The Words of Eternal Life

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.  The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.  Yet there are some of you who do not believe.....

 

"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 (Jn. 6).

 

If there has ever been Truth spoken in this world, it would have to have come from the lips of Jesus Christ.  There are so many people who love Jesus, or at least admire Him as a 'great Teacher,' and yet they do not believe anything He says.  This is such a mystery to me that I never stop wondering how it can be true -- and yet I see it all the time.  How can anyone profess that Jesus is a "Great Teacher," a Guide to morality and Universal Truth --- and yet not believe the things He says?

 

The only way I can begin to reconcile this phenomenon is to think that people love the  "idea" of Jesus Christ, but not His words.  Like some Greek god descended to earth to walk among the common folk, Jesus is a story, a fantasy, a tale told on a winter's night to amuse and entertain us for awhile -- but not to be embraced, believed, and accepted as Truth.  He is a "Great Teacher" indeed, but we have no desire to be His pupils.

 

Or, to see another perspective --- if the Woman at the Well had arrived in her village with her story about a great Prophet "who told her everything she had ever done," there could have been some in the village who refused to go see Jesus for themselves, but who remained at home, content to hear from others about the "Great Teacher" that had transformed their lives.  They might marvel, exclaim, and even praise the Great Teacher they had heard about, but they were just not curious enough to go see for themselves and to hear themselves His words of eternal life.

 

Those in the village who believed the woman and who went out to see Jesus and to listen to Him for two days came back saying, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world" (Jn. 4).  They were the ones who received, accepted, and believed the words of Jesus Himself, not through another person, but from the Light of the World.  They were the ones whose lives were changed forever by an encounter with the "One come down from heaven."

 

Unfortunately, from what I can tell, many people are content to sit in church every Sunday and hear about Jesus, but they are not curious enough to "go out" and see for themselves, to listen to His words, and to allow themselves to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, who indwells the Word of the Lord:  Yet, to all who received Him, He gave the power to become children of God----.....born of God (Jn. 1).

 

The opportunity to receive the Words of eternal life was not limited to those who met Jesus on earth; it exists today just as powerfully as it did then.  In fact, we are more fortunate than those villagers with whom Jesus remained for only two days.  In our hands, we hold a record of His words; we can take our time to eat and digest His words so that they become for us bread and nourishment for our daily life. 

 

Two of John's disciples heard John's testimony about Jesus and went to see for themselves if what John said was true.  When Jesus saw the two disciples following Him, he turned and asked, "What do you want?"  They asked where He was staying, and Jesus replied, "Come, and you will see."  They went with him "and spent that day with him.  It was about the tenth hour."

 

People never forget the day or the hour when they first encounter the Lord and begin to listen to Him.  I challenge anyone who admires Jesus to spend a day with Him -- or even an hour at first, "listening to" His words and pondering them in their hearts.  One of the best ways to do this is to journal about one of the 'words' of the Lord, exploring our reaction to them, allowing the words to penetrate the darkness of our minds and the hardness of our hearts.  This is what it means to be a student, a learner, a disciple.

 

Another way, for those who hate to journal, is simply to repeat the words back to Jesus, believing what He says about Himself.  Scripture says that faith comes through hearing --- and we often need to hear ourselves saying something before we begin to believe it to be true.  For example, Jesus says, I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty (Jn. 6).  Teachers will often have children repeat the lesson they are trying to teach, so if we say back to Jesus, "You are the bread of life.  I come to You that I may not go hungry, that I may not go thirsty."  And then we must wait to allow time for the words to soak into our hungry and thirsty spirits.  We will not have long to wait, for if we are truly hungry and thirsty for the Spirit of Jesus, He will swiftly come to us, and we will know His words to be true for the first time in our lives.

 

It is hard for me to understand why people will not "come and see" for themselves, why they will not receive into their own hearts the words of eternal life, the bread of life and the water of joy.  Especially if someone has pointed out to them, as did John the Baptist, "I baptize with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."  How can we be content with water baptism only, when we have heard those words?  So many people consider themselves adventurous, and yet, this is one adventure they will not set out upon -- what on earth are they afraid of?