Jesus

Dr Iain Jamieson August 12, 2021 0 2

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John 6: 35, 41-51 (NIVUK)

35 Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ 42 They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I came down from heaven”?’

43 ‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered. 44 ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: “They will all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’

There’s a thing we do in neurolinguistic programming called “modelling”. Now, without going into enormous detail, this is basically to say that we can learn and change and grow if we can “model” ourselves on someone we perceive of having all the qualities we wish we had.

Once you start to focus on what that person is and does, their values, then you can grow to be more like them, still you but improved. You see, in modelling, we tend to focus on the ‘best’ of the person we have chosen. It’s not really them. It’s our image of them — so we end up being ourselves again just changed for the better qualities we have seen in others. It’s also a good way to learn new skills and improve those you already have — Graeme Duffin take note, whenever I play music with you I end up being a better player at the end of it. Dunno about the hair though man — it could do with work…

As Christians we are de facto followers of Christ. Jesus is the ultimate template — the very Son of God — he changed the whole universe. Now, I would submit that if you’re going to model yourself on anyone he’s probably a pretty good fit.

It’s hard to model, because we need to let go of ego, our own righteousness, our own cleverness so that we can start to take on board another view, another form.

Little children begin modelling from birth, Let the Children come unto me for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

You get the picture.

The grumblers in this passage didn’t really get Jesus did they? They were clouded by preconceptions and they didn’t really “see” him. If you let your preconceptions guide you, you’ll never model anything, because you won’t really “see” anything.

My prayer for everyone would be that our eyes would be open to really “see” Jesus. He’s the mould, we can but be clay.

PRAYER:

Lord let me model myself in you

Reveal yourself to me and in that revelation guide all the days of my life

For in you is the kingdom, the power and the glory Amen.