Spiritual Oxygen
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68
Eternal Life – Jesus asked the question, “Will you also go away?” It was a critical moment in the ministry. Many followers were leaving. The pathway Jesus proclaimed was just too harsh, too disturbing, too demanding. Jesus asked the twelve. “Is it too much for you too? Are you worn out by the practice of this discipleship? Do you want to leave?”
Simon Peter was the first to answer. “Where can we go?” Actually, there were a lot of places they could go. You and I know them very well. They could go back to their jobs. They could go back to their families and neighborhoods and calm, sustainable lives. They could just forget all this higher spirituality and return to “normal.” Or, they could take a vacation, a day off, a time out – just to think about things. Maybe they would decide just to hang around in case anything important happened, but stay on the edges so if things got worse, they could get out quickly. We all know every one of these possibilities because Jesus asks us the same question.
Peter’s answer does not overlook all these possibilities. But he isn’t leaving. Why? Because Peter is gasping for spiritual oxygen. He knows that if he leaves, he will suffocate to death. He will slowly lose his breath every time he goes fishing. He will choke just a bit more when he comes home in the evening. He’ll feel like an asthmatic when he joins in community worship. Why? Because just getting by is not living. It is dying, one breath at a time.
Peter stays because he knows (at least intuitively) that Jesus has words that are somehow connected to “eternal life.” The Greek is zoes aioniou. You recognize zoe, found in our word “zoology.” It means life as opposed to death, in particular, human life. Of course, this is critically important to Peter (and to us). But Peter is not interested in just living – going through the paces day after day until you finally are released from this prison. No, he wants life aion, a special kind of life not found anywhere else except with Jesus. Jesus has a lot to say about this kind of life. If you look in John 17, you will find that it has almost nothing to do with heaven (and our popular misconceptions). But Peter might not have known all that yet. What he does know is that zoological life on earth is pretty terrible. He is looking for a quality of living that transcends the normal temporal duration of day-in, day-out routine. He wants life that is tied to the aion, a Greek word for time that is not bound by ordinary temporal limits (like all life we know here on earth.) If Jesus can give us any clue about a different – a radically different – kind of life, then Peter wants to know.
So do I. I know what it’s like to be suffocating day after day. Do you? Do you want to know zoes aioniou too? Or would you rather just be “normal” while you trudge toward the grave?
If you want something radically different, then stick around. Jesus has a lot more to say.
