The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

“Many Stopped Following Him…”

John 6:60-68

By most modern standards, Jesus was pretty much a failure.

Success in ministry today is often measured in numbers – how many people did you baptize last year? – how many new members did you add? – how much did your budget grow, especially for missions? – how big a building did you construct?

By most modern standards, Jesus was pretty much a failure.

As little Sunday School kids, we all learned the story of how Jesus walked along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and called the fishermen to, “Come and follow me and I will make you…(what?)…fishers of men!” And people like Peter and James and John left their nets to follow him. We are left with the impression that Jesus was sort of like the Pied Piper whose music everybody got up and danced to.

But today’s Gospel lesson gives us a glimpse from a different angle. This passage has never been, is not now, and probably never will be included in any Sunday School curriculum. Listen again to John 6:66:

“After this, many of his disciples turned back and

no longer followed him.”

What a sad and troubling scene! In fact, the very next verse shows an almost depressed Jesus turning to the original twelve and plaintively asking, “You’re not going to go too, are you?”

There had been a time, of course, when things were different. On his first preaching tour through Galilee, people had flocked to hear the Master…and to be healed of their illnesses…and to be loved with the greatest love they’d ever known. Day-by-day, new disciples were added. The places where Jesus preached could not contain the crowds of people. They had to cut holes in roofs in order to get some folks in! Five thousand people witnessed the multiplication of the fish and the loaves!

But now, most of them were gone. Jesus was down to only twelve.

And by the time he was put to death, even those twelve had abandoned him. Only John, and Mary his mother, and a couple of other women followed Jesus to the end.

“…many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

Nobody taught us that in Sunday School.

But it’s true.

Why do you suppose many who started out with Jesus turned away?

Why do you suppose people today do the same thing?

I suspect part of the reason may be similar to something that happened to us all this past week. Were you as stunned as I was to hear the news…that Pluto is no longer a planet?!

The world’s top astronomers voted to boot Pluto from the planet category! It may be a dwarf planet, say the members of the International Astronomical Union, but Pluto is NOT a planet. And the shock waves from Pluto’s demotion are being felt all over the world.

Science textbooks must now be rewritten. Disney has to find another name for Pluto the dog. Little children with the nine planets of the solar system painted on the ceilings of their bedrooms will now have to paint them over. And according to the Seattle Times, The American Association of Astrologers…is really ticked off! Can you see the problem? Without Pluto, that tall, dark, handsome stranger you’re supposed to meet this week may turn out to be short, pale and ugly! Who knows how the erasure of Pluto will affect your daily horoscope?

Our losing Pluto as a planet is as disturbing and troubling as it must have been years ago for many Roman Catholics to one day wake up and learn that the Mass no longer was going to be said in Latin, and they didn’t have to eat fish on Fridays anymore! It is as upsetting as it was when they let black children go to white schools, and women to become CEO’s, and gay people to have civil rights!

This changing of the facts by which we have lived – this transforming of the truth that we have held – this discrediting of what we used to believe with all our hearts – is just plain upsetting!

We human beings don’t like it one bit when people tinker with our religion.

“…many of the disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus anymore.”

Why?

Because Jesus had a habit of knocking peoples’ planets out of their solar system of belief.

The verses immediately preceding our Gospel lesson today are last Sunday’s lection where Jesus says he is the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. That claim upset people because every good Jewish person knew that the bread that came down from heaven was the manna that Moses and the people ate in the wilderness during the great exodus from Egypt. Was Jesus comparing himself to Moses?

Jesus says all those people who ate the manna eventually died, including Moses, but if they eat the bread of Jesus they will never die. Is he calling himself BETTER than Moses?

Jesus says the bread they must eat is his flesh, and that by eating his flesh and drinking his blood, they will live forever. Why is Jesus contradicting the Bible which clearly teaches in Leviticus 17:10-12 that the people shall not eat any flesh with it’s blood in it? This is a violation of Jewish law! Is Jesus a lawbreaker? And is Jesus advocating some kind of cannibalistic cult?

Why is Jesus saying that he came down from heaven? Is he claiming to be God? Why is Jesus saying he will give his life for the world? Is he claiming that salvation will come not only to Jews, but maybe even to Palestinians, Lebanese, Persians and others?

The disillusioning controversy of these words of Jesus may not be fully apparent to people like us who live in the 21^st-century, but to the disciples of that day, the words were enough to drive most of them away.

Like the deacon said to the preacher who stopped preaching about the theology of the atonement and started preaching instead about the unjust labor practices of the local coal mining company, “Preacher, you’ve stopped preaching and started meddling!”

People don’t like it when Pluto gets yanked out from under their feet. People don’t much like it when our solar systems of ideas, values, lifestyles, and most cherished beliefs get knocked out of kilter – even if by someone we know is the Son of God. And though we may not resonate with the problems Jesus disciples experienced that day long ago, we nonetheless share the same shock when we hear Jesus say other things like this:

“Love your enemies, and pray for those who hate you.”

“Go sell all that you have and give it to the poor and then come follow me.”

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich people to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

“Do not repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

“I have other sheep that are not of this fold.”

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.”

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

When you think about all the things Jesus said and taught, and then turn on CNN to take a look at the reality of the world in which we live, does it seem to you as if most of us are following Jesus?

“…many of the disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus.”

Only twelve remained.

“What about you-all?” Jesus asked. “Are you going to leave too?”

Simon Peter spoke up. “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

You see, the disciples had gone with Jesus into enough cities and towns, into enough broken lives, and into enough destructive religion that they had come to learn some important Jesus-truths: you can’t build a better world by hating back those who hate you; you can’t build a better world when the rich get richer and the poor get poorer; you can’t build a better world when you respond to hurt by hurting back; you can’t build a better world when you only look out for Number One; you can’t build a better world when you look down your nose at other people; you can’t build a better world when you backbite and gossip and use words to hurt others; you can’t build a better world when your religion consigns everybody else to hell.

I don’t think it is unfair to say that we’ve been living this way since the beginning of time. And what kind of world has it gotten us? Certainly not the kind of world we want to raise our children in and give to our grandchildren as an inheritance – not this world so filled with terror, violence and inhumanity.

So maybe its time to let Jesus point out the Plutos that need to be demoted, and to change the solar system of our lives.

“…many of the disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus.”

But maybe you and I can be different. Maybe we can join with the twelve who remained and find the Jesus-way to live?

I wonder where you are wrestling with your faith these days? Where are you struggling with Jesus’ teachings as they apply to the way you are living? Who are the people you can’t bring yourself to love and accept? What are the sacrifices you don’t want to make for the sake of others? How are you doing giving your money away, giving your time away, giving your talent away for the sake of the kingdom of heaven?

Wherever it is that you feel the tension of Jesus’ teachings against your current way of living, you need to pay attention.

That’s probably where God is pointing out where your solar system needs to change.

“…many of the disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus.”

But what about…you?