BE LED BY THE LIGHTHOUSE
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Opening Prayer
As I come to your Word today, Lord God, continue to teach me and help me be single-minded in pleasing you.
Read JOHN 6:60–71
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[a] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Footnotes
- John 6:63 Or are Spirit; or are spirit
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Stephen Covey tells of a radio conversation between the captain of a battleship and a signalman.2 Two ships seemed to be on a collision course … An argument takes place, with the signalman requesting the captain to adjust his course and the captain pulling rank and demanding that the signalman change course. The second ‘ship’ turns out to be a lighthouse! Naturally, the battleship must change course—or crash.
Many who claimed to be Jesus’ disciples balked at his teachings: ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ (v. 60). Despite their ‘grumbling’ (v. 61), Jesus remained immovable. It was not just that Jesus decided not to retract or dilute his words to make them more palatable, but also that he could not. His words, like that lighthouse, represent objective, unchanging, unalterable truth—words ‘full of the Spirit and life’ (v. 63)—because Jesus himself is ‘the truth.’3 But while Jesus is unchanging, he challenges us to keep changing—constantly adjusting our course and fine-tuning our conduct by aligning ourselves with his truths and values. Just as a lighthouse enables ships to navigate through treacherous waters and reach safe harbor, Jesus seeks to direct and redirect us to himself. Nevertheless, he respects our free will. Many of those disgruntled disciples ‘turned back and no longer followed him’ (v. 66), rejecting the life-giving bread from heaven and spurning his salvation (see yesterday’s reading).
Even the Twelve, who had been hand-picked by Jesus, had to make a choice: ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ (v. 67). Judas ultimately ignored the ‘lighthouse’ and chose a collision course (vv. 64, 70, 71; see also John 13:30). But Peter wanted to be led by the lighthouse: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’ (v. 68).
In examining your walk of faith, ask God to show you where there are areas that need to be changed and conformed to his will.
Closing prayer
Lord, shine your light into my life and show me areas in which I must ‘adjust’ my course. Help me to follow you with steadfast devotion, always in the center of your will.
1 John 8:12 2 Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Simon & Schuster, 2004), 33. 3 John 14:6
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