Have you ever been in a position where you got more than you bargained for?

It seems to happen to me every single time I start a home improvement project. I am not what one would call, “handy”. No, I can barely tell the difference between a hammer and a screwdriver. Yet, I try to fix things because that’s the reasonable thing to do. I research how on YouTube and think, “I can do this!” Then, I get into it and realize that it is not as easy or straightforward as the YouTube Pro made it look.

This also happens when I get involved in volunteering for things. Often, I find that what I sign up for is significantly more involved than I anticipated. Nine times out of ten this is due to my own assumptions and not really paying attention to what was being asked of me.

In both scenarios I find that once I’m in, walking away seems to be unreasonable.

After Jesus taught about the need to unite one’s life with his, we get this conversation with the disciples:

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 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. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.) John 6:60-70, NIV

The disciples were deeply challenged by the call to unite their lives with Jesus. They thought that they were following along with a Rabbi, a simple teacher. They could follow and learn and then perhaps they could in turn take what they learned and became rabbis themselves. But, this teaching to pursue union with Christ moving beyond simple table fellowship to a full union was more than they signed up for.

So, many left.

I think about the G.K. Chesterton quote often, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” This is exactly the reason the disciples who left offered. The teaching was simply too hard.

I get the sense that Jesus was gobsmacked. He simply could not fathom that these people would not want to pursue this life in the Spirit united with him. How could they not want to enjoy this life eternal that he was offering them?

I appreciate that Jesus is at one level differentiated, from the extended number of disciples. While he was certainly disappointed and surprised, he also didn’t take their leaving personally. He acknowledges that what he is calling people to is something beyond the normal scope of affairs, such that only the Father could enable them to join him.

Yet, while he doesn’t respond with desperation he also acknowledges the sting in his question to the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” I love that Jesus looks at his closest hoping beyond hope that they will stay with him.

Peter, though often maligned, absolutely seems to get it in his response. He knows that Jesus has the words of eternal life and so he speaks for the Twelve and declares they are with him because they have come to believe in his identity as “the Holy one of God.”

Following Jesus will give us more than we bargain. It is not easy to pursue union with Christ. As I consider my life and all the ways that I am utterly selfish and self-centered, I often wonder if I ever follow him. The way of Jesus is self-sacrificial. It is the way of the servant even in the midst of grief. It demands that I pursue a union of like-mindedness with Christ. As a result I have to set aside my own petty grievances, my small demands of vengeance, my own weak desires. I have to trade them for the words of eternal life that are rooted in the eternal sacrificial love of Christ.

Truly, this ideal is difficult, but where I else can I go? This Jesus has the words of eternal life and I have come to believe that he the Holy One of God.