How to live beyond the call of duty
NECESSARY FOOD FOR THE JOURNEY TO HEAVEN
Jn. 6:24-35
What do we expect from Jesus? Could it be that much of our religious frustration and failure are the by-product of false expectations. Do many of us come to Jesus and the Church in search of something that He never promised to provide?
Our Gospel reading for today touches on this very point. Some people came to Jesus with false expectations. What they wanted and what Jesus wanted to give them we not the same things. The result was a short-lived experience in following Christ. It started with high hopes and ended in disappointment. These people were part of a crowd that Jesus had fed miraculously with five barley loaves and two fish. No doubt many of them were finding it a struggle to feed themselves. Here was a man who could meet their needs with miracles. It is not surprising that they had high hopes and wanted to make Jesus their king.
This was not what Jesus had in mind to give the crowd. He wanted to give them more than just feed their bodies. Of course, He was aware of their physical needs, and had demonstrated His concern for them. Now He wanted to show them that He was also concerned about their spiritual needs. He spoke to them of food that remains unto eternal life. He offered Himself as the bread of life. He wanted to expand their horizons, to elevate their aspirations, but they had little or no interest in that kind of talk. All that mattered to them was that here was someone who would make their lives a little easier. What they expected and what Jesus offered were two different things. Their primary interest was food for their bodies; Jesus was offering them food for their souls. It was not surprising that they soon lost interest in Jesus and returned to their homes.
That kind of thing is still happening today. Some people become disillusioned about the Christian faith. There are times when all is going well, times of comfort and peace. Then there are hard times and disappointments to be faced. We prayed for solutions to be solved and they never came. We worked for causes that failed. It appears that God has let us down. That should not put us off our relationship with God. Many a saintly person has grown in their relationship with God precisely through disappointments. Jesus Himself prayed, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Spiritual disappointments are a fact of life. If we are to build a relationship with God, we have to learn to deal with them. Disappointments cannot be eliminated completely. We have to ask ourselves, what do we want from our faith? What do we expect from Christ? Like the people in today’s Gospel, we sometimes turn to Jesus in anticipation for what He never promised to provide. Most of our false expectations have to do with something that would make our lives a little easier. We think that God is there to solve our problems and ease or take away our sufferings. That was not what Jesus expected from His Father. He never expected His Father to shelter Him from the harsh realities of life. Faith for Him was never a protective shield. It was a source of strength that enabled Him to face life with all its cruelty and carry off a victory in the face of it.
So, what can we expect from Christ? He does not propose to make life easier for us to handle, but to make us strong to handle what life may bring. This is not to deny that there will be times of comfort and peace. Jesus is concerned about us for He is caring. He cares about our needs and shares in our sufferings and enters into our sorrows. But if we expect Him to mollycoddle us, we will never become mature men and women.
Lord Jesus, when You say, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry; he who believes in Me will never thirst.” You are telling us is that on our journey to Heaven there you will be crosses of all kinds, physical and spiritual, but if you remain close to Me, feed on the Bread of Life I will provide for you and you will get there."
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