Your not a Grumbler, are You?

John 6:41-51

Have you ever been a grumbler?  Someone makes a statement and you are quick to tell all your friends that it was impossible for that to have happen; that’s what is happening to Jesus in John’s account of Jesus sharing with the neighbors.  Jesus has shared with them this truth; “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  “They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?  How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven.’

If you are like the neighbors of Jesus you are in some good company, in that one of the twelve disciples has gained name recognition by being a grumbler, doubter, or skeptic.  When Jesus appeared to the disciples Thomas was not with them, and Jesus breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 11:22)  Picking up the account in verses 25-29, “So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.”  But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”  Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.  Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  “Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.”  “Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”  “Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 

Thomas and the neighbors of Jesus were not bad people, in fact they may have been very religious, but Jesus did not fit their plan on getting to God.  It is interesting to see Jesus reply to the neighbors, “Do not grumble among yourselves.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.  And I will raise him up on the last day.  It is written in the Prophets, “And they will all be taught by God.  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me – not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.” (John 6:43-46)

You may be more like the neighbors of Jesus than you understand, if you have performance flesh, you may believe that your acceptance by God has to do with how well you perform, or like the disciple Thomas you need more proof.  Will you ask God to show you that proof and then, like a Thomas, will you bow your knee to your Lord and your God? 

In verses 47-51, Jesus is speaking, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I will give for the life of the world my flesh.”  Unlike them you have been give understanding that Jesus was referring to Himself, being your substitute, paying for sin on a cross. 

Is it not fitting to ask us the same question that Jesus asks Martha after the death of her brother?  Martha was at a low moment, her brother had died and she was upset that Jesus had not come sooner, because she knew that if He had been there Lazarus would not have died.  In John 11:25-26, “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice