Jesus Gets Canceled

It feels, at times, like we are living in a different world.  When I was in middle school and I did something ridiculous people would laugh at me and make fun of me.  Some people might tell their friends and they might make fun of me too.  This would last a day or two at most because it would not take long for someone else to do something ridiculous and the attention would turn to them.  I could not imagine being in middle school today.  If you do something today it is caught on camera and goes viral.  No one ever forgets because there is a record of it.  

When I first started speaking if I messed up or said something controversial, the only people that knew about it were the people in the room.  Sometimes there was a tape recording or a video recording but if you wanted to hear or see it you had to go and get a copy.  You could not just click a button and share it with everyone.  If you are speaking today, and you say the wrong thing, it could go around the world in minutes.  You can forget about getting another opportunity.    

That brings up another interesting thing about the world we live in.  If someone makes a mistake, makes a bad choice, or just says something other people disagree with, there is no grace.  Society just cancels them.  It could be a celebrity, a politician, a minister, or anyone on social media.  People are quick to unfollow, unfriend, and smear other people.  

It feels like this is all a new phenomenon of our day, but it really is not.  Jesus was canceled over 2000 years ago.  In John 6, Jesus has healed a bunch of people, feds thousands with a small sack lunch, and taught in a way that captivated his audience.  As a result, the number of his followers is growing.  These are people that are literally following him.  They did not just click a button that said, "Follow".   

Jesus lets the people know that following him is not all rainbows and unicorns.  He starts talking about what it means to be a real follower of Jesus and the cost of discipleship, and just like that Jesus gets canceled. "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." (John 6:66).  The crowd gets so slim that he looks at his twelve main disciples and asks them if they are going to leave too. 

The next time your friend list goes down, or your number of followers drops, or that friend does not keep the streak going, remember, this cancel culture is not a new thing.  Jesus has already been down that road.  He also promised us that he would never unfriend us or unfollow us.

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