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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
From this time, many of His
disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.
“You do not want to
leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered Him,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
Then Jesus replied, “Have
I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the
son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray Him.)
John 6:66-71
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Jesus had done His best to try and explain
the relationship required to gain eternal life, a relationship requiring
someone to be completely connected and invested in Him. He had made it clear
that God and God alone was the One who led people to His Son and once led
there, they had a choice to either accept Him or reject Him, to follow Him or
someone/something else.
The choice is still that today. Nothing has
changed in over 2,000 years. God still leads His people to His Son Jesus and
once there, they are given the choice to remain with Him or reject Him for
anyone or anything else in the world, to include themselves.
This leads us to the main question of today’s
devotion as we look at the closing verses of John 6:
“To whom will you go?”
Or in other words, “To whom will you cojoin
yourself in life?”
In today’s scripture verses, we see that
there are several options found in the actions of the Jewish contingent who
followed Jesus to Capernaum after He fed the 5,000 and His twelve chosen
disciples. Look again at this passage here:
From this time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer
followed Him.
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the
Holy One of God.”
Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you
is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the
Twelve, was later to betray Him.) John
6:66-71
Here we see three outcomes presented in
response to the question, “To whom will you follow?”.
First, we read how a certain number of the
Jewish followers decided to abandon Jesus all together. They were either
unwilling to understand what Jesus had told them or unwilling to commit to surrendering
their worldly lives to live fully in Him but whatever the reason, they chose to
turn back, return home, and no longer follow Him. God had led them to their
Savior but they chose to decline the invitation to eternal life so they could
pursue and follow other interests.
Secondly, we turn to the Twelve, the first
disciples Jesus chose to compose His inner circle. After the initial defection
of Jewish followers, Jesus turned to His chosen ones and simply asked:
“You
do not want to leave too, do you?”
Why would He ask this?
Because as you will recall, the Twelve had
been grumbling among themselves, just as the Jewish party had done over the
teaching Jesus was providing.
Well, as one might predict, Peter didn’t
waste any time becoming the spokesperson for His fellow disciples, saying:
“Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
Indeed, to whom would the disciples go? Who
else was like Jesus, the One they had spent so much time with, the One who had
performed miracle after miracle in their presence, the One they cad come to
believe was the “Holy One of God”?
Through his declaration, Peter was
announcing the allegiance between the chosen dozen and Jesus because there was
no one else greater than Him to follow. Unfortunately, Peter did not know that
one of his peers would not hold to this commitment and that leads us to the
third outcome, one that so many other people have selected since then.
For Judas, one of the Twelve and ironically
the one who was the group’s treasurer, would opt to sell out His Master for
money. Sinful greed became a stronger attraction than the Savior who had
dedicated His life to His betrayer. And here’s the thing, Jesus knew Judas was
going to do it well before it happened. He knew that one of His trusted
followers was nothing more than a devil.
Friends, Jesus knows where your heart is
inclined as well. He can see deep into the recesses of your soul, into places
no one else can. If He would look there today, what would He see? Would He see
a heart that is devoted to Him, the Holy One of God, or would He see someone
who has abandoned or even betrayed Him?
To whom do you go in life?
My prayer is that it is Jesus but if it’s
not, know it’s not too late to go to Him today. He’ll welcome you in love with
open arms.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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