Jesus is the endpoint!

John 6:60-69 

After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? ‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. ‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him. Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Food for thought!

It all started with a crowd, a hungry crowd. And has ended with an angry crowd! 

5 When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?" 6 He said this to stretch Philip's faith. He already knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered, "Two hundred silver pieces wouldn't be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece." 8 One of the disciples-- it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter-- said, 9 "There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this." 10 Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. (John 6:5-10)

As we learnt at the beginning of the Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, Jesus was teaching us to go beyond numbers. There are things that numbers, economics and money cannot solve. This is what Andrew did not know; he was saying "There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this."

Then, Jesus taught us: "Don't waste your energy striving for perishable bread like that. Work for the bread that sticks with you, bread that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last." (John 6:27). Jesus was teaching us to go beyond bread. Beyond the bread of Jesus there's the Jesus of the bread.

Then, we learnt:  "I am the Bread-- living Bread!-- who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live-- and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh- and- blood self. " (John 6:51). Jesus was teaching us to go beyond death, because there's life beyond death. 

Then, yesterday, the Jews started fighting among themselves: "How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?" (John 6:52). They had failed to go beyond the words of Jesus; they understood Jesus literary.

Today, we come to the end, beyond which we cannot go. All that went before was leading to this one point, one moment. Today is the tipping point. The gospel says that Many among his disciples heard this and said, "This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?" After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with Jesus. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: "What about you, do you want to go away too?"

I don't know how much time the silence lasted after Jesus' question and before Peter's answer. What I know is that this was a deciding moment, a tipping point. We all have such moments in life. Moments of either or, like in today's first reading...!

Did you realize that at the beginning we had a crowd of over 5000, and today we have just 12 men, minus one? Did you realize that at the beginning all the people wanted to make Jesus their king, now they don't want anything to do with him. Does this sound similar? People who loved or liked you when you were still in your prime days, still strong, still beautiful... then all of a sudden they don't want you nearby!

Why do people go away? 

Because many people can't handle the truth about ourselves. The day people come to know the real you, they will avoid you; this is what makes people hide all the times; they are afraid to show themselves as they're and what they're. But not Jesus. He is not afraid to tell the truth, even when everybody want to abandon him. Do you also want to go away? Go, away if you want, but I will not compromise the truth.

Because many people want what we have but not what we are; they want our bread, our money but not us; they want not you but what you do for them. These people, sooner or later, they walk away!

While some walk away, there are others who don't. These are the Peters. They state categorically, "Lord, who shall we go to? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We've believed and know that you are the Holy One of God." Peter is saying that WE CANNOT GO BEYOND YOU; You're the end of the road; we cannot go any further. 

Did you notice the sequence of words in Peter's reply. First, he said: we believe, then he said, we know, because faith comes before understanding, not the contrary. When we believe in Jesus, we understand what he says. You cannot understand someone you don't believe in. This is what Peter and the other apostles did. "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We've believed and know that you are the Holy One of God."