Miracle vs Message; Follower vs Disciple

Jesus Christ came to this world for all the people. His birth was proclaimed to everyone, but the tools were different. A star guided the wise men, but an angel was sent to proclaim the good news to the shepherds.  So the message is essentially the same but the tools to deliver it do vary. His birth, messages, death and resurrection is universal, because the sin that he was targeting is universal.

Its a a human nature that we many er times dazzled by the miracle and completely ignore the message attached to it. So for an average christian believer he needs many visions, miracles to hold on to their beliefs. For example the message of transformation is completely ignored in water to wine miracle, the message of sharing is ignored in miracle about Jesus feeding a crowd of 5000.So the point here is miracle is mostly performed for conveying a message. To have a firm christian belief, understanding the Jesus's teaching and the core messages that he delivered are vital.

I would like to share few thoughts that I came across on John 6. This chapter contains the core message of the gospel itself. The various characters we see in this chapter are Jesus, a crowd of people, many followers and few disciples. It narrates two popular miracles that Jesus did in this earth, but also mentions the messages delivered by Jesus about the purpose for his life in this earth.

The verses John 6: 1- 5 set the context. Jesus started doing many miracles on sick, It was very close to passover festival and a huge crowd of people heard about him came to see and hear him preaching. In verse 5 we see Jesus wanting to feed this entire gathering. Jesus concern about physical needs of his followers. He performs the popular miracle of feeding the crowd of 5000 in John 6 : 9-13. In verse 14 the crowd acknowledge that he is the true prophet that was expected, in 15 they even went up to make him the king as well. So far the crowd is  heard about miracles, took pain to see him, saw one miracle and started believing in him and wanted to make him as their king. Day 1 is over. At the night he performs another miracle of walking on the sea (John 6: 16-24).

In verse 26, Jesus looks  to be little harsh, he said that they came to see him again because they got satisfied with the food on day1 rather than the miracle. He then started speaking about food that gives eternal life. And in verse 29 he underlines that the God expects them to believe in whom he has sent. The crowd started questioning his credentials, asks what he has done to believe in him. This is the crowd psychology, forgets everything that they see and experience easily. See the drastic change they wanted him to be their king and now challenges that he has not done enough. 

The verses from 35 - 40 is the core message, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life, and whoever eat him will never be hungry or thirsty again. Verse 40 says that whoever see and believe him will have eternal life and he will raise him up in the last day. He explains this in detail till verse 58. It would have been very hard for the entire crowd to comprehend, they may not have heard anything like that till that day. See how even followers responded(verse 60) followers says that the message is very hard and who can hear it?. The crowd of 5000 may not have many followers, even they think that the message is very hard to digest. Miracles are very easy to comprehend but messages aren't. 



Verse 63 underlines that the flesh is of no use, its the spirit that gives eternal life. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Have you experienced the holy spirit yet? If not pray for the holy spirit,once you receive your life is not going to be the same. Bible says if you ask you will be given, if you seek you will find it. 

Verse 66 mentions that most of his followers stopped following him from that time. Jesus didn't change his message and the message remains eternal. In verse 67 Jesus checks if his disciples also want to leave?. Disciples continue to stay with him mentioning that they believe no one else can give them eternal life.

Most of the people followed Jesus because they see wonders and signs, thought he could change the condition of their life. They often impressed, at times doubted, questioned and finally deserted him since his purpose was not really change their physical life in this world. They couldn't comprehend 'the' message. The people who wanted the eternal life stayed back as the disciples.