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Last week, I had the opportunity to start a new college class on the life of Christ and His ministry. During class, one of the lectures that we covered was the event after the feeding of the five thousand, where the crowd follows Jesus to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Here He gives His well-known sermon to them, often titled the “bread of life” sermon.

As you most likely know, Jesus highlights in several different ways how He is ultimately the only true source for salvation and everlasting life. John 6:35 says, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” After Jesus preaches this famous sermon, I was intrigued to see the way the crowd responded to Him in verses 41 and 42. Verses 41–42 say, “The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?”

Instead of responding in faith to Jesus’ teachings and the miracles He was doing to ultimately point to His message of salvation, they opted to respond in doubt and disbelief due to their familiarity with who Jesus was. They struggled to trust in Jesus’ claim to be sent from heaven, due to knowing about and even witnessing His earthly upbringing with His earthly family. “Is this not the son of Mary and Joseph who we know?” Rather than seeing who Jesus truly was based on the teachings and evidences of His claims, they allowed for their familiarity to hinder their belief in Him.

As I thought through that, it begged the question for me: how often do I allow the familiarity I have with my pastors, spiritual leaders, and even Jesus Himself, hinder the influence that they and their discipling have on my life? How often do I let the familiarity of Sunday sermons cause me to view them as just another sermon from the pastor, or a challenging word from a spiritual leader as just another call to grow, rather than allowing it to change and shape my spiritual life? Familiarity with spiritual leaders in our lives isn’t a bad thing on its own, but when it causes us to view what they have to say to us as insignificant or “just what they always say,” then it becomes dangerous.

What Jesus was preaching to this crowd here in John 6 was definitely important. He was showing them that He, as the Son of God, is the Messiah who has come to bring salvation and eternal life to all who will trust and rely on Him as the bread of life. Instead of receiving this truth however, they allowed their familiarity with who they thought Jesus was (a Nazarene, a carpenter's son, the son of Joseph and Mary) to stop them from believing Jesus’ message as the Messiah sent from heaven.

Although we as followers of Jesus may not make that same mistake with Jesus Himself, I want to challenge us to reflect and be on guard against letting this happen in our hearts towards those who God has put in our lives as spiritual leaders. Whether it is your pastors, your parents as a young person, or any other discipler in your life, don’t let the familiarity you have with them cause you to diminish or even outright reject the truth that they are seeking to give you from God’s Word.

Even though Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary like this Jewish crowd said, who He was and what He had to say was so much more than just that, and yet they missed it. Don’t let your familiarity with the spiritual leaders in your life lessen the prominence of what they seek to communicate to you from God’s Word.

Serving Together,

Bro. Luke