John 6: 41–59
“Then the Jews complained [murmured] about Him . . . He said, “Do not murmur among yourselves [stop grumbling].”
What is it with complaining, grumbling, pointing the finger, and speaking wickedness? Why do we complain? Why do we grumble? Why do we blame? I think it’s because an expectation of reality has been shattered; because “my idea” of what is best and what “works for me” is trumped by a different reality, and I don’t want to accept it. I don’t want to embrace anything other than my own ideas, because to do so is to concede that someone else is superior. How amazing that one could acknowledge God, adhere to His ethical principles, enforce His moral priorities, memorize His words, and yet not believe in Him, not trust Him, not exchange core realities. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘And how long will they not believe me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?” Numbers 14:11 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you.” Acts 7:51
“I am the bread of life.”
A different reality smacks in the face of traditions, ethics, communities, and civilizations that are based on pseudo-reality. What do you do when you are hit with the real thing? They didn’t recognize it, and they treated it the way they treated the symbols and hints of it: they rejected it. They preferred their reality, not aware that they were choosing life without life—a walking death.
“He who eats my flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”
What does this mean? Jesus gives true life, and He is true life. Taking what He gives without embracing Him is like giving healthy food to a patient who is terminally ill. At this stage, diet is not the solution. The person needs a transplant—the core of their being needs replaced.
I have to believe God, but I also have to believe in Him. I don’t understand what all of this means, but I believe it to be true.
Jesus’ life was inextricably linked to the Father. His life, His food, His purpose, was to do the will of the Father, to manifest truth on the earth.
There is no life outside of Christ, even alongside Christ, which is where, I fear, too many people choose to subsist. I have. The only life is IN Christ, Christ in me and me in Christ. What does that mean? It means that my core existence consists of Christ, His goals, His desires, His will, His strength, His values. He values what the Father values: His own glory. My life is consumed by the life of another. This is not strange. Humans will always be consumed by something or someone, because we were made as worshippers—that is our purpose. What we worship determines our life. Money, positions, and power are dead. People are vapors, because life is short and people are fickle. Projects and causes die with the men who began them. Only Christ, Who is eternal, can give eternal, true life to mortals, because we have been given eternal spirits. True life is in the Spirit—God is Spirit.
