Then
Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” John 6:67
NLT
I
was wondering how could people leave the most expected person in history
they had an opportunity to see, the Messiah who was predicted thousands of
years ago by the prophets. The same Jesus came in flesh, dwelt among
the people and did so many miracles like never before, yet people chose not to
follow Him after a point of time, and the Bible says, "From that time
many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.". John
6:66 KJV.
If
you observe most of the people in the Bible came to Jesus when they
realized He could heal them from all their sickness, provide them with
good food, and most importantly had a wrong view that Jesus is going to
overthrow the Roman empire and form His own government. When their assumptions
were not becoming a reality, people walked with Jesus no more. For
some, when their needs were met, they failed to come back like in the case of
ten lepers being healed by Jesus but only one returned to thank him (Luke
17:17). Some thought Jesus can be used to solve the property issue among the
brothers and when Jesus hit back saying 'who made me a judge or arbitrator over
you?' I am sure they might have been disappointed too.
Don't
you think such reasons are so real even today? People come for all of their
personal reasons, basically they want to be made happy, in their language
blessed with good money, to live in abundance materialistically, all their
suffering to disappear immediately, sickness to go away immediately and want to
live long on this earth. And yes, they don't want their illusion about who
they are to fade. Most of us want to be good Christians without being reminded
about the responsibilities in the mission. Some are willing to throw some
offering and expect you to go happy. Is it all about Christ and His Mission?
In
addition to this I have listed some reasons why Christians are not
revolutionary and why they are like a season:
>
They are simply born in Christian family and become part of the system.
>
Being a Christian is just a compliance to meet Christian schedule which makes them
happy.
> For
some, the parents and others whom they respect were not able to model an exemplary life and in some cases their lives have not challenged them to be an effective witness.
>
Visiting God when there is a need and for personal blessings.
>
Many come for healing, once it is taken care they are gone. (Like in
the case of 10 lepers, 9 left)
>
Church going is only a ritual.
If
you heard this let me remind you once again, "For our forefather Church
was a commitment, for our father Church was an inheritance, for us Church is a
compliance, for our children Church is a nuisance." We all want our
situation to change - Receive healing, get a new job, persecution to
end, lockdown to be lifted. We all forget, God does not take these sufferings
away, He transforms them. Even Jesus wanted the cup of suffering (the
cross) to be removed, but God used it to transform the world. Many are used to
visit God for being blessed, with wrong connotation.
In
your journey to lead people some will just come with so much of excitement,
some with great commitment, some with dedication to serve along with you, soon
to realize all of their excitement has disappeared and they are done with
you. Today with modern social platform people have a better way of showing
their response. Some would ignore your message and some would never read it nor
respond. We have an option to follow and unfollow based on our convenience and
we use the same to follow Christ.
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