August 23, 2015
Sunday

“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.” John 6:67-69

“Thus we may be stunned when we hear that the disciples are now the ones who are bothered by what Jesus has said. We may have been tempted to simply write off the rest of the crowd as stubborn and obtuse, but the reference to “the disciples” sounds uncomfortably close to home. In verse 61, the disciples begin to grumble (NRSV “complain”), just as “the Jews” did in verse 41. Here, the problem seems not so much that the disciples have difficulty understanding what Jesus is saying; they understand quite well, but cannot believe and follow what Jesus has said. How often do we find the same to be true about ourselves?

Peter’s response to Jesus is not a word of despair or a statement that they will have to settle for Jesus because there is nothing else. Peter and the others who remain have been given the gift of knowing that Jesus is the one who can give genuine life. Here, as elsewhere in this chapter, the paradox remains: faith only comes as the Father draws us, and yet Peter and the others (and we too) are asked for our response. Peter and the other twelve “choose” to remain, and yet the greater and prior reality is that they have been chosen (verse 70). The mystery of faith and unbelief is not answered by supposed solutions to the paradox, but by grateful confession that the Father has indeed drawn us to faith in Jesus, and thus to eternal life.” Brian Peterson, Professor of New Testament
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, SC

The disciples are bothered by what Jesus has said, but they do not flee like the “others” — they stick around because they know that, though they do not always understand, still Jesus has the “words of “eternal life”. The literal definition of the words translated as “eternal life” is “Life Age-long”. “Life age-long” is richer in meaning (I think) than eternal life because eternal life seems to suggest only life “after” we die. But Jesus’ words are more meaningful than just meaning “at a later time”. Jesus words are for us right now, and will last throughout all time. “Life age-long” means we do not wait for eternal life, but instead we begin “age-long” life right now — and that reality should change how we live right now, every day.

“Lord, to whom shall we go – for you have the words of “Life Age-Long”. How we live each day will determine if we agree with Peter or not.

Pastor Dave