Strangest and saddest - the cost of the call (3)

Jesus was no con artist; He never claimed that following Him would be a walk in the park. What His earthly parents experienced at the first Christmas (see Monday's two posts) and what Jesus Himself modelled for us - paying a cost in order to achieve a higher good - were living examples for us of the cost of discipleship.

Another of my Advent readings this week was in John 6: 60 - 71. Even with Jesus there in the flesh, some of the people who had been following Him began to drift away because His teaching offended them. “What you’re saying is hard to accept, “ they told Him. As a result, we read one of the saddest commentaries in the gospels (vs 66): “From this time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” Many of them probably just wandered away and went back to their own lives, doing their own thing and living for themselves.  Perhaps some found someone or something else to give their allegiance to. And one went on to betray Jesus to the authorities and bring about His death. 

There are also people today who turn back and drift away from following Jesus - perhaps because of something He did or said, or something that He didn’t do for them, or allowed to happen in their lives. Others turn away because they were hurt or offended by something another Christian said or did. A few, like Judas, go on to betray the Lord, perhaps speaking negatively and bitterly about Him. (Betrayal is a common reaction when someone has taken offence.) A larger number just drift away and live their own lives without allowing Jesus to be part of it.

Strangest and saddest, though, are perhaps the ones who stay in the church and continue to go through the motions, but in their hearts they’ve turned back from being radical disciples of Jesus. They no longer witness to friends about Him; they don’t express any love or praise towards Him; they don’t consciously seek His will in decision making; they don’t continue to deal with sin and selfishness; perhaps they don’t even bother to spend personal time with Him any more. They’re still going to church (perhaps because, like Peter in vs 68, they recognise, “Who else could we go to? Jesus has the words of eternal life.”) but on the inside they’ve decided, “What Jesus says is too hard,” and so they’re holding back from giving their all.

Lord, in this Advent season, I pray for every believer, every church-goer who falls into this category. I pray for those I know and those I don’t know. May this season be a time of revelation, a time when people see you as you really are and fall in love with you again. May it be a time when many draw closer and decide, with reckless abandon, to give you everything again.