But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (see First Timothy 2:4). He gave his Son so that every who sees "and believes in him may have eternal life". Jesus desired to increase the assurance of this promise, saying, "I will not reject anyone who comes to me", and even more, that he "should not lose anything of what he [the Father] gave me".
The crowds in some sense came to Jesus, hadn't they? In some sense they did see him. But they did not believe. Jesus was given by the Father so that the crowds could see and believe. Was there some kind of shortcoming in this approach that allowed the majority of this particular crowd to eventually walk away when they found the teaching too difficult? (see John 6:60-6:66).
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
Jesus explained, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (see John 6:44). We saw this happen in practice when Peter learned the identity of Jesus, not from flesh and blood, but from the Father (see Matthew 16:17). Was the Father not drawing the crowds? Did he not, after all, want to reveal himself to them so that they could be saved?
We too can't come to Jesus unless the Father draws us. He is in fact always drawing us. But, emphatically, we can refuse to let ourselves by drawn. Rather than opening ourselves to the transformation of grace he offers, we can try to come to Jesus by our own will, in our own strength, and, in the end, on our own terms. But to truly come to Jesus means that we accept his posture toward the Father, that of not rejecting anyone or anything that the Father sends. It means that we decide, like Jesus, to prefer the will of the Father to our own will. This is something our own will cannot will. It is only by grace that can accept this invitation.
Jesus wants us to let ourselves be drawn, and so he promises that if we do so, if we come to him, we will find the complete acceptance for which we have always longed but only found imperfectly in the world. He promises to satisfy our hunger and thirst in ways the world never could.
If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.
- CS Lewis
There will always be those who reject Jesus, who refuse to come to him on his terms rather than their own. But God can bring greater good even from this. We ourselves don't always come to Jesus immediately when he leads us somewhere new or difficult. But even our own failures and weakness can be made to work out for our good. Even if someone seems to reject Jesus at one time, nothing is final while they live. Even if we ourselves seem stuck at a certain and probably low level of sanctity, we may just need to wait on God's timing as he finds a new way to draw us higher in the upward call of Christ (see Philippians 3:14). The very persecutions that seem to scatter and dissipate the Church and even our own integrity as Christians can be made into opportunities to see Jesus with fresh eyes.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Let us listen to the word of God with one accord, just as the disciples in the upper room prayed with one accord, just as did the crowds listening to Philip. In listening, let us be drawn. In being drawn, let us come to Jesus. Let us see him and believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment