Follow Me - The Drastic and Difficult Call

All right, good morning. My name is Gregg. I am

one of the pastors here at the house. Thanks

so much for joining us today. If I've never met

you, I'd love to meet you, and I'd love to maybe

buy you a coffee or something like that, hear

your story. Feel free to put that on your connection

card at the end of the service, and I'll make

sure to follow up with you and set that up. We

are in the second week of a three -week series

that we're calling Follow Me, because Jesus said,

follow me. So last week we talked about how Jesus'

first disciples that he called and said, follow

me, were drastically different. You had the fishers

working with their hands, covered in the odor

of fish in the Sea of Galilee, and then you had

a tax collector that smelled like other people's

money. So how did Jesus fit those people together?

When you read the chapters, the four plus chapters

between when you meet the first four and that

fifth, you see all the moments where Jesus was

teaching those fishers all the things that they

would need to know about how to accept that fifth

disciple. Maybe we should start with, you know,

just a tag for last week's sermon, which would

be who's your fifth disciple? You've got a group

of people around you that you're like, ah, these

are my people. Who's your fifth disciple? Who's

the person that you need to learn a bunch from

Jesus in order to know how to accept and to love?

Now, week two, we're going deeper into the journey,

deeper into the timeline of Jesus' ministry.

And where we are reading from today, by the time

you get to this point, Jesus has amassed crowds.

of people. Thousands and thousands of people

are coming to listen to him all at one time in

one place. And they're actually following him

around from place to place. One day when they

find Jesus on the other side of the lake, he

fed 5 ,000 and then they wake up the next day

and he's not there anymore. So they literally

go to the other side of the lake to find where

he has gone. Because they like the things that

he was saying. They like the way that he was

serving them, caring, about them, performing

miracles. But in this case, when they find him,

Jesus doesn't say something about teaching them

how to accept. Here's a hard thing I'm going

to say so you know how to accept others. Instead,

this time, he says something that was hard for

them to accept about how to accept him. With

that, let's open up our Bibles to John chapter...

John chapter 6, it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke,

John 6 · chapter mention

John, Acts, Romans. John is in what's called

the New Testament or the Second Testament, and

there are Bibles on the tables, or you can download

a digital Bible from any of the app stores. If

you don't have a Bible, feel free to take one

of those blue ones home, or even just grab one

off the bookshelf out in the lobby and take that

home with you. It's our gift to you. We're happy

for you to have it. We're going to be in John

John 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, and we have a tradition around here

of giving the scriptures our full attention while

they're being read in the context of a sermon.

You can do that any way that you see fit, but

if you would like to join me in standing as you

are able, let's do that as I read. John 6, starting

in verse 51. I am the living bread that came

down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread

will live forever, and the bread that I will

give for the life of the world is mine. The Jews

then disputed among themselves, saying, How can

this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said

to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat

the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh

and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will

raise them up on the last day, for my flesh is

true food and my blood is true drink. Those who

eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and

I in them. Let's jump to verse 66. Because of

this, many of his disciples turned back and no

longer wanted or 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. Let us pray. God of every tribe,

every tongue, every color. every nation and people.

We thank you for the scriptures that they have

persisted throughout the millennia, that we still

have them to learn from, to consider, to be led

by. I pray that whatever you have for us to learn

today, pray that it would stick, that it would

become a part of the framework of our faith as

we become more like your son, Jesus. Amen? Amen.

Y 'all have a seat. Thanks. I'm guessing if we

pulled the room and asked every single person

in this room what I was about to say that none

of you would get it right. Because it's not the

kind of thing that you would expect a pastor

to say. The first thing I want to say is Christianity

is weird, y 'all. Christianity is weird. Some

of us have been around church so long. We have

heard the phrase, eat my flesh and drink my blood,

so many times that we have forgotten that that

is not a normal thing to ask someone to do. We're

used to it. We know that it's a metaphor. We

know that he's talking about a spiritual concept.

We know that it's connected to what he would

do on the cross and in his resurrection. But

if you do not know all of that, it makes about

as much sense as eating a Tide Pod for clicks

on TikTok. It does not make any sense. It is

weird. It is not palatable. It does not sound

safe. I mean, do you boil it for safety first?

How exactly do we go about this? It makes no

sense. And it didn't make any sense to the people

that were following Jesus when he said it. That's

why so many people stopped following him that

day. I also want to say it would be a misnomer

or a misunderstanding to think that the people

that stopped following him that day were just

marginal followers that were just there every

now and again. When you read it, it says many

of his what? Disciples stopped following him

that day. There is a misunderstanding that Jesus

only had 12 disciples. He had 12 primary disciples.

He had many people that were considered disciples.

In other books, he sends out 70 disciples at

a time. Depending on which version you're reading,

70 or 72, he had many people that consider themselves

disciples. And these people heard what he said,

and they could not. Accept it. Why is that? I

think partly because of something that we still

struggle with today. And that is knowing when

Jesus is being literal and when Jesus is being

figurative. Knowing when Jesus says, it's better

for you to cut off your arm, knowing that he's

being figurative. He's not asking you to actually

go and cut off your arm. He's telling you to

take it so seriously that this is the metaphor

that I am going to use. Now, it wasn't just the

people that were following him that day that

struggled to understand that he was using metaphor

or struggled to understand the metaphor when

they would first hear it. There's actually some

research to suggest that people continue to misunderstand

this for centuries. According to Dr. David Castle,

says this, a complaint of Roman critics of Christianity

was this. They thought Christians were involved

in bizarre and terrible religious rituals that

included eating flesh. In other words, they heard

rumors about these secret gatherings where Christians

would eat the body and drink the blood of their

leader. And so rumors would begin about, I think

they're vampires. I think they might be cannibals.

And why wouldn't they think that? It's weird.

And I do not blame people. And we should not

blame people when they don't get it without all

of the other explanation. I don't blame people

now, and I don't blame people then for not getting

it. Because I think that is kind of the point

of what Jesus is doing in this moment. One of

the reasons that Jesus is doing this is to say

something so jarring to see who is willing to

get it. So last week, Jesus started with zero

disciples, and we see him calling the drastically

different. This week, he's got plenty of followers,

plenty of disciples. Thousands are showing up

to see him, but now he's finding out who is curious

enough, hungry enough. to hear a drastic and

difficult call and stay. He wants to know, are

they coming for the food? Are they coming for

the miracles? Are they coming to hear him talk

about how they're actually, oh, the poor shall

inherit the earth. They're coming to hear about

how the group of people that they're in are better,

and oh, all these rich people and these people,

oh, there are, oh, are you guys, anyone in a

circle, I hope they're listening. Is that why

they're there? Or can they hear a difficult word

and continue to follow? Because this message

was a difficult word. Now maybe you've heard

of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance

is that uncomfortable feeling that your brain

gets. It's a real feeling. Your brain feels discomfort

when what you have always believed crashes into

something that's new information that contradicts

what you always knew. Our brains do not like

that dissonance. Our brains do not like having

a set belief that we're sure of, and then we

get new evidence or new information, and our

brain has to decide, like, how do I justify that?

How do I fit it in to maintain what I already

believe? We do not like to feel like what we

know, what we were sure about is getting pushed

around. It's like when you live with someone

and you worked all day. and then maybe they work

a different shift than you, or they had the day

off, and you come home, and they completely rearranged

the kitchen. I don't know if that's ever happened

to you. Cindy has this fun thing that she does.

She'll joke with me about how, like, wouldn't

it be nice to have the couch over there? And

I'll be like, oh, yeah, maybe. And then I'll

come home the next day, and it'll just be done.

Maybe you've... No, and it's amazing. It always

works out well. But let's say you came home and

someone moved around everything in the kitchen.

You're looking at it and you're going, okay,

maybe you want to hold out the possibility that

maybe this is better. Maybe this is a good thing.

You're like, oh, yeah, okay, that makes sense.

The milk should probably be in the door of the

fridge instead of behind the vegetables. It's

always a pain to, okay. I guess the cups should

be in the cupboard right there next to the sink.

That makes a lot of sense. But then you start.

wondering and almost panicking, where did they

put my favorite spoon? Where's my favorite spoon?

Will you guys stop pretending that you don't

have a favorite spoon? I know you have a favorite

spoon. We all have a favorite spoon. And then

you notice that the blender isn't on the counter

anymore, and they put the blender in the pantry,

and you're thinking, why would they put the blender

in the pantry? Don't they know that I use that

at least every month? Why would they put that

away? Because it's ugly. For the crowd in January

6th. I'm sorry. For the crowd in John 6th. Take

that for what it's worth. Jesus' words aren't

just moving the milk or the spoon. They're gutting

the plumbing. What Jesus is saying isn't just

putting the blender in the pantry. It's actually

pulling out the electrical lines. The cognitive

dissonance that they would have felt was drastic

and difficult. So they say to Jesus, Moses gave

us manna bread every single day. What sign do

you have? And Jesus' answer was to push them.

He says, I am the bread of life. You can have

me. You can have this flesh. You can have this

blood. And if you eat this flesh and this blood,

then you will have more than Moses could ever

have given to you. And they're thinking, who

is this guy to say that he has something better

than Moses? Moses was venerated. Moses was honored.

Moses was cherished. He had led them out of Egypt.

How dare you say that you have something better

than Moses? Who does this guy think he is saying

something as weird as eat my flesh and drink

my blood? If you've never heard anything like

that, how do you process that? Then consider

that in their context, in their religious law,

that it would have immediately been rejected,

the concept that you could eat human flesh or

drink blood. Religiously, it would have been

rejected. So it's not just weird. It feels wrong.

It feels offensive. It feels like it's against

their religious law. The cognitive dissonance

is off the charts. And it feels like Jesus is

just breaking everything that they knew about

God. The sink has not been torn off the wall.

The fridge isn't just moved. The fridge is outside

on the porch. And the sink is in the tub. So

because of this, it says in verse 66, many of

his disciples turned back and no longer went

with him. They'd seen the miracles. They had

eaten the bread and fish that he had multiplied

just one day before. Some of them had been healed

in their bodies. Some of them had felt forgiven

for the first time in their life. But this was

too much. It was too far. It didn't matter how

much good they'd seen, how much good they'd experienced.

It took one moment, one teaching, one drastic

and... difficult word. Now something that I find

truly special about the scriptures is that the

idea that you can read something from 2 ,000

years ago and that it seems to still express

the human experience that we have now. Don't

we feel the same things? Don't we? have moments

where we wonder, is this too difficult? Is this

too drastic? Is this too uncomfortable? Don't

we say, I like the sink where it is, Jesus? Maybe

Jesus has something to say to you. Maybe he has

already said something to you in the scriptures,

in your prayers, through someone here in this

room, or dare I say, Maybe he said something

to you through the church that you used to go

to, but it was too drastic, it was too difficult.

How often, instead of enduring the difficult

and uncomfortable, do we just move on to something

else, to someone else? So Jesus says to his closest

disciples, do you wish to go away as well? And

Peter, you've got to love Peter. Peter says,

Lord, to whom else could we go? For you have

the words of eternal life. I think a truly difficult

question to answer in this life is how can we

be more like Peter? Because it's scary to be

like Peter. If you read these stories in the

book of Matthew instead of the book of John,

it says that just that early morning, the day

before the 5 ,000, and then it says that they

were on the lake. And in the book of Matthew,

it says that Peter did what? He got out of the

boat and he walked on water with Jesus. Peter

is the kind of guy that, Jumps first, asks for

a parachute later. Peter seems to be the kind

of person that acts on impulse. I imagine if

you said that to him, he would call it faith.

So I think when Jesus said, eat my flesh and

drink my blood, Peter wasn't afraid. to be full

of this bread and wine because Peter was already

full of faith. He had decided, I believe. And

because I believe, one messy metaphor won't scare

me away. One drastic or difficult call cannot

overcome me. Because of everything else that

I believe. A misunderstanding cannot change that

I believe in Jesus. For whatever reason, only

one person in this room will know these names.

But this made me think of Tim Fiscus and Danny

Gordon. My dad knows those names. The church

that I grew up at. Tim Fiscus was one of the

Sunday school teachers from my high school class.

And Dan Gordon was my best friend. And Dan is

someone that had grown up as the child of a missionary

in Papua New Guinea. And he had come back around

junior high, beginning of high school, to kind

of go to high school in America. And Danny was

like, and he lives in California now. He is,

imagine surfer kid. That was Danny. We would

skate together and just have fun. We would play

pool, try and write songs. And we're in Sunday

school one day, and Tim Fiscus is doing a little

bit of apologetics. Apologetics is like the defense

of Christianity. And he says, well, what are

you guys going to do someday when someone says,

you know, this Bible, this is just a bunch of

fairy tales. And he looks at Danny and goes,

Danny, what are you going to do? And he goes,

I believe in fairy tales, man. Danny was full

of faith. He had this sense that it doesn't mean

I'm going to ignore things or my beliefs aren't

going to change, but there's something inside

of me that tells me that God is real. So it's

important for us to understand that faith is

not the absence of tension. Faith is not the

absence of dissonance. Faith is the decision

to believe in the tension. Because sometimes

Jesus is going to give you real bread and real

fish. And sometimes he's going to say something

like, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.

And you will not understand what he is saying

in the moment. And only you can decide if you

will take and eat even when you do not. As I

close, I added this to my notes because I was

just reminded of a book in the Old Testament

called Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a book to the people

of God while they were in exile. They had lost

their land. They were under Babylonian rule.

and Ezekiel is meant to be the voice of God to

the people. And it says that he's having a vision

of God and what God wants him to say. And there's

this moment where it says that God puts these

scrolls before Ezekiel. And Ezekiel looks at

it, and the scrolls are covered with lament.

And sorrow. They're the saddest words you could

think of to say to the people. It says that God

said, take each of these scrolls and speak these

words to my people. It just reminds me a little

bit of Jesus asking someone to take something

that you wouldn't normally put in your mouth.

Ezekiel in this vision. He hears God say, here,

take these scrolls that are filled with sadness

and eat them. And he says, and so I opened my

mouth and I ate the scrolls and they tasted as

sweet honey. I just felt like I was supposed

to say that. Sometimes there's a drastic call.

There's a difficult word. Sometimes God will

open a scroll in front of you of what he'd like

you to do, and all you see on it is sadness.

And it looks so hard. But if you will open your

mouth and receive what God has for you, I believe

that it will taste as sweet as honey. Let us

pray. Jesus, we thank you for the work that you

have done, all the things that you have taught

us. I pray that little by little, maybe even

all at once, that we will open ourselves to what

it is you are saying to us, that we will hear

the call to follow me, that we will take and

eat. That we will be filled with faith so that

no one moment of tension can tear us away from

you. Amen? Amen.