The journey of faith can be quite challenging at times.  One of the great challenges of our Christian journey is having to wait for God.  It would certainly be easier to remain faithful if we had the complete picture: if we were somehow provided with all of the answers to our existential questions about God and ourselves.  It would be so much easier to be a Christian if God would just make everything clear to us up front.  

But that’s not the way it works.  Our faith is about being in relationship.  We enter into a relationship with God and over time we come to know and understand who God is and who we are more and more.  Whether we like it or not, entering into this relationship requires faith and it requires patience and endurance on our parts. 

Our own relationships with each other serve as good, albeit imperfect, models of our relationship with God.  The marital relationship is a particularly good example in this case:  if a couple believes that they know everything there is to know about each other when they get married, they are in for a rude awakening down the line.  They can end up badly disillusioned when they discover things they did not know about each other and when certain expectations are not met, and in far too many cases they can end up going their separate ways.

This is essentially what happened with some of Jesus’ disciples, as we see in today’s gospel lesson.  Jesus had multiplied the bread and the fish and fed the 5,000, and went on to explain that he was bread given to them by God. Just as God had sent manna to his people wandering in the wilderness under Moses, so now he was sending manna to his people in the person of Jesus.  But many didn't understand. They were confused and bewildered by his words, especially when he told them they needed to eat his flesh and drink his blood to gain eternal life.  This was not what they expected when they became Jesus’ disciples. 

Many of Jesus’ disciples, including the twelve, were confused by these very new and strange ideas. And so a number of them reacted in a very human way. As we see in today’s Gospel lesson, they became disillusioned and instead of discussing their concerns with Jesus and the other disciples and waiting for more information, they turned their backs on Jesus and stopped being his disciples. Jesus’ words were difficult and offensive to them, so they returned to their previous way of being. Perhaps they simply ignored the teachings of Jesus after that, or perhaps they became sworn enemies - we don’t know.

What we do know is that they severed their relationship with Jesus and the twelve. They were not prepared to wait for further explanation and further revelation, so they simply walked away.

But look what they missed. They missed the greatest gift God has ever given to the world, the gift of his son. They missed the benefits of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross: the benefits of eternal life, of a life held and guided by God, of a love and a peace which passes all understanding.

Of course, they didn’t know all of that at the time – the crucifixion and resurrection hadn't yet happened. But Jesus goes on in this passage to hint about the treasures he has in store for those who believe in him.  He says, "It is the spirit that gives life; the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." But most of them didn't bother to listen, they just kept on going.

So Jesus asks his inner circle, the twelve, "What about you? Are you going to desert me as well?" And as usual, Simon Peter answers for them all, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

Even they still didn't completely understand, as becomes abundantly clear in later events, but they believed and they were willing to wait for the rest of the story. They were prepared to go in faith and to wait for further revelation to help them sort out the confusion and come to a deeper understanding of current events.   They took the risk of trusting in Jesus.

This is the risk that we are invited to take.  In various ways and along various paths, we have each entered into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.  Whether we knew it or not at the time, we entered this relationship with certain expectations and without a complete picture of what it would entail.  The journey of faith is exactly what it says:  it is a journey that begins in faith and continues in faith throughout a lifetime, without a full knowledge of God or ourselves.  Paul stated this very clearly in his first letter to the Corinthians:  “For Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully…”

There are and will be times when we are confused and even disillusioned on this journey of faith, especially if we ever think that we have all the answers.  Our expectations will not always be met.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God continues to reveal himself to us and there will continue to be surprises along the way; some wonderful, some not so wonderful.  Today’s gospel lesson presents us with two ways of responding:  there were those who, when confronted with the unexpected, turned their backs on Jesus and walked away; and there were those who, despite being confronted with the unexpected and despite their confusion, continued to trust God’s love and providence as revealed to them by Jesus.  Choosing this second way may not always be the easiest path or the path of least resistance, but our faith tells us it is undoubtedly the path to joy and peace.