The Spirit gives life

John 6: 31 - 70

31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”​35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Take decision is a hard thing, but keeping the decision is harder; it doesn't matter the area, marriage, leadership, business, or faith, it's always hard to make good decisions and keep them until their last consequences. In her book, Unthinkable, reporter Amanda Ripley investigated why some people survive disasters, and others don't. After examining fires, floods, hurricanes, and airplane crashes, interviewing dozens of survivors, she found three phases on the journey from danger to safety: denial, deliberation,n and what she calls "the decisive moment." Unfortunately, many people don't make it to that final phase-the decisive moment. They don't decide to act. But as an example of the third stage, Ripley tells the story of Paul Heck, a man who knew how to act when his decisive moment came. On March 27, 1977, the 65 year-old Mr. Heck and his wife were sitting on a Pan Am 747 awaiting takeoff when an incoming plane hurtled through the fog at 160 miles per hour and slammed into the Hecks' plane. The collision sheared the top off the 747 and set the plane on fire. Most of the 396 passengers onboard froze. Even Heck's wife, Floy, would later report that her mind "went blank" and she felt like "a zombie." But Paul Heck went into action mode. He unbuckled his seatbelt, grabbed his wife's hand, said "Follow me," and then led her through a hole on the left side of the aircraft. In an interview after the disaster, Mr. Heck noted how most people just sat in their seats, acting like everything was fine, even after colliding with another plane and seeing the cabin fill with smoke. But Heck also noted that before takeoff, he had studied the 747's safety diagram. When the crisis came, Heck knew it was a decisive moment. He was prepared to decide and head for the only exit that was available to him.

In John 6: verses from 31 to 70 we arrive to the top of the speech about the Bread of Life, now we find the disciples gossiping about Jesus and He new it from the very beginning even Jesus confronted them but not in a simple way, instead, He appealed to His divine nature saying that the most important thing for them to be aware was the fact that from where He was coming from, in referral to the heaven; then He reaffirmed the statement saying The Spirit gives life in reference to the fact that they ate as consequence of the miracle that Himself had done but the real food was more that physical but spiritual and He highlighted the fact that the word that He had spoken were full of Spirit and life. Then, Jesus confronted them, denouncing the fact that some of them did not believe, even though they were following Him. Jesus knew that from the very beginning, even He knew who would betray Him, Jesus reaffirmed the statement that no one can come to Him unless the Father has enabled them. This speech marked a milestone for Jesus's ministry because after this moment, a lot of followers stopped following him; they turned back and no longer followed Him. The peak of the mountain for the passage is contained in the confrontation that Jesus had with the 12 apostles,  saying to them: you do not want to leave too, do you? And the wise answer given by Peter, saying: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, but Jesus closed the passage reaffirming Have I not chosen you...Yet one of you is a devil... such a sad confession coming from the Lord.

This last part of the long speech on the bread of life in chapter 6 of John contains the epilogue and the reaction of various interested groups to the speech. In the face of Jesus' words, a profound crisis of faith begins to emerge. Jesus' words are scandalous not only for the Jews, prototypes of unbelief according to John, but for many disciples who had followed Jesus with a weak faith. Jesus has disappointed the hopes of many "religious" men, but He will never disappoint those of believers. 

In general, the problem is not about accepting or not eating Jesus' flesh," this does not directly concern the problem for real, since this idea is absent from the speech. It is the whole discourse that is shocking, and the final formula: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man... This discourse was intended to show how the presence of Jesus the Saviour is the core of the message and the only way to build something valid in the process of faith. The Jews were more interested in the prodigies than in the person of Jesus.

The life-giving power of the flesh of Christ is linked to the role of the Spirit. If it were only a question of the flesh, there would be no production of life. John here reveals the source of Jesus' humanity: this special being of Jesus in the circle of the divine, this beginning already to be a son from now on. To accept the Jesus of history as the path of access to God is to have the guarantees of reaching the experience of the totality of Christ. That is to be a Son. Faith that does not resist the scandal caused by the person of Jesus is insufficient and ultimately vain. For this reason, those who abandon Jesus are digging their own grave.

True faith, by contrast, is unreserved adherence to the one whose words promise and communicate life, to the one who has the guarantee of being God's messenger (cf. 10:36; 17:17-19). This scene recalls the confession at Caesarea (Mt 16:16-23). Here, Peter has suffered the Father's attraction and becomes the interpreter of those who consider faith in Jesus as a possibility of life. To turn sincerely to Jesus in this way is already the beginning of authentic faith.

As a child, Jack's father was a horse trainer who frequently had to move from ranch-to-ranch training horses. Because of this, the boy's school career was constantly interrupted. During his senior year, the teacher asked him to write about what he wanted to be when he grew up. Without hesitating, Jack wrote a paper about his goal to own a horse ranch. He was very meticulous in his writing and included drawings of buildings, stables, and even a detailed house plan. Two days later, his teacher returned his paper with "F" written on the top page. Jack asked his teacher why he received an F, to which the teacher responded: "This is an unrealistic dream for a boy like you, who has no money, no resources, and who comes from a traveling family. There is no chance you will reach this goal." The teacher then offered Jack a chance to rewrite the paper with a more realistic attitude. After several days, Jack brought the paper back to his teacher without any changes. He said, "Keep the Faith, and I will keep my dream." Now Jack owns a 200-acre horse ranch and a 4,000 square-foot house, where he displays his school paper framed over the fireplace.

For the apostles, their decision to endure in Jesus faith until the end was a critical aspect of their lives even they paid the price for this decision giving their lives as martyrs for the early church, but now we talk about them as heroes for the gospel because they built the bases for the Christianity through the history even for us now, it means, in the God's plan, our decision represent the evidence of the Spirit in us, because when we are weak in our selves we can be strong in Him; the power to resist, to persevere is not something contained in our human nature but in His presence in us. We can keep our decisions to endure in Him, being supported in prayer and dedicating our lives to community holiness, so that, as a body, the entire church can be edified in faith and love for Jesus Christ our Lord. Some people are followers but not all of them are believers, some people can follow a cause for different reasons but just a little segment can persevere in this cause until the last consequences, the only way to see done a dream is enduring and standing by this cause, not always is easy but the strengths come from our eternal father and His spirit gives us eternal life.