Don't pay attention to distractions

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, Jesus' brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." For even his own brothers did not believe in him. John 7:1-5

REFLECTION
Claim your space! Make a name for yourself! Show yourself to the world so that everybody can see how special you really are!
Some people are very ambitious. They want to be the centre of attention and they want to be respected and admired by the masses. And if these ambitious people don’t have the talents or qualities to make them stand out themselves, they all too often project their own idle aspirations on someone else. They put people on pedestals just to see them fall. And if their self-erected idols don’t stumble spontaneously, they will knock them off their feet so that they can look down on them and feel a little bit better about themselves.
If you take the words of Jesus’ brothers at face-value, they don’t seem to be so mean or deceptive. But John stresses that even Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in him. Why did they want Jesus to go to Judea if this was such a dangerous place for him? Didn't they know? Didn't they care?

PRAYER
Dear Jesus, it’s such a privilege to study your Word and learn more about you. It is intriguing to see how you wisely steered away from people who wanted to manipulate you. I guess many of them only wanted to see you stumble and fall. But you didn’t follow the crowd; you didn’t give in to temptations; you did not try to make a great impression – you were only obeying your Father’s holy will.
It is so sad that so many people only came to you to see some more signs and wonders. They wanted to be impressed by your gifts, but they couldn’t care less about the One who gives us all these wonderful blessings.
Please Lord Jesus, make me more like you. I want to follow your guidance and ignore all deceptive voices that only try to distract and manipulate me. I don’t want to pursue my own or anybody else’s agenda; I want to be guided by your will alone.

To whom shall we go?

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 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." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. "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. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:60-69

REFLECTION
Many disciples turned away from Jesus after hearing these words, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
I guess many so called followers had no idea what Jesus was talking about here. Even for us, people living after Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, it is not so easy to understand these strange sayings. As Jesus was talking in the synagogue, it is likely that this was his contribution to the discussion that traditionally took place after reading a piece of Scripture, in order to establish the right exegesis.
Jesus sees and hears that his followers (not just the 12 disciples) were upset and offended. They probably took his words literally – and thought that they were actually supposed to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Even after Jesus’s explanation that his words are spirit and life – many followers turned their back to him because they believed that his words were offensive and scandalous…

PRAYER
Dear Jesus, it looks like you were selecting your true followers out of the crowd of superficial fans. You didn’t try to gather a mass following and you certainly didn’t want to start a worldly revolution. Your faithful disciples were handpicked by you and for some reason even Judas was included in your inner circle.
You ask us to embrace the cross and to look at you exclusively for our eternal salvation. We now know that you were referring to your death on the cross, but it is still so hard to bring this message of sacrificial atonement and redemption to the people of our time. Many of them turn their backs on you as well, because your teachings are so hard to understand with the human mind. Please help us to tell people that believing starts with surrendering our hearts and minds. Yes, you command us to bring this shocking, unexplainable and scandalous message of the cross – and this is not an easy challenge. But we know that you are with us and we want to be your obedient and committed disciples. We want to follow you – not because your message is easy to explain or understand – but because we love you and we know that you are the truth. No, we don’t want to leave too! With Peter we say, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God!"

The true bread from heaven

So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." Then Jesus declared, "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. John 6:30-35

REFLECTION
The people who had all witnessed the multiplication of the bread and fishes were so impressed by this miracle that they wanted to make Jesus their king. But Jesus withdrew to the mountain to pray.
In the evening his disciples got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. Jesus didn’t need a boat, he decided to walk to Capernaum - and He didn’t make a detour!
The crowd couldn’t get enough of Jesus. Not that they really wanted to follow him; they only wanted to pursue their own agendas. Their way of following looked more like intruding, hindering and harassing! And just like obsessive stalkers they didn’t give up so easily. When they couldn’t find Jesus, they decided to go to Capernaum too. When they found him the next day, Jesus rebuked them for caring only about free meals.

PRAYER
Dear Jesus, I love you. You are the only One I really need. I thank you for all your blessings and miracles in my life, but most of all I thank you for being the true bread from heaven. You came down like holy manna and we all need to bow down first before we can enjoy your blessings. You give us strength for every new day!
Yes, all your words are true! Because of your great love we are not consumed; your compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! *
Please Lord, help us to be completely focussed on you and on what you are asking from us. I trust that you will bless us again and again, but help us to realize why you came and teach us to be your true followers.
* Lamentations 3:22-24

Let nothing be wasted

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. John 6:5-13

REFLECTION
Poor Philip. He has a Master who knows everything and is able to do everything, but now he really is asking for the impossible. “How far can we stretch our budget, my friend? Do you think we still have some cash left to buy food for this hungry crowd?”
Philip sighs. Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite! This is just too big a challenge, even for a devoted, faithful disciple like Philip.
Now Andrew has a bright idea. He has checked the inventory. Ah – good news! There’s one little boy who brought his lunch, let’s see what we can do with that. If we just divide five small barley loaves and two small fish by five thousand… Well, what am I thinking? This is just a ridiculous idea!
Okay, let’s try to solve this problem together. What do we have? Lots of hungry people and plenty of grass to sit on. But grass will only feed sheep. So what do we really need? An amazing Master who is able to multiply his blessings even if his disciples are clueless and hopelessly divided.

PRAYER
Dear Jesus, sometimes it seems that you take pleasure in asking for the impossible. How can we ever reach all the individual people in this world with your amazing blessings? We really don’t feel up to the challenge and sometimes we almost feel like giving up. Still, this is exactly what you told us to do, to go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. I really don’t know what we need to achieve this, in terms of money, media and manpower… Maybe it's wiser to leave this bigger-than-life questions in your mighty hands? Use us Lord to cater to all people no just a select few. We trust that you will do some amazing miracles again if we just bring our little lunches and thankfully start sharing what we have received from you first.

Heaven is a gift, not a reward

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. John 5:39,40

REFLECTION
Often we are so focused on studying and knowing that we tend to forget that faith is all about simply hearing and believing. Of course you have to make many choices with your head, but the biggest decisions about love and life are not matters of the intellect; they are matters of the heart! Just like the Jewish teachers of the law we are frequently looking for clues, trying to break the big questions of faith into smaller ones that we can get our head around. But by doing so, we forget that we are dealing with the greatest mysteries of life and the wisdom of our eternal God. We can only look at things from a very limited, human perspective. Why is it so hard to simply surrender to Jesus and accept that he is the only source of life? Just come to Jesus with a repenting heart, ask him for forgiveness, accept his gift of grace and receive eternal life. Heaven is a gift, not a reward. All you have to do is say, ‘Thank you, Lord Jesus!’ and the door will be opened.

PRAYER
Dear Lord, you gave us intellect and a free will to make decisions. There are so many good things that we can do with our brains, but so often we only use them to worry and lose sleep over trivial questions. This is what matters most: you took all our sins and carried them away on the cross. I believe that you conquered death by rising from the grave on the third day. I believe that you are the Son of God and the only true source of eternal life. Deep down in my heart I’ve made this decision to surrender to you, to love you and to follow you faithfully. Do I always understand your ways, Lord? No, I don’t. But I do believe that God’s ways are higher than my ways and I trust you as my guide through life. Help me to tell other people about you; please let many of them open their hearts for your message of love so that they can receive your gift of eternal life too!