Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
America is a can-do, individualistic, Protestant Work Ethic kind of country. It is what set it apart from the rest of the world in the 20th century. We really like to be able to say, I did it myself. Jesus encountered the same thing in this discourse with his disciples, who reacted like good Americans. Jesus, with these verses, took control and completely relegated people to the saving grace of God, not the pulling work of their bootstraps. Many of them rejected him in verse 66.
The world is changing before our eyes. The Protestant Work Ethic is not as prevalent as it once was. People still look to themselves but not as many want to do it themselves. Increasingly, they would just as rather someone did it for them. Jesus can help there too. Mostly, people just want to be in control of their lives instead of yielding control to Jesus. They would rather save themselves than rely on a saving God to save them. To both sets of people, Jesus says that only those he chose are those he will raise up. The control is his. It is best to surrender.
Dear Lord, thank you for taking the guesswork out of salvation. You choose us for salvation and will raise us up. Praise the Lord! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church