the miracles and the culture in the Jesus community that those miracles created. Today, many folks are caught up in the church world and all of the activity and excitement that it brings. When tough times come many tend to go a different way, apparently it is quite easy to confuse the lifestyle and culture with a relationship with Jesus. It is only that personal relationship with Him that can keep you when tough times set in. The disciples weren’t going anywhere, Jesus had become their life. It was more than the excitement that Jesus had generated, it was Him that kept the disciples in these tough days. Here is how Andrea Tornielli describes this dilemma.
“Peter does not say ‘where shall we go’, but ‘to whom shall we go’? The underlying problem is not about leaving and abandoning the work undertaken, but who to go to. From Peter’s question we understand that fidelity to God is a question of fidelity to a person to whom we unite ourselves to walk together on the same road. And this person is Jesus. All we have in the world does not satisfy our infinite hunger. We need Jesus—to be with him, to be nourished at his table, on his words of eternal life! To believe in Jesus means making him the center, the meaning of our lives. Christ is not an accessory. He is the ‘living bread,’ the essential nourishment.”
Christ has to become your life, life flows from Him and sustains us no matter what we face. The disciples were about to enter into some very interesting times. The cross followed by Pentecost was not far off, the disciples would see great successes as well as unthinkable resistance. It was only their intimate relationship with the Lord that could see them through. To whom shall we go? There is nowhere else to go but to Jesus.
2 thoughts on “TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?”
I can’t help but think of the outpouring we have entered into, a harvest like none before. With it comes sweeps of peoples needing food, shelter, and clothing (in a spiritual sense) as has never before been seen in history. This will rock the “comfortable Christian’s” world. Either get involved or get run over, the sidelines will be removed. Pray to the Lord of the harvest for workers… and the story of the workers hired at progressively less hours of the day, receiving the grace of equal pay will become common because His will be done. So put on your big boy pants!
Amen Pastor