After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?” Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”
(John 6:66-69 MSG)
It’s interesting how many people who don’t know you are willing to follow you on social media, and those who do know and follow you, are not really following you. I often get requests from people I don’t know who want to follow me on my personal social media account and due to privacy reasons, I decline their requests. And although I accept the requests of people I do know, it seems as though they’re only interested in gaining more followers and wanting to know what I’m up to. So I would much rather have a few followers who are really “following” me, who are connecting with me, than have many who are not.
In John chapter 6, many people were following Jesus. For the most part, it appears that the majority were only interested in His miracle-working power. After all, He had just fed five thousand of them. But the moment Jesus began to tell them who He really was-the Bread that came down from heaven-many were no longer interested in Him. “Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow”’ (John 6:60). In fact, many walked away. By the end of the chapter, Jesus is left with only twelve disciples, but they were the ones who continued to stick around and, except for Judas Iscariot, all of them proved to be His true followers.
Are you following Jesus, really following Him? Don’t just follow Him when it’s convenient or when He gives you what you want. Follow Him all the way.
Rising with the Son 