Fulling Trusting Jesus

In John 6, Jesus preached about the necessity of “drinking his blood” and “eating his flesh” in order to have eternal life. Many of those following Jesus stopped following Jesus because of this difficult teaching. Jesus’ teaching didn’t fit with who they thought Jesus was or should be. Maybe they were hoping that Jesus would be the political messiah. Or maybe they felt that he should be just a moral teacher, not someone that claimed to be God. In any event, Jesus’ teachings didn’t make sense to them, and so they turned away.

For me, as for Peter, only Jesus is trustworthy. When Jesus asks the disciples if they, too, want to turn away, Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68. In my life, the Lord has again and again demonstrated that He is worthy of my trust. Dr. Larry Crab says, “When the lights go out, when our dreams shatter and there’s no way to piece them back together, that’s when our questions are most likely to change. No longer do we ask, “Am I right?” We realize we can’t be right enough to make things happen as we want. Instead we ask, “Whom do I trust?” Larry Crabb, Connecting (Word, 1997), 115.

In Matthew 14, Peter walks out on the water, despite the fact that Peter had no other earthly reason for trusting that Jesus would keep his head above water. Jehu Thomas Burton asks, “When we are at the end of our rope and the only remaining option is to trust Christ, will we step out? ...God wants to bring us to the point where there is no alternative but to trust Him… He desires for each of us to fall back on His arms.” Jehu Thomas Burton, Trusting God through Tears (Baker, 2000), 104.

Micah’s death has upped the ante. There’s no way to diversify the risk. We are “all in.” Not just me, and not just Micah, but all that Heather and I had hoped for in a lifetime with our son. All of that is vested in our trust of Jesus. We have no where else to turn; our only hope is trusting in Jesus.