Pentecost XIII John 6:51-69 The Words of Eternal Life

Who Are You Following? To Whom Are You Going?

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

 Do you like variety? Do you like having options? What would your reaction be to a salad bar with only lettuce, a few tomatoes, and maybe one little sketchy looking baby corn? Are you going to go back to a buffet that only has plain pork chops and nothing else? Henry Ford once said that people buying a car could have any color they wanted as long as it was black. Many alternatives are a way of life in our ever-shrinking, ever more diverse world. Those who offer a three-item salad bar, a one-item buffet, or a car in only one color will not stay in business very long. Yet the Bible teaches us that when it comes to people, there really are only two types: those who believe and trust in God and those who do not. That’s because there’s only one Savior.

 Many winters ago a man is caught in a terrible blizzard. The wind whips the snow so hard, it is impossible to see. He is getting rattled, with a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel. Soon, however, he is congratulating himself for spotting taillights ahead of him. “Now I have something to follow!” After a bit, the car in front of him comes to a stop. The man is now worrying again. “Has he hit a deer? Did he break down?” Sitting there in the middle of the road, in the dark, in the gusting snow is making him very uncomfortable. Suddenly, the lights of the car in front of him go out! Now there is a tap on his window! The shadowy outline of a man is standing beside him! The driver lowered his window and said, “What’s going on? Is there a problem?” The other man replied, “That’s what I was going to ask you, buddy.” The driver, getting irritated said, “Well, you tell me. I’m not the one who stopped in the middle of the road and turned off his lights.” The man replied, “We’re not in the middle of the road. We’re in my driveway.” The driver of the second car followed the wrong leader. He wanted an easy to follow leader who could not take him where he needed to go.1 Who are you following? Where are you going?

        St. Paul talks about two kinds of people in his letter to the Ephesians,2 those who are wise and those who are unwise. Those who take the fruit of the light or follow the unfruitful works of darkness. One is a free gift, though it appears unappealing amongst all the choices available. The other one that dwells in darkness soothes you with pretty words that sound comforting and easy to follow and make you feel wise.

 There are only two kinds of people in this world. We see many different shades of skin, lots of different languages and live in hundreds of countries. Still, it all boils down to two: those we like and those we don’t. Too often, it is only the people who can help us out in some way or from whom we are able to gain something that fall into the category of “like.” Facebook isn’t the origin of giving someone a “like.” It’s just a public way of telling the world who you follow. Following what you like is as old as a specific ancient fruit tree. Who are you following? Where will you be when you get there? There are only two kinds of people in the world. Believers and unbelievers.

        In the mid-1820’s a brilliant, sixteen-year-old entered Brown University. After completing the requirements for his degree, he graduated with highest honors. The only thing wrong with a high-achieving university career was the influence his very best friend, an unbeliever, had over him. That friend had taught him how to mock Jesus and crack jokes about the Bible publicly. One day, the young man stopped at an inn. The innkeeper apologized for putting him in a room next to a man who was extremely ill, possibly dying. The young atheist smirked at the apology, for he had no fear of death.

        During the night, he heard the groans of his neighbor through the wall. “These are,” he thought to himself, “not groans of pain. They are whimpers of despair.” Trying to ignore the groans, he covered his head. He thought, “What would my friend think if he saw me so unsettled by someone’s death struggles?” The next day, with fake bravery, he asked about the condition of his neighbor. “Dead,” was the innkeeper’s short reply. “Do you know him?” asked the young man. “Of course, he was a graduate of big University and a young man with a bright future ahead of him. It’s a pity he died so young, for he would have made a big impact in the world.” The young man had heard the death cries of his atheist friend. With a faith kindled in him by the Holy Spirit, he realized, “So this is how an unbeliever dies.” At that moment the young man, Dr. Adoniram Judson, knew whom he would follow. He knew where he would go. With gladness, and for the rest of his life, he followed Jesus. Following Jesus brought him to prison for one of the world's most horrible seventeen months ever endured for the sake of the sharing the Gospel as a missionary in Myanmar.3 He certainly didn’t choose the easy path, but he had answered the questions “Where will you go? Whom will you follow?” He answered them correctly, because God gave him the answers in His word.

        Near the end of the Revolutionary War, Colonel Ethan Allen4,  of the Green Mountain Boys, was a respected leader, and a notorious unbeliever. He left his wife the job of teaching their daughter about Jesus and what He did for all of us on the cross. Eventually, the little girl fell ill. As her death approached, the father was summoned to her bedside. He arrived to hear her question: “Father,” she said, “I am about to die. Shall I believe what you have taught me, or shall I believe what Mother has taught?” It took only moments before the father replied. To them, it would have seemed forever as he contemplated her eternal soul. Calming his voice, he answered, “Believe what your mother has taught you.” When life is coming to an end, the questions “Where will you go? Whom will you follow?” can not be ignored. The answer to those questions determines heaven or hell.

        The Rev. Kenneth Klaus of Lutheran Hour Ministries told the story of making a sick visit to a man who didn’t know him. During the course of the conversation, He asked the sick man if he was a Christian. “I am.” The Pastor then asked, “What church do you belong to?” He said, “I belong to the church of the Savior.” Pastor Klaus decided to have some fun: “Yes, I know, but what is your persuasion?” The sick man’s reply came as a complete surprise to his visitor. He said, “What persuasion am I? Well, I am persuaded ‘that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’”5

 St. Paul writes to the Corinthians that “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”6 No one can believe in Jesus Christ by themselves. The Holy Spirit creates faith through the Gospel. Martin Luther says it simply in his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” I believe that by nature I’m that one type of person, an unbeliever, and I cannot make myself into the other kind. But the Holy Spirit has done that for me!

        St. Peter, who got so many things wrong and who said so many things poorly, got it exactly right this time! He, too, was persuaded that Jesus alone was the one to follow to the place he needs to be. Peter, speaking for every believer said: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”7 Amen.

May the peace which passes understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus

Kήρυξον τὸν λόγον

1Based on an illustration by Rev. Kenneth R. Klaus, speaker for Lutheran Hour Ministries, St. Louis, Missouri.

2Ephesians 5:6-21.

3Reese, Ed. The Life and Ministry of Adoniram Judson, www.truthfulwords.org, https://www.truthfulwords.org/biography/judsontw.html. (accessed August 13, 2018).

4Lossing, Benson. Ethan Allen & the Green Mountain Boys. Us-roots.org. http://www.us-roots.org/revolutionarywar/newhampshire/ethanallen.html (accessed August 12, 2018).

5Romans 8:38–39 (ESV).

6I Corinthians 2:14 (ESV).

7John 6:68–69 (ESV).