Saturday
of the
Third
Week of Easter
May 2nd
READING: John 6: 60-69
When many of his disciples
heard it,[1] they said, ‘This teaching is
difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were
complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you
were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit
that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are
spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus
knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one
that would betray him. And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no
one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’
Because of this many of his
disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the
twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom
can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know
that you are the Holy One of God.’
~~~
New Revised
Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
REFLECTION
Jesus
never worked in marketing. His pitch was tough, never going to win ratings
wars. Later his followers, Luke in particular, would point to exponential growth
in brand recognition and service uptake, though reading between the lines of
other writers, particularly of Hebrews and Revelation, perhaps of those
desperate little John letters, there was a little bit of over-expectation, too.
But
Jesus? “Follow me. It’s going to be tough, and you’ll probably die for it.” His
ratings fly like lead. Down to twelve, and while Peter says the right thing he
doesn’t really get it. One of the remnant will go on to do the whole E tu,
Brute thing, and the rest will scarper. Except the women. But they don’t
get much of a mention, really, in the years, centuries, millennia that follow.
So
it’s a pretty lousy market play. Hospital pass. That’s part of the point. The
market is not the Thing. There’s a little motif beginning to emerge in these
chapters. Just here and there. A hint, a rill, a hint of a rill or a riff.
Something about Jesus going so Another will come. Or going so as to be present
in a less restricted way. Something like that. But Jesus is keeping the lid on
the riff at the moment.
It’s
a shame churches don’t take the hint. Market ourselves as slick and zany and
ever-so out there (the word “relevant” should be excised from Christian
discourse) and we just become one more thread in the static, one more discord
in the cacophony. MacJesus. CocaChrista.
No. Peter was right, though the words
are still hollow at this stage. Words of eternal life: more “lark ascending”
than decibel max-out, more silent whisper than ceaseless screaming. More like
the trembling women at the tomb than brazen blowhards.
The
little rill beginning to trickle through the Jesus story will find its own
strange understated moment in a locked upper room. There Jesus breathes on the
confused disciples and says to them (he has already affirmed the women) “Receive
the Holy Spirit.” And they did. And while we’ve spent two thousand years
transforming gospel into noise, occasionally, like in times of pandemic, we are
thrown back to bedrock, to whispers of what really matters in our message: “spirit
and life,” love, resurrection whispers that transcend all static and cacophony.
[1] i.e. the previous passage, in which Jesus describes himself in terms of flesh
and blood to be consumed. The response of “the many” is unsurprising.
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