"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
So said Peter, to Jesus, after the disciples had listened to a tense discussion between Jesus and other Jews - onlookers, critics and aspiring disciples.
Peter’s conclusion is surely one we can share. Lent is a strange time – a time when we are meant to pause, reflect, perhaps step out of the hurly burly of life and take stock. It is a good time to take off our personas – the mask we like to think others see when they meet us!
And in faith, with God, it is a safe place to self-examine. After all, God knows us completely. Look at psalm 139. Although some commentators think that Paul is describing his pre-Christian way of life, for me he is describing real, day-to day home truths:
For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7.21-25a)
John 6: 16-69 is a vivid and tense narrative. It is helpful to read it imaginatively, as if we were onlookers. Maybe we had been one of the groups who had just been miraculously fed, or part of the chat-chat about there only being one boat and Jesus was not on it – how is he here? (vs 22). There is increasing grumbling, and Jesus seems to stay on the same track – not giving an inch…. People are dropping away – perhaps shaking their heads. Peter must have looked on with disbelief. How could they not see it? Here is the hope that we have been waiting for. And Peter still a sinful man…
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 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 them.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
As my bishop used to say – “Thank God for God”. God loves, accepts and forgives us in Jesus same. Amazing grace! And we can then cast off the sin that so easily entangles, and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Hebrews 12: 1-3 and Romans 12: 1-2) God please help.
Nigel
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