“After the Circus Leaves Town”

John 6:60-69

“Elvis has left the building.” The show’s over. The circus is leaving town. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Don’t you just love clichés? But even clichés can reveal great truths. The great truth of today’s text is that, after all the excitement of Jesus’ miracles and whatnot, the time had come to make a decision. “What’s it gonna be, guys? You’ve loved all the flash but are you ready to deal with the substance of discipleship? You’ve heard what I’ve had to say? Do you understand it? More importantly, do you believe it? Are you ready to take it to the next level?”

Even as Jesus asked those questions, he already knew the answers. Some of his wannabe disciples were already saying, “This [teaching of Jesus] is a very difficult message. Who can listen to this?” “This is a tough teaching, too tough to swallow.” What was that message? The entire body of Jesus’ teaching. Many were offended by the message. Some were turned off by what accepting the message would require. Following Jesus was going to be hard. It had the potential to be dangerous. A deep and lasting would be required. So some said, “The heck with this. I’m out of here.” And off they went. They no longer wanted to be associated with Jesus or his message or his demands.

After the dust from the stampede away from him settled, Jesus turned to the remaining disciples, specifically the Twelve, and asked, “Do you also want to leave? I’ll not keep you here against your will. But I have to know, are you with me or not?” And Peter, good old Simon Peter, said, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

The words Peter uttered at that synagogue in Capernaum were essentially the same words he would speak at Caesarea-Philippi. Those words are found in the eight chapter of Mark’s Gospel: “You are the Messiah.” The Twelve, or to be honest the Eleven – Judas would bail out later – realized who and what Jesus was. By the power of the Holy Spirit, within the context of God’s omniscient providence, they got it.

They weren’t smarter than the others. They weren’t braver than the others. Nor were they stronger or more talented. It’s simply that deep within their hearts and souls they heard, felt, and obeyed God’s call. This was not a matter of human effort or perception. Jesus had made it very clear, “… no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”

Jesus went on in verse 70 to tell them that they were hand-picked by him. They were his disciples because he chose them, and he chose them because they were the ones his Father had sent to him. They didn’t choose Jesus. Jesus chose them. It is only by God’s grace that they were called, and only by that same grace that they heard and obeyed the teachings of our Savior. As Jesus said, “The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen.”

The preparation and writing of today’s sermon comes at a time when I’m reading and studying for this coming fall’s class on the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes, along with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, pretty much summarize what one commentator referred to as Christ’s Holy demand of his disciples then and now: the total surrender of one’s life to him and absolute loyalty to the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdoms of this earth. That’s what the wannabe disciples found too hard to accept. That’s what drove them away. All the flash and dash and miracles were a wonder to behold, but once the circus left town – once Jesus got down to the nitty-gritty demands of discipleship – they wanted no part of it.

In one of the books I’m reading our unwillingness to let go of those things that hinder us in following Jesus is equated with addiction. We’re addicted to all the seductive flash and dash of this world and its kingdoms. One of the truths of addiction is that recovering from it requires an absolute trust in the power of God to break its spell over us. Only by God’s grace can we walk away from it. Recovery is a gift of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it on our own. Listen again to these words of Jesus: “The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. … no one is capable of coming to me on his [or her] own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”

Some of my favorite hymns have phrases in them like “I have decided to follow Jesus… [or] Since I found the Lord.” But none of us, of our own volition, just decides one day to follow Jesus. Finding the Lord on our own is impossible. He’s not lost; we are. We don’t find him; he finds us. When we (quote) find him (unquote) it’s because the Holy Spirit has awakened in us the knowledge that he’s always been there: loving us with a love that will not let us go; pursuing us with a passion beyond our comprehension.

Following Jesus – really, really following Jesus – is a humanly impossible task. Why? Following Jesus – really, really following Jesus – is a counter-cultural journey. Jesus was serious when he told his disciples that they must be in the world but not of it. The Apostle Peter echoed that in his first epistle: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

To be holy is to be set apart, to be different. We cannot escape the culture into which we are born. This world is the only option we have. We have to be in the culture and in the world. But we can and must, by the power of the Holy Spirit, refuse to be totally seduced by them. As God’s own people and followers of Jesus our citizenship in and primary loyalty to is the Kingdom of God. Not our culture. Not our nation. Not even our families.

That’s a whole lot easier to say than do. The Christian life isn’t lived in a vacuum. Forces inside and outside of us pressure us every minute of every day to abandon Jesus, to walk away from him just as did all those wannabe disciples in today’s text. To slightly paraphrase part of today’s reading from Ephesians, “For our struggle is not [just] against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers… the authorities… the cosmic powers of this present darkness… [and] the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

No wonder the Apostle Paul exhorts us to put on the whole armor of God. No wonder he urges us in his Letter to the Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God is – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Which brings us right back around to the Holy Spirit; the One Jesus would later call the Comforter. And what did Jesus say in today’s text? “The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life making.” It is by the power of the Spirit that we learn to put on and use the whole armor of God. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are transformed, that our minds are renewed, so that we can know – and do – the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. The Spirit calls us to Christ. The Spirit keeps us with Christ. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make any of that happen.

The first step in any recovery from addiction is: “We admitted we were powerless over [it] – that our lives had become unmanageable.” The first step in giving our lives over to Christ is an honest admission that we are powerless over sin, that all our sheer muscle, effort, will power, and good intentions cannot save us. We are saved only by the grace of God. We are enabled to follow Jesus only by the grace of God. Our minds – and hearts – are transformed only by the grace of God. The whole armor of God is available to us only by his grace.

As I said earlier, on that day in Capernaum Peter and the other ten disciples who opted to separate themselves from all those wannabe disciples got it. They got Jesus. They understood the truth that was verbalized by Peter: “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.” By the power of the Spirit they heard, believed, and then obeyed the life-giving words of Jesus.

To whom would we go? You and I know the answer. By the power of the Spirit we return again and again to the life-giving words of Jesus. By faith we give ourselves over to his transforming power, that power by which we day in and day out put on that whole armor of God that enables us to live in the world without becoming of the world. That power by which we are able to let the world know that we are God’s own people. Amen.