August 25, 2024, Where Else Can We Go?, John 6:56-69 – Mtr. Kathryn Boswell

saintphilipsnorwood ♦ August 25, 2024 ♦ Leave a comment

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When Jesus asked the Twelve if they were going to abandon him along with so many of his disciples, Peter answered him, “Lord, where would we go? You are the only one who has the words of eternal life.” Now, Peter and the other chosen apostles had seen Jesus in action. They saw him heal the sick and lame and blind. They saw him multiply loaves and fishes to feed the multitudes. They saw him cast out demons. They saw him walk on water. They saw him raise the dead. But when Peter considered the possibility of walking away from Jesus – even though we know that Peter was a man of action if anyone ever was – it was Jesus’ words that he could not turn away from. No one but Jesus had the words of eternal life.

Clearly there is all the difference in the world between what Peter was talking about – the words of Christ that were worth living and dying for – and the everlasting noise that is so much a part of our modern experience. We are surrounded by words day in and day out, blah blah blah, and most of them don’t seem to mean very much. Turn on the TV at any time of the day or night for an endless stream of words. Drive down the street and you’re bombarded with words from stores and billboards and political yard signs. The phone rings a dozen times a day and half of the time it’s not even a human being talking. We live in such a word-saturated culture that I think we really need to stop a minute and ponder exactly what Peter means when he says to Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life.”

Right from the start, it’s important to translate the word “eternal” accurately, because when we hear the word eternal we might just think of time stretching on endlessly. Eternal life might make us of a Twilight Zone episode, where a creepy old man discovers a way to keep himself alive forever. And we know that always ends badly. But the Greek word here isn’t just talking about length of life; it’s talking about a quality of life. It means life that has power to endure, it means fullness of life. So when Peter talks about “the words of eternal life” he doesn’t mean words that are some kind of formula for cheating death. He’s talking about words that are the source of a rich abundance of life.

Peter knew that Jesus was the only one who spoke those kind of words. There was literally no one else they could turn to who spoke like Jesus. And more than that – he knew that there was no turning away from those words once he had heard Jesus and put his faith in him. To turn his back on Jesus would be turning his back on life itself. It was unthinkable.

Jesus and his words are so inseparable that John, when he began his gospel about Jesus, called Jesus “the Word”. “In the beginning was the Word.” John wrote. “And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.” In the beginning of all things, when God created, he created with words. God said, “Let there be light – and there was light.” God’s Words have power to bring something into being out of nothing. And that powerful Word that existed from before all time – that is Jesus.

Most words that are out there in the world, plain old human words, don’t seem to be powerful or full of life at all. You might have noticed how sometimes people’s words and actions tend to be pretty loosely connected. Sometimes they’re even completely at war with each other. People often say one thing and do another, we know that. We do that ourselves sometimes. But for Jesus, his word and his action are one true thing. So the Words of eternal life that Peter was talking about are one with everything that Jesus did and with everything that Jesus is. There’s no division, no conflict, no dissonance, between the words of Jesus Christ and what he does and what he is.

And what that means for us, is that we can’t really follow Jesus’ words without following in his footsteps. We can never separate the words of Jesus from what he does. We could memorize the entire Bible – or we could if we were really good at memorizing. We could stand on the street corner and yell the words of Jesus at people from morning to night. Some people do things very like that. But unless we are following Jesus in our living and our doing as well as in our words, the words that we claim to be following don’t have any life at all.

Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Believing that Jesus has the words of eternal life is about much more than just talk.

In fact, it is possible for people to use the words of Jesus to do all kinds of evil. Slaveholders in the early days of our country used to quote the Bible to prove that it was perfectly OK, even right, for them to treat their brother or sister like a piece of property, or worse. Christians throughout the centuries, and right up to this present day, have hand-picked verses to use as weapons against the people they hate or distrust or fear – even against their fellow Christians. There have been times when the followers of Jesus have literally murdered one another in defense of Jesus’ words. In the Reformation Protestants killed Catholics, and Catholics killed Protestants, and everybody killed the poor Anabaptists.

We’ve seen conservative and liberal Christians attack each other with the Word, Republican and Democratic Christians attack each other with the Word. But the words of Jesus, ripped out of context, divorced from his life and love and work, have nothing to do with eternal life. They are weapons that kill, not sources of life.

Today, just like in the time of Jesus, a lot of people have turned away from the Church, and given up on Christianity – people we know, our friends, our neighbors, members of our family. But very often they are not turning away from Jesus because they are wicked, sinful people. A lot of people, way too many people, have turned away from Jesus because the Church has failed to speak Jesus’ words of eternal life in our actions as well as our words.

All people are sinful, Christians and non-Christians alike. Obviously, we will never be perfect. But when Christians proclaim a gospel of love and then treat their fellow human beings with contempt, when Christian leaders abuse their power, and hurt those who are vulnerable; when Christians condemn or exclude people who are different from them, people of different races, or different gender identities, or different religious beliefs; when Churches amass great wealth and fail to help the poor; when Christians care only for their own safety and prosperity when their brothers and sisters are hungry and poor and homeless and in danger, then we, the Church, have failed to speak the words of life. Then we have caused Jesus’ words to bring pain instead of healing. Then we have made Jesus’ words of eternal life into empty, lifeless babble – or, even worse, into murder weapons.

To follow Jesus means to follow him both in what we say and in what we do. It really doesn’t matter very much at all whether we are able to impress people by rattling off chapters and verses. But it matters infinitely much whether we are living out Jesus’ words of forgiveness and mercy and compassion and kindness. It matters infinitely much whether we consider the needs of our brother or sisters as important as our own needs. It matters infinitely much whether we seek to be a servant like our Lord, or whether we are really seeking to be served.

Only Jesus has the words of eternal life.

Where else can we go?

Who else can we follow?