CRUNCH TIME

April 26, 2015

When Jesus stood before a group of people most of whom were regular followers and included his apostles, he must have taken a deep breath before uttering the fateful words: "Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you shall not have life within you."  He must have known what a bombshell that would be and it was.  Imagine the consternation of those people.  In our time people would think it was pretty creepy and be turned off and at that time many of them walked away.  Jesus knew it but it had to be said and so he said it.  When the dust settled few were left before him.  And in what was probably a sad voice he asked the disciples, "What about you?  Will you leave me too?"  Peter's answer was perfect, "Where would we go?"  In other words, we're in it for the long haul and we have seen and heard who you are and there is no other place for us.  I'm sure that strengthened the Lord.
Most of us have had crunch times like that in our lives.  There are a lot of expressions to cover it, like 'the die was cast', etc.  People who decide to leave school and disappoint their family, people who admit they are gay, people who make life changing decisions that will not be popular and on and on.
It would be easier if people understood that Christ, too experienced that trepidation but did not let that stop him.  Knowing that Christ is always present has sustained people since the beginning.  Think of Peter, a rough fisherman from Galilee taking on the whole Sanhedrin, or Paul entering strange towns and preaching to anyone who would listen.  All that courage came from total faith that they were not alone.  It can be the same for us.  We need only believe.