Cause sometimes backwards is the way to go. You know, like, umm, you know what? Never mind that; have it this!
John 6:56-69; Ephesians 6:10-20; Psalm 34:15-22; Joshua 24:1-2a,14-18
When I was a kid, and even still now, though not near as much, I really enjoyed mazes. Any chance I had, any time I came across one, I felt compelled to find my way through and complete the maze. I even had a program on the computer, back in the old DOS days (which I really do miss sometimes) that would create mazes, so whenever I wanted one, I’d open up the program, plug in a size and difficulty, print it out, and have a maze.
One thing interesting about mazes, though: they’re quite a bit easier to complete if you start at the end. I know in theory they should be equally difficult, but every time I was having difficulty with a maze, my mom would remind me to start at the end, and every time it worked. When I started at the end, it was easy to find my way through.
As an aside, for any of you who are interested, there is actually a difference between a labyrinth and a maze. A maze is intended to be difficult; a labyrinth is intended to be easy. Labyrinths were used in mideival cathedrals to enhance prayer life, something that would be hard to do if you had to think about which turn to take.
Anyways, back on topic. In a way, the people listening to Jesus in this gospel lesson, and those before this one, may have felt like they were in a maze. They were trying to find God, but had a few twists and turns along the way. They had just been fed with, for all intents and purposes, no available food. They then heard that Jesus is the Bread of Life from heaven. Then Jesus said that for one to have eternal life, he or she must eat his flesh and drink his blood. And to top it all off, he said it while he was teaching in church.
At this point most of the people thought themselves at a dead end in the maze. The person they thought could lead them to God was starting to sound like a crazy person, so they said to one another (or maybe even directly to Jesus, it isn’t clear), “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Jesus, knowing of the grumbling, replies, “Are you offended? Then you’ll be more offended when the Son of Man ascends! The Spirit gives life, not the flesh. The words I have spoken are spirit and life. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father enables him.” Not liking the answer, many of his disciples left that day and no longer followed him.
Like a difficult maze, these people were too frustrated at the difficulty and gave up. The were in what seemed like a dead end, and couldn’t see the next step they had to take. But then Jesus looked to the Twelve and asked, “Are you going to leave, too?”
Peter replied, in one of his moments of brilliance, “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.” Peter already knew the maze was difficult. He had seen the same dead end as the rest of the people, or else Jesus would never have asked him if he was going to bail like everyone else. But instead of continuing on the same path, he started at the end.
The people seeking out Jesus were all interested in finding God, but only a few realized they had already found Him, the Twelve included. Instead of trying to retrace steps, he went to the end of the maze of Jesus’ teachings and found his way from there. He started at God.
In our Christian walk we too often forget to start at God, and we forget to tell others to start at God. We think we need to follow certain “rules” in order to be close to God; that we need to change ourselves in order to be a follower. I’ve heard the excuses from a lot of people: “I’ll go to church, but don’t I have to quit [smoking, drinking, clubbing, doing drugs, sleeping around, and so on] first?” “I’d go to church, but I don’t want to give up what I’m doing.” Or from the perspective of someone already in the church, “I’d like to follow God, but I need to [blank] first.”
What’s worse is when we apply those “rules” to other people. Imagine the outrage if Jewish people all of a sudden decided that because they can’t eat bacon, no one else should be able to either! Unfortunately, Christians have done the same thing. We see the “rules” that God has for us, and while some of them are universal (I mean we can all agree that murder and theft is bad) some are not. Some of God’s “rules” are so we stand out from the world, and show the world what God is like. Yet we assume that everyone should follow the same “rules” as us.
But God isn’t about making us change before he calls us. Abraham was just a dude, and not a very important dude, when God showed up one day and said, “Hey, guess what! You’re moving to Israel and I’m making a nation out of you.” Abraham became a different person than he was, but it happened after he started following God not before.
In the maze of faith, the worst thing we can do is start at the beginning. If we do, we’ll never find God, we’ll just find complications and dead ends and, eventually, death. We get swallowed up in rules and things we think are rules, but never actually find what we’re looking for. Instead, we have to start at God, and then go from there. Let God, who is in the business of making changes in people, make the changes in us as we follow Him. Just like a maze is easier if you start at the end, life is easier when you start with God.