John 6: 14-21

The people were about to take Jesus and make him king by force. The disciples started across the sea to Capernaum in the evening without him. The people were planning to come to him in order to cease him for their own purposes. The disciples were comfortable leaving him behind. Which is worse?

Beatrice used to give generous Christmas presents to her several grandchildren, but the kids never sent thank-you notes, despite the urgings of their respective parents. But then one year, things changed. Grandma sent a hundred-dollar Christmas check to each grandchild. The very next day, each child came over in person to thank her. She was telling this to a friend of hers, who said, “How wonderful! What do you think caused them to become so polite?” “Oh,” said Beatrice, “it was easy. This year I didn’t sign the checks.” The grandkids had to come. They needed grand mom’s authorizing signature on their checks. After the feeding of the five thousand at the beginning of the sixth chapter of John, the people began to believe Jesus had great authority, great enough to establish an earthly kingdom to oppose the other earthly kingdoms of the day.

So much of this has to do with the authority of Jesus. Jesus does not exercise authority over the will of the people who want to make him king. We never see or read of a wave of his hand and pointing of his finger to control the minds and hearts of people. He withdraws from them to avoid being manipulated by their distorted view of Jesus’ mission and purpose in the world. The people wanted to capture him to do their will, create an earthly kingdom to destroy the kingdoms that corral or incarcerate the spirits and hearts of the people of Judah. Jesus, in response to what he discerned, withdrew to the mountain by himself. The mountain symbolizes biblically the presence and power of God.

It’s important we understand the authority of Jesus. An old Henny Youngman joke goes like this: “I have a very fine doctor. If you can’t afford the operation, he touches up the x-rays.” Jesus shows his authority over creation, but he doesn’t manipulate and brainwash human beings to be his followers. He displayed the will of the Father, the kingdom of God in his earthly ministry in words and deeds, in declarations of grace and truth and in the miraculous to set those enslaved by demonic forces free and to heal the sick and infirmed. How people interpreted his authority and how they would like to see such authority destroy the kingdoms of this world was what caused him to withdraw to the mountain. Henny’s doctor would manipulate the x-rays to make him feel better. Jesus wasn’t about to manipulate the people seeking him, but he wasn’t about to be manipulated by them either.

When the Lord Jesus Christ enters our lives and conveys to us we’re loved with an eternal, faithful love that cleanses us, forgives us and sets us free from all guilt and shame, makes us born again by the Spirit, there’s a natural reaction on our part – there’s no one and nothing like him! Do you remember those days when you were new in your faith in Jesus Christ? Again, there’s nothing like him, and you were willing on some level to give yourself freely to whatever he would want you to do  even if you’re the one who makes stuff up to do for Jesus’ glory, as I would say, “feed the naked and clothe the hungry.” There was a beehive of energy and passion for the Lord to do for him or tell your story of meeting him or giving yourself away in service to whoever would receive what you’d offer. You were in love. That’s what it was. These people were in love with “the prophet who is come into the world.” They were overwhelmed by his compassion for them, and they were in love, too, with their nation and wanted him to set all the people free from all the ghastly regimes and kingdoms that afflicted their world. Jesus withdrew from that. This wasn’t playful, childish, gleeful affection for Jesus. This was dangerous, immature emotion that wanted to distort the mission of Christ and make him an earthly potentate to attack Rome and all oppressors of the people. This was the spirit of Judas Iscariot, and this wasn’t and isn’t Jesus’ mission.

When we want God to hear our pleas for our flesh and blood enemies to be destroyed by divine action, it ought to make sense for us now that God is not likely to answer such pleas. From the sermon on the MOUNTAIN in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons/children of your Father in heaven. (Matt 5: 43-45a)” They wanted to take him by force to make him king, but he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

That evening the disciples leave him behind and begin to cross the Sea of Galilee and head toward Capernaum. These verses we read and heard today construct an informative interaction of Jesus with the crowd following him and his disciples. He withdrew from the overly zealous, misguided crowd that wanted an earthly king with divine power, and he sought after his friends caught in a storm using his miraculous authority to rescue them. These verses, I believe, ought to capture our attention about where we are and where we want Jesus to be in our lives. When we want Jesus to do everything on our agenda of passions and bigotries, to protect our friends and family but condemn our enemies and rivals, we mirror the desires of the people wanting him to be king. He withdrew from them. When we are his friends and learners, though we go about our daily journeys like getting in a boat and going to Capernaum, we know he’ll draw close to us because we’ve repeatedly experienced his faithful love for us. He’s the one we can trust to come and display his authority, if necessary, for our good. He’s the one we can trust to be our Shepherd, our Lord, our Savior, our comforter and our friend. He’s the one to still our storms and relieve us of our fears. We don’t need an earthly king, a manipulator of our minds and emotions. We have all we need in our Savior, our Lord Jesus.

(Preached at Lincoln UMC in Lincoln, AL, July 25, 2021)