Year 5, Day 254: John 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

I remember the first time I read the Feeding of the Five Thousand story from John’s perspective.  I was about six years old and I thought it was the coolest story ever because all those people got food.  I remember being incredibly impressed simply at the awesomeness of God.

I also remember the first time that I read the whole of chapter 6 all together.  It was about 10 years ago.  I remember my eyes being opened at the realization that the Feeding of the Five Thousand isn’t actually just a story about some incredible work of God’s hand.  I remember seeing first how John makes the point that the Feeding of the Five Thousand is an event that reveals mankind’s thirst for power.  The people want to forcibly make Jesus a king.  They want to force Jesus into conflict with the Romans.  The Feeding of the Five Thousand isn’t just about God’s awesome power but really a mirror for us to see ourselves.

And then I remember about 5 years ago reading the rest of the chapter quite deeply.  As we get to the end of chapter 6 what we see is that Jesus turns this Feeding of the Five Thousand experience into a place where people have to decide if they are buying what He is selling or not.  The reality is that most of the people leave.  In fact, we can assume that most if not all of the people who were following Jesus after the Feeding of the Five Thousand – except for the Twelve - actually abandon Jesus at the end of this chapter.  This incredible display of God’s power actually results in fewer people following Jesus!

This is the challenge.  This is why challenge is what it is.  God’s power and God’s truth is very challenging.  It causes us to face change.  It causes us to decide what is more important: being ourselves or being the person that God desires us to be.  And this is why so many people leave after hearing Jesus’ challenge.

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