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We are all being taught by God. Jesus cited that in one of the lessons from John's gospel we have heard on the last four Sundays. We have been taught. We have learned. Today we have the final exam. The gospel poses a number of questions. They seem to be rhetorical, asked simply for effect. No answer seems to be expected. But how successful would a student be who, seeing his final examination, looks up and says to the instructor, "I assume all these questions are rhetorical"?

Are you ready? Give answers to the following questions. The first is raised by some in the crowd of followers around Jesus. They may have been among those who, like us, have been with Jesus since he first distributed the bread and fish to the thousands. With them we have learned that Jesus is the prophet greater than Moses. With them, we have heard Jesus tell us that he is a great deal more significant than the manna of Moses as well. He is "the bread of God which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." The third thing we have learned along with them is that Jesus is God in the flesh giving himself for the world. The last lesson taught to us last Sunday was this: Jesus Christ gives us his flesh and blood to eat and to drink in the Sacrament. By this gift he abides in us and we in him.

These were the lessons which prompted the first question. Some in the class said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" Rhetorical, of course. Or it could have been their way of saying, "We certainly can't accept it." In any case the question is ours to answer. "Who can accept his teaching?" Answer: "We can. We can accept it." This is no true or false exam. Explain your answer. How can you? How can you believe such claims by this man? He is the son of Mary. His father is Joseph the carpenter. How can you, why do you, accept Jesus as the Son of God? How can you believe that he came from heaven to be friend and savior?

It is amazing, isn't it? Amazing that we believe what he taught. You have heard people say, "I wish I could have a faith like yours. I wish I could be as sure as you seem to be that there is a God who cares, a God who will see one through evil and trouble, who promises a happy life after death."

We're all in this exam together. We can talk to each other during the test. Most of us began to believe when we were infants. Before we knew it, we believed. Before we could understand the questions, we knew the answers. Baptism's water is a washing of rebirth. We were indeed born anew at our baptizing, born as children of God, accepted by God and accepting God and all God's works and ways. More than that. What God's Spirit began with water, the Spirit continued with words. We learned from parents, pastors, teachers, all these difficult-to-believe things, and the Spirit sealed our faith by hearing. Enough on question one. Who can accept it? We can, because as Jesus says here, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."

The second question comes from the Lord: "Does this offend you?" He is asking us about all that he has been claiming about himself. Phillips phrases the question: "Is this too much for you?" Raymond Brown translates it, "Does it shake your faith?" Many of us can answer quickly, "No," and be ready to go on to the next question. But this is indeed a difficult one. Some of you on the fringe of the Church, some even in the center pews, will admit that you find much of this difficult to accept. No doubt Jesus must say of this crowd as he did of that one, "Among you are some who do not believe." Jesus knew Judas and yet called him to be a disciple. He calls each one of us. And he can be very persuasive. Think again of what he tells of himself. "I am God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the divine Trinity. I was born of the virgin Mary by a miraculous overshadowing by the Spirit. I grew up as a boy and then a man, but I was always also the Son of God. Is this too much for you?"

Jesus asks another question to help you rise above your doubts: "What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?" What do we say? Perhaps it helped them to see Jesus suddenly be lifted up out of their sight, to see him disappear into a cloud. But we have only read the report. That's one of the difficult things to believe, all this "up" and "down" talk. Is that reasonable for our scientific age?

Is it too much for you? Then answer, "Yes." That is not a wrong answer. It throws you now. So? We must all be taught of God. Stay in God's school. Hear Jesus remind you, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." We whose faith is not shaken can assure you that God does want you to be able to grasp all this. God certainly put himself out in sending the Son to earth. God will surely not want all that effort to be wasted. If God did it, God surely will want us to know he did it. The Spirit is God's follow-through. The Spirit is even now teaching you by this word. "It is the Spirit that gives life," Jesus says in this text, "the flesh is useless." That is our Lord's way of urging you to realize God knows the answers. Use your head and don't exaggerate your brains. Realize your common sense would obviously not apply to God's uncommonly divine wisdom and God's one-of-a-kind action.

Now to the rest of us, to us who count ourselves among the believing disciples. The next question is, "Do you also wish to go away?" Don't answer too quickly. It's not so simple. Many who once were followers have indeed left off this following. Jesus asks, "Do you also wish to go away?" Think about it as asking you, "Will you? Will you, too, go away?"

It is a potentially frightening fact that while only the heavenly Father can draw us, every one of us can withdraw. Go away. After one of the twelve betrayed him, all the remaining eleven fled. It is an equally comforting fact that all eleven were drawn back and were thereafter faithful unto death. Of course, most of them were martyred. If the question is phrased, "Will you also go away?" we would have to answer, "Yes and no." Out of sad experience, we realize we have gone away. And out of confident trust we say, "Though all others become deserters...I will never desert you" (Matthew 26:43). Hear the cock crow? That is exactly what Peter said. At best we can be only cautiously confident about ourselves. But we can be confident about God, and we can say in the words of Philippians 1:6: "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work [in me] will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ."

"Do you wish to go away?" We answer that question with a firm, "No! I do not wish to go away." Now, quote it to yourself: "If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride." Get on your horse and faithfully "continue in his word," continue in "the apostles' teaching and fellowship" and "in breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). The issue here is really what this exam was all about. Some no longer went about with him because they said the teaching of Jesus was difficult. We who do not wish to go away take the opposite approach. Because what our Lord expects is difficult, therefore we will stay close; we will always go about with him. We will receive him as he gives himself to us. He will abide in us and we will abide in him.

Now the final exam's final question. Simon Peter asked it after the Lord's query, "Do you also wish to go away?" He asked, "Lord, to whom can we go?" Would we be shocked if we heard the Lord interrupt and say, "You can go to hell"? But that alternative is right there in John 3:16: "perish," remember? God loved the world so that not everyone would perish, not be lost. That's not the answer we want to hear or to give. Try some other "go" phrases. "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see what has taken place." The shepherds were wise men. And so was Simon Peter and so were all these disciples. They were "wise unto salvation." They could say, "We have come; we have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. You have the words of eternal life."

Where can we go? Try another.

Go to dark Gethsemane ...
Follow to the judgment hall ...
Calvary's mournful mountain climb ...

But don't stop there. Go to Joseph's garden.

Early hasten to the tomb ...
Christ is ris'n! He meets our eyes.
Savior, teach us so to rise.
("Go To Dark Gethsemane," James Montgomery)


Then the truly final stanza, to pass the test with flying colors!

When we on that final journey go
That Christ is for us preparing,
We'll gather in song, our hearts aglow,
All joy of the heavens sharing.
And walk in the light of God's own place,
With angels his name adoring.
("O Day Full Of Grace," N.F.S. Grundtvig)