It’s been a week now and the Boise Metro-area is still buzzing with the big win; Boise State University (BSU) Broncos win the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. For those of you who were not familiar with BSU Football, or didn’t see the game, BSU won it, 43-42 in an overtime victory. Suddenly, everyone is a BSU Bronco. Businesses offer their congratulations via their road signs, many cars are flying Broncos flags from their doors, and the talk around the office water cooler is still about that last play that gave us the lead. Everywhere you look, people are sporting BSU sweatshirts or tee-shirts. Retailers say they can’t keep Bronco’s paraphernalia on the shelves. Yes everyone loves a winner and people who were never fans before are now ardent followers. I can remember a few years back where BSU wasn’t winning their games and their following was much smaller. There was nary a BSU sweatshirt to be seen. At that time the Broncos didn’t fit that image of being “Winners”.
Early in Christ’s ministry, people flocked to him. In John 6:1-13 Jesus feeds 5000 + people and this miracle proclaims his greatness to them. People considered Christ a winner.
John 6:15 states, “Jesus knowing that they were going to make him king by force, withdrew again to the mountains by himself.”
Certainly if Christ had given in to the temptation of power, and glory, the iron hand of the Romans would have crush the movement.
However the people are persistent. John 6:24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
The people wanted to put Jesus in the role of there choosing and did not understand what God had planned for him. Jesus tried to explain God’s plan for him in John 6:40 when he stated,
“For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
God’s plan was for Christ to be savior of the world, but this did not meet with the people’s expectations.
John 6:41-42 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"
John 6:60-65 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
The people had their own idea of how eternal life was to be gained. While they were willing to make him their king, they were not willing to make him their Messiah (savior).
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. John 6:66
I have spoken to many friends and family members who have found Christ’s teachings hard and have ignored God’s plan of salvation through Christ. They have derived their own free form ideas of how they will attain eternal life. The most popular seems to be the idea of great scales in the sky that weigh their deeds and if the good ones out way the bad ones, they make it into heaven. A close second is the idea that as long as you’re trying to commune with God, whether he is Allah, Buddha, or another religious deity, you’ll gain eternal life. But scripture tells us that for those who had similar ideas during Christ's time:
To this, Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
If you are a person who has preconceived ideas about who Christ is, I would encourage you to search the scriptures, ignoring your bias and read his words with an open mind.
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