Just say yes.
That’s it.
That’s it? But what else? Surely that
can’t be it. What do you require of me?
What do I have to do? What do I
have to do for you? Tell me, please. I just want to know. God,
I love you. Please just tell me what I need to do to please you. To
glorify you. I want to serve you, to give my life to you, to follow
you. This is what I want, really God, just answer my prayer and show
me my calling for my life. show me what you want me to do.
But listen, Jesus says. Just stop what
you think is passionate praying and simply listen. Listen to
what He says. And don’t listen with your mind. Listen with your
heart.
I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the
Life. I AM. I.
So maybe like the Jews in John 6 who
have just seen Jesus multiply the 5 loaves and 2 fishes and now feel
desperate to follow this man, you ask Him “What must we do to do
the works God requires?” (6:28). You feel so desperate, so serious,
about how to learn from this great teacher, this miracle worker who
can heal cripples and provide food out of nothing for thousands.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to follow such a person? Of course! He can
do so many things. . . just think. . . think of all the things he
could do for me.
For me?
Hmmm, think about that for a moment. .
. do we follow Jesus because we are excited to see what He can do for
me?
Well, there’s nothing wrong with
that. I want to go to heaven, I want to know I have eternal life, I
want to have eternal security when I die, I want to know my life has
purpose.
Take a step back a moment from these
thoughts that we believe we have the right to have. Take a step back
and let us open our hearts to what Jesus says. What Jesus
wants for our lives. He says to the inquiring Jews in verse 29,
“The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”
But that didn’t answer their
question; they had wanted Him to tell them what to do in order
to follow them. So they rephrased their question: “What sign then
will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness” (v. 30) They want a
sign from Him, something they can see. Jesus then answers ‘It is
not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my
Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God
is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world.”
“Sir, give us this bread” the Jews
say. They still feel that they want Him. But do they really?
Jesus’ next statement reveals the truth. He declares “I AM THE
BREAD OF LIFE.” (v. 35) “Whoever comes to Me will never go
hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty. but as I
told you, you have seen me, and still you do not believe. . . my
Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in
Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last
day.”
Come to Me.
Believe in Me.
Look to Me.
Is this a “to do” list that Jesus
is giving them? Or merely an invitation to trust who He is? To trust
His sufficiency, His power to draw their souls, His Spirit, His life?
To eat of the true bread which is not a list of do’s and don’ts
but Jesus Himself? Just to take the plunge of simple faith . . . in
Jesus.
To just say “yes.”
Indeed, this is what Jesus wants
from us. This is all Jesus wants from us, is to say “yes.” Not
just to say it with our lips, which can be done by anyone, but to say
it with our whole hearts. The way you would say “Yes” to the
perfect Lover who loves us unfathomably and unconditionally, so much
more than any earthly love we have ever known or imagined. The way
you would say it, knowing that to say “yes” to this Lover is to
renounce forever all other lovers that have ever wooed our hearts,
especially His biggest rival. . . our very own selves. Yes. To
renounce our very selves. (“Whoever tries to keep his life will
lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”) Luke 17:33
Jesus’ call of love is that strong.
It must be that strong, that exclusive, that it would forever rescue
us from evil. “Arise, my darling, and come with ME.” (Song of
Solomon 3:10). Not with Me and all your other lovers. Not with me and
your selfish, sinful nature. But with Me alone. For I will purge you
of yourself and make you a new creature. . . a pure, sinless,
spotless virgin betrothed to Me. The righteousness will not be of
yourself, of your own purity or holiness, for THAT isn’t real
righteousness at all. But it will be the pure and holy covering of MY
blood with MY Spirit living in You.
The truth we must know is this. Unlike
the beautiful princess in Taylor Swift’s music video of “Love
Story,” we are not beautiful. We are not princesses. In
fact, there is absolutely nothing attractive about us at all, nothing
that would make the amazing Lover, Jesus, take notice of us in the
slightest. Only our sin --which makes us disgusting, worthy of
nothing but judgment and death.
We try to fix ourselves. We try to
improve. We try to go forward in our pursuit of Him, trying to do
things to get him to take notice of us, to make ourselves worthy of
Him. We try, like the Jews, to ask Him what we can do to please Him.
But Jesus does not want us to choose doing things instead of His
grace. If we do so, we by default are choosing ourselves. “I do not
set aside the grace of God,” Paul says, “for if righteous could
be gained through the law (doing things), Christ died for nothing.”
(Galatians 2:21). Asking what we can do to please Him is to insult
(as well as reject) the boundless grace with which He reaches out to
us freely. (for the sake of our own self love)
The invitation, nonetheless, still
extends out to us in the midst of our sin. It’s an invitation from
the King of Kings. It’s an invitation to take His hand and leave
the dirty kingdom of ourselves and enter the Kingdom of Life in His
Spirit. An invitation that doesn’t require us to do anything. That
doesn’t want us to do anything. Just Jesus speaking quietly to our
hearts, “Say yes.”
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