John 10:19-21

The people were again divided in their opinions about him. Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” Others said: “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” I am so grateful for the complete honesty of the Gospel writers. They were clearly deeply committed followers of Jesus, and it must have been tempting to have chosen to ignore the opposition that he faced, but they didn’t! They were astonishingly honest about how Jesus brought division between people throughout his ministry, and it wasn’t simply a case of people liking or not liking his teaching – some people believed that he was mad and demon possessed. Jesus has always divided opinion and still does. Richard Dawkins, the well-known atheist, has recently conceded that Jesus did exist, although he once said: “Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist.” John Lennon stated: “I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” Former US President Barack Obama said: “Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.” It is vital that we all make up our mind about Jesus. CS Lewis powerfully expressed the decision we all need to make. He wrote: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Question How would you respond if someone suggested to you that Jesus was merely a great teacher?

Prayer Lord God, thank you for sending Jesus into the world to be our saviour and friend. Amen

John 10:14-15

“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.” Years ago, I read a book about Eleanor Philby, who was married to the spy Kim Philby. I was stunned to discover that Eleanor never had any idea her husband was a spy. That seemed incredible to me at the time, but the truth is that our knowledge of even our nearest and dearest is always very limited. We know much about them, but there are always aspects of their lives of which we know nothing. That is not the case when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows us completely. There are no dark corners of our lives that he does not know. This could sound thoroughly intimidating were it not for his love for us. His willingness to die for us shows the full extent of his love, so we can feel not only safe but affirmed and encouraged by his knowledge of us. In the Old Testament, God is often compared to a shepherd, most famously in Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to his name.” The psalm describes God’s shepherd-like care of us even when we pass through the most threatening times, and assures us that his love will go on forever. No wonder that many of the psalms encourage us to worship God because of his care for us. Psalm 100:3 commands: “Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” In Jesus, we see all the good shepherding qualities of God his Father. The word ‘good’ in Greek is richer than our word and has the sense of beautiful, attractive and noble. He is in every way worthy of our worship and praise. Given that we have such a wonderful and all-knowing shepherd to guide us through life, the challenge for us is to get to know him better. Nothing in life could be more important than this.

Question In what way are you seeking to get to know Jesus better?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you were willing to lay down your life for me. Help me to get to know you better each day. Amen

John 9:24-25

For the second time [the Pharisees] called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.” “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” The Pharisees were fuming. Jesus had just healed a blind man, and they were determined to prove that he hadn’t. First of all, they interviewed the man, and he confirmed that Jesus had given him back his sight. They were still unconvinced, so they interviewed the man’s parents. They duly confirmed that he had been born blind, but had no idea how he had received his sight. John adds that the parents were fearful of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone who said Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. The parents tried to brush off the Pharisees by encouraging them to have a word with their son. “He is old enough. Ask him,” they said (John 9:23). The Pharisees were clearly starting to realise that the healing had indeed taken place. Because it had occurred on the Sabbath, according to their strict rules, it proved that Jesus was a sinner. No faithful Jew, and certainly no rabbi, would think of doing such work on the Sabbath. They asked the man for a second time about the healing. Wisely, he wasn’t willing to engage with them on exactly who Jesus was, but what he knew for sure was that he used to be blind and now he could see. Nothing in the world could persuade him to say otherwise. I love this man’s simple, clear testimony. He didn’t want to get mixed up in the Pharisees’ religious battles. All he knew was that Jesus had transformed his life. He was a new man. If you have given your life to Jesus, you will have your account of what God has done in your life. You may be able to speak of the way that God has walked with you through difficult times, and given you his peace and security. You may not know how to answer tough theological questions, but you know what God has done for you and, like this man, you need to share it.

Question What would be your quick summary of what Jesus has done for you?

Prayer Lord Jesus, thank you for the way in which you have blessed my life. Help me to be ready to share my story, however questioning and dubious others might be. Amen

John 6:66-69

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied: “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” Until now, Jesus seemed to have been attracting more and more followers. In chapter four, we hear that he was attracting more disciples than John the Baptist and people were believing in him even in the hostile territory of Samaria. In the Galilean region in the north, he had miraculously fed thousands of people, but the next day, the mood was very different. He spoke seriously to his followers about the nature of the bread that he was offering them, calling it his flesh. They concluded: “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” (John 6:60). As a result, many of his followers turned away and deserted him. Jesus’ question to his remaining disciples is heart-rending. “Are you also going to leave?” he asked. As he often did, Simon Peter spoke up for the others. He bluntly summarised the situation by saying that they had no desire to leave Jesus because there was nowhere else to go. Only Jesus had the words of eternal life. No other philosophies or religions were offering that. In our society, there are so many people and organisations wanting to attract our attention and get us to sign up. They make bold claims and offer glossy publicity for their philosophies, but only Jesus makes the offer of eternal life. If we want to receive this amazing gift, there is nowhere else to turn. When Peter made his response, he wasn’t saying he understood everything. He likely had as many questions as those who had turned away, but he was declaring that he was committed to Jesus himself and that he trusted him for the future. When we make a commitment to follow Jesus, we are not claiming that we have a full understanding of who God is and his plans for our lives. We are simply saying that we trust Jesus and know that he can be entirely relied upon.

Question Why are you committed to Jesus?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, I worship you because you have the words of eternal life. Amen

John 6:33-35

The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said: “give us that bread every day.” Jesus replied: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” When I was a boy, bread was only offered to us in two forms. It was either brown or white! These days, it is offered in a huge variety of ways – brioche, ciabatta, focaccia, multigrain, naan, pitta, rye, sourdough and wholewheat to name but a few – but however interesting it may be, it never ultimately satisfies us. We will always need more! When Jesus identified himself as the bread of life, he was claiming that we would never need to look for anyone else to satisfy us. He could meet all our needs. This is the first time in John’s Gospel that we hear Jesus using the expression “I am”. These words are a clear echo of how God spoke of himself in Exodus 3:14: “I am who I am.” Jesus was acknowledging who he was as the Son of God. Jesus describing himself as bread made it clear that he was for everyone. If he had called himself the caviar of life, we would have got the message that he was reserved for the wealthy and that the majority of people would miss out, but bread is ordinary. Bread is for everyone. Jesus was identifying himself as the one who could satisfy the needs of everyone, whatever their background or circumstances. Today we will need to be nourished and have our thirst quenched, and Jesus offers himself to us. We can come to communion and receive bread and wine to remind us of Jesus’ offering of himself on the cross, but we can also receive him as we pray amid the rush and noise of our lives. As we go to the shops, or eat, or work or play, we can reach out to the bread of life and receive his peace and love.

Question In what ways is Jesus the bread of your life?

Prayer Lord Jesus, thank you that you offer me bread which will always satisfy my deepest needs. Amen

John 6:8-9

Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up: “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” I’m sure we’re all familiar with Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the 5,000. It must have had a profound effect on everyone who witnessed it, but I’m particularly interested in what happened before the miracle took place. Jesus asked Philip where it would be possible to buy food for the people, and then John added that Jesus knew exactly what he was going to do and was merely testing Philip. Philip gave the not unreasonable answer that even if they worked for months, they wouldn’t have sufficient money to pay for enough food. Andrew then emphasised the hopelessness of the situation by pointing out the young boy with his packed lunch. With despair he observed: “what good is that with this huge crowd?” This all feels very familiar. When we look at the problems of our world, or even our local community, it is very easy to get depressed. There is so much to be done. The needs are not only vast but also extremely complicated. We look at our resources and, like the disciples, conclude that there is absolutely nothing that we could do to make a difference. The boy’s packed lunch didn’t contain enough to satisfy the needs of one grown man, let alone a vast crowd of hungry people. Jesus’ miraculous feeding of this enormous crowd was a lesson that the disciples needed to remember throughout their lives. In the years to come, they were all going to face great challenges as they served God, and they needed to keep their eyes on Jesus rather than the problems. We should apply our logical thinking to the challenges that we face, but we must never forget that we are serving a God of miracles who is able “to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

Question In what way do you find Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 an encouragement?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, I place my faith in you. Forgive me for those times when I become overwhelmed by the problems and forget that you are a miracle worker. Amen