At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
- John 6:41

In today’s passage, the crowds respond to Jesus’ assertion that he has some sort of divine origin, that he’s “from heaven.” They hear his claims about himself and respond with grumbling.

Jesus was controversial in his own day. When you read the Gospels, you don’t read stories about some sweet, nice, noncontroversial Jesus who was later hijacked by Paul and the later traditions. At various points throughout Jesus’ ministry we see him intentionally drawing lines in the sand and forks in the road. He forces people to choose.

George MacDonald put it this way: “A time comes to every man when he must obey, or make such refusal – and know it …”

What will we do with this controversial Jesus? Will we put him in a box? Or will we allow him to surprise us, shock us, challenge us and send us in new directions? He puts the choice before us almost every day.

Our challenge to you this week is to take some time each day to read in one of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Read a few pages, as you have time, and let Jesus challenge your preconceived notions of him. Allow him to challenge you to choose to follow him as he really is, and not as our drifting imaginations imagine him to be.