The Character Trait That Pleased Jesus

In John 6, Jesus loses some of his followers after He tells them they have to eat his flesh and drink His blood. I imagine they thought he was crazy. And I would have thought he was crazy too. But it was the twelve disciples who remained. And why? It's not because Jesus clarified he was speaking metaphorically (it might have been nice for him to have clarified that, though) it was because they said they had no other choice. They believed he was the son of God, and they really had no other options. They literally said to him "where else are we going to go?"

The striking thing about this passage, for me, was that Jesus lived out the earlier theme from John that he did not get his glory from man. He had no need for man's approval. (contrast this with our own desire for approval from each other) He did not care that they thought he was crazy. And it's not because he was captain confidence, it was because man literally had no glory to offer him at all. His glory would come from the father.

Ever been to a foreign country where the food was not appealing? Ever sat down in front of a bowl of bugs? Or worms? To Jesus, this was the social meal placed before him every day: The glory of man. We are designed, like the Trinity, to have glory shine through us. But Christ, knowing the glory of the father, was not the least bit tempted by the sort of glory we partake in every day, the fleeting, passing, tiny, conditional, false glory and praise we dole out toward each other secretly hoping we'd get something in return. Christ saw the passive aggressive attempts at glory, and the desire for an audience to clap or think we are fashionable or smart or religious or fast or sexy and it looked to him like a bowl of worms. Christ longed for the father, and invited us to be one with him so that the glory of God would some day shine through us even as it had through him.

The second thing that is striking about this passage is that Jesus is very comfortable with us not understanding Him. This seems like an injustice in an age where every sunday we have things explained to us and have our control increased over whatever dynamic we face. But "understanding" is not a character trait that Jesus seems to value. He's not praising the smarties. Instead, he's pleased with the faithful, those who will follow when there seems to be no reason to follow, and when it looks like they are going to have to do a hard thing and there's no way out.

And from the disciples perspective, what is expressed toward Christ is not love or devotion, instead it's incredible belief. They believed he was the son of God, even though they also probably believed he was strange. The facts, then, in their mind, were that the son of God was a strange man who talked about cannibalism and, well, that's unfortunate, but what else are we going to do.

I like that we don't have to be sappy about our faith. And I like that we don't have to always understand. And I like that it's honorable of us to talk to God and say, Hey, man, I'm uncomfortable with this but you know, I've got no other options. You're the Son of God. I'm with you whatever. It's not like this other crap system of seeking glory is any better.

The Character Trait That Pleased Jesus is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog