Real One

“You’re a real one.”

If someone says that to you, it’s a compliment. In essence, it means that you are loyal, dependable, and authentic. And in a world that’s replete with fake, disingenuous people, we are grateful when we encounter real ones. We long for real people in our lives. We desire real friends, real spouses, real pastors, real co-workers, real bosses. These real ones are few and far between, but the value they add to our lives is worth the effort it takes to look for them.

But has it ever occurred to us that God is looking for real ones too?

I began thinking about this after reading a chapter in the book of John the other day. John 6:1-15 describes how Jesus miraculously fed over 5,000 people with only two fish and five loaves of bread. Like many of us, these folks really enjoyed free food! In fact, these people were so happy about what Jesus had done that they wanted to make him their king at that moment; but Jesus slipped away into the hills by Himself.

That’s not the end of the story, though, because some of those well-fed people went looking for Jesus. But when they found Him this time, in John 6:25-65, He was giving out knowledge instead of food. His words were very confusing to the people. Jesus said things like this:

“I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” John 6: 53-55 (NIV)

Eat His flesh?

Drink His blood?

Was Jesus telling them to become some sort of cannibals or vampires?

No, no—not at all!

Today, from our vantage point, we know that Jesus was not speaking literally. In essence, He was saying that His sacrificial death for the world's sins would be the gateway to eternal life for all who would believe in Him. Many of us have participated in communion services through which we remember Jesus’ sacrifice by eating bread or crackers (which symbolize His body that was crushed for us) and drinking wine or grape juice (that symbolize His blood that He shed for us). But the people in this text didn’t understand Jesus. They were confused and likely appalled by His words. And do you know what happened next? Verse 65 states it plainly:

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

In my prayer time, I asked Jesus,

“Why did You say all that stuff about eating Your flesh and drinking Your blood?

Why didn’t You phrase it some other way or explain it?

Didn’t You know that You would lose that big crowd of followers You had?”

After being silent for a little while, He allowed me to realize something:

God was not looking for big crowds. God was looking for true hearts.

And the same is true today. God isn’t after popularity. God is after hearts. Your heart. My heart. The heart of anyone who will believe in Him.

God is looking for real ones.

What’s the best way to learn if God truly has our hearts, and to learn if we’re truly real ones? It is when we continue following Him even when we can’t fully understand Him, can’t control Him, and can’t get Him to do everything we want Him to do.

Think about it. Imagine that following Jesus meant we all got perfect health, fairytale relationships, and plenty of money in the bank. And on top of that, we could eat all the bread and desserts we wanted without gaining weight.

Who would not want to follow Jesus?! Everyone would join Team Jesus!

But we wouldn’t be following Him out of love. We’d be following Him out of convenience. We’d be following Him for what He could do for us, not for who He is.

We’d be after His hand, not His heart.

If we are Christ followers today, a time will come (if it hasn’t already) when we won’t understand something that God says or does or allows in our lives. And it’s during those times of disappointment and confusion and hurt that we will find out if we are real ones. We just read that many people turned back and no longer followed Jesus once He stepped outside of their expectations.

Will we turn back like those people in the text? Or will we be like the real ones?

We find the real ones in John 6:67-69 (NIV):

“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.”

Peter’s response to Jesus has helped me in some of my deepest, darkest moments, and I pray it will encourage you too. You see, in our moments of despair, when we feel disillusioned by what God has allowed, we can be tempted to turn away from God. We may not announce it on social media or do anything dramatic. But in our hearts, we can be tempted to shun God because He did not do what we wanted or expected Him to do. In those moments, it is very important that we ask questions like the one Peter asked:

If I’m not going to follow Jesus, where will I go? Who or what will I follow?

Notice Peter’s next statement in the Scripture above:

“You [Jesus] have the words of eternal life.”

My friend, if we turn away from Jesus, we will turn to something else. And there are plenty of things to which we can turn to numb our pain—relationships, food, sex, shopping, alcohol, complaining, binging on Netflix or other forms of entertainment, and the list goes on.

But which of these things can offer eternal life?

Which of these things can heal our hearts?

Which of these things can fill the void we have in our souls?

None of them.

Only Jesus.

Real ones stick with Jesus, even when life hurts.

We can’t be perfect ones, my friend. But let’s be real ones.

Your Sister-Friend,

Leah