I really love this section of John’s letter, and one question specifically.  But before we get to that question, there is something almost a little funny to me.  There are records from historical writings about the Jesus followers being vampires, blood-suckers, and cannibals almost.  It is a section of scripture like this, taken without context, that really leads to that misunderstanding.  I say I find it a little funny because I KNOW when I am reading it that Jesus isn’t talking about any of that kind of stuff, that He is using that language in an illusory way.

To my favorite question though...Jesus has just gone through this long diatribe against these guys, accusing them of free-loading on his miracles essentially, and now He is ready to hold their feet to the  fire, to make sure they know that following Him is great and is beneficial and is the plan, but that it also should be expected to cost something.   Connecting back to what He said when He called several of the disciples, He told them that He would make them “fishers of men”.  When we read that, we said that we all followed Jesus, in all likelihood, for personal reasons, for personal gain, for what’s in it for us...not to actually become fishers of men.  Well, Jesus was telling them that now it is time to grow up.  It is time to become spiritual men.

And I love that...I love that because even though I have been a Jesus follower for probably 17-18 years now, I have a lot of these same tendencies in me.  I tend to follow when it is easiest and when the blessings are flowing, and then I still tend to retreat a little when times get hard.  That’s part of the development process.  Today serves as a little shot in the arm, reminding me that I need to continue towards growing up.  And the question that I love - Jesus asks then, “Do YOU want to go away as well?”...probably annunciating it similarly, and Peter responds with the only appropriate response: “Lord, to whom shall we go?”...or, in other words, “Jesus, we have seen what you’ve done and are starting to understand who you are...and we can’t unsee that.”  Today we have people turning from the faith, and is always for the same reasons and never for the right reasons (or at least I haven’t had anyone I know leave for the right reason.  They leave because of the church, the people in the church, how they were treated, or how they felt, or in an act of self-preservation and attempt to reclaim autonomy (which isn’t the church’s fault); I don’t ever hear someone say, “I just don’t believe in the resurrection anymore”.  They leave, then they work to justify it in their minds...and if you look around for reasons NOT to believe, you can find them.  There are plenty of reasons to doubt if that’s what you want to find.  You can find reasons to support terrible things, unthinkable things in the world.  But, you can’t unsee things.  And, I believe, probably in an almost romantic fashion, that once you understand the resurrection and that you place your faith in Christ, that there is something in you that never goes away...just like seeing something that can’t be unseen.