The Character of a Man by Bruce Marchiano

Author:Bruce Marchiano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Howard Publishing
Published: 2006-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

There’s another Jesus story I love that has to do with this same theme. It takes place during a peak in His ministry. He’s just finished feeding the five thousand, His name is spreading like wildfire, and every day is filled with throngs upon throngs. “And a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick” (John 6:2).

On this particular day, Jesus is in a Capernaum synagogue, surrounded by who knows how many. No doubt the apostles are excited. All those long days of preaching on street corners, being scorned and rejected, are finally behind them. The “Jesus mania” they’d fasted and prayed for is finally happening!

There’s great anticipation as Jesus rises to teach. The buzz rippling through the crowd turns to sudden quiet. Everyone leans in, not wanting to miss even one of His words: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me” (John 6:53-57).

Oh—my—goodness. “Eats my flesh”? Drinks my blood”? “My flesh is food”? “The one who feeds on me will live”?

In God’s holy Name—pun fully intended—what grisly horror is this Guy talking about?

As you and I look back through the glasses of so much teaching to what we know those words mean, we say, “Of course.” But imagine hearing them on that day. “The pews” got suddenly very empty. “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). So much for the great revival. So much for “Jesus mania.”

Again, Jesus knew. Again, He was no dummy. He knew that once He spoke those words, there would be few survivors, if any. He knew all that and then some— and He did it anyway.

After all, the truth is the truth, and sometimes that’s the price a guy has to pay to stand in truth. Sometimes that’s the price a guy has to pay to

speak truth,

uphold truth,

and day by day walk it out.

Sometimes that’s the price a guy has to pay to honor his God and live life in a way that truly pleases Him. Sometimes that’s what it costs for a man to be all the man he can possibly be.

To Jesus two thousand years ago, there was no gray zone. There was no flip-flopping about these things. There was no “Where’s the balance?” or “Yeah, but …” There was no “winning friends and influencing people,” no “fitting in,” no “getting ahead.”

To Jesus there was just

truth,

righteousness,

holiness.

There was just, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere” (Psalm 84:10).

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