John 6:67

“Well,” Jesus asks the twelve, “You don’t want to leave me like all the others, do you?” John 6:67 EFP

I can almost see the pain in Jesus’ eyes as he sees the multitude dissipate.  He knows many of them are walking away from life!  They are rejecting eternal life today because Jesus is unwilling to meet their earthly expectations.  He loves these people.  Misguided, misinformed, self-centered and short-sighted, they are precious to him.  His crimson blood would someday soon be spilled on a craggy hill called Golgotha…for all of them.  But what about his band of brothers?  The twelve.

His heart is broken to see his sheep wandering off into the wilderness.  Then, for a moment, his breath is taken away when he turns and sees the uncertainty in the eyes of his closest earthly friends.  He looks deeply into their wavering hearts as the day unravels together with their crumbling expectations under the weight of their misplaced hopes in an earthly kingdom.  He could have asked, “Are you leaving too?”  He doesn’t.  His question reveals his bent, “You don’t want to leave, do you?”  He doesn’t want anyone to leave.  On my worst day he wants me to stay.  In my most shameful moment, he wants to embrace me and forgive me.  In my personal pit of pain and despair, he is there with me extending his loving and healing hand.  He is “God with me”!  Rather than being repelled by my choices, he asks me to stay.  I am not worthy of such love.