Bread of Life

1Kings 19: 4-8
John 6: 35, 41-51

Would you recognize Jesus if you met him today?

Many Christians feel that they know who Jesus is and would recognize his presence if they met him. In our lives, there will be many times when we encounter Jesus and we may never realize we just had a brush with a holy presence. There will be other times when the presence is so powerful, that immediately we know Jesus and are changed by the encounter forever. This does not happen to everyone and so I ask again, how often do you recognize Jesus in your life? If you cannot recall an instance, let me share one of mine.

A few years back I was walking into a bookstore because I knew a new book was coming out by a favorite author. As I went to open the door, an older woman who was obviously down on her luck or even homeless stood beside it. She looked at me and asked softly, “Do you have any spare change?” I hesitated. I had a $20 bill on me and my debit card. No change, no ones, and that book was calling my name.

I looked at her, smiled and said, “When I come back out I will have some change to give you.” She looked at me for a moment and then nodded her head as I walked inside. Was it my imagination or was that disappointment in her eyes? When I came back out, with some ones clutched in my hand – she was gone and I didn’t see her anywhere along the many stores. I knew logically that management had probably asked her to leave, but I found myself sadly wondering if I just failed Jesus. Did I really need that book more than that woman needed $20? Why didn’t I just GIVE her that money? I was going to school to be a pastor; I’m supposed to be generous and loving, not selfish!

I have no idea if that was Jesus or not, but I do know that I failed that woman and myself that day. The irony of it all is that I rarely ever carried cash while I lived in Pittsburgh, but on THAT day I had a twenty dollar bill and so I had the ability to help. But I didn’t.

Jesus tells us the only way we will know God is through the one whom God sent. Jesus also tells us the only way to meet him is if God has drawn you to Jesus. For some of us, this means we will always believe that only Christians will get to heaven. It seems to me that this passage also tells us that God, who created every living person, will constantly try to draw us near to Him through Jesus no matter our religion, race, or creed.

We believe the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. So how do we recognize Jesus when we meet him? Here’s another encounter of the one who died for us all that I read about in SouthAsianConnection.com.

Her name was Indu who was a hardcore atheist. Her life had been full of pain and torment. Her parents were against religion and often told her not to believe in God and that religion was a waste of time. She was eight years old when she was raped and abused by a neighbor. She internalized her pain to such a point that at 14 she became severely depressed and suicidal. She started cutting her wrists, she hated herself, she felt empty inside and knew what a mess her life had become.

At 17, she gave up on life and tried hanging herself. When her friend found her the doctors estimate she had been without a pulse for at least 12 minutes and spent eleven days in a coma. She said it was during that time she met Jesus. She was in a beautiful place with wonderful music unlike any she had heard before when two angels approached her and said the Lord wanted to see her. Immediately, she was afraid and thought the Lord wanted to punish her. When he appeared she said she recognized Jesus’ voice, and immediately began to apologize for all she had done wrong.

Instead of appearing angry, he was concerned and caring. She said they talked for a long time while Jesus explained the purpose of life and that each person did have a purpose. Jesus told her the purpose was found through Him. Through her time spent with Jesus, she was given a reason to live. She said some people tell her that she didn’t really meet Jesus, that it was all a dream. She responded by saying, “If that is true, then how did I find a reason to live, healing from past hurts, childhood sexual abuse, bulimia, and depression? Wouldn’t I live the same way as before if it wasn’t real? These struggles do not just go away by coincidence. Her family and friends had noticed she’d changed. That’s the power of God.”

Indu’s story is one of many that I have heard. Some will believe her story, others never will. This person’s life was at an end, but Jesus gave her life back. There are so many ways to meet and know Jesus. Some of us will get fantastic experiences and others of us will meet Him in our normal routines. But each moment is a chance for us to change, to grow, to learn more about whom we are and why we are here on earth.

For us to recognize these encounters requires for us to be aware of what the bible says about the kind of person our Savior is and not just assume we know. All of us tend to have a picture in our heads of what Jesus looks, talks, and acts like. Usually that idea of Jesus stems from our own experiences with the world. What if Jesus showed up today and was nothing like you had always pictured him to be? How do we react when our Lord tries to show us there is more to him than we could ever imagine?

If we go back two thousand years, the Jewish leaders killed Jesus because they could not believe this simple man was THEIR Messiah. He was nothing like they had pictured or what they wanted from a Savior. They could not understand and so they hated him. Many of us think we know Jesus, but I think history has shown us that we only know parts of him. There is so much more to God than we could ever fully know or understand.

But Jesus does not give up on us. He continues to meet us where we are at in our faith and life, to help bring us closer to Him. Even our ideas about Christianity sometimes need to be updated by Jesus. Fifty years ago, women were not considered suitable pastors, and all Catholics were looked at with suspicion by Protestants. Our ideas about God and religion come from how we grew up and what we were taught. I urge you to pay close attention to the people God is introducing into your life, and the encounters you have with them.

It may just be that God is using the people around you to show you more about who Jesus is and Jesus is trying to help bring a purpose and peace to your life that you never experienced before. The only way to know for sure is to keep our eyes and hearts opened to the powerful love that is Jesus Christ.

Amen.