2nd Tuesday of Lent (March 3). Whoever

Prepare to Listen.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
 
Prayerfully Read John 6:41-51
41Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  42They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?  How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”  43Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves.  44No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day.  45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.  46Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.  47Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.  48I am the bread of life.  49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  51I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
 
Prayerfully Wonder
Jesus’ teaching unsettled the Jews (an unidentified group mostly opposed to him).  They’re back, complaining about, and not to Jesus.  He dared to call himself the “bread of heaven,” equating himself with the manna from God given to the Jews during their wilderness wanderings.  Since they knew who Jesus’ parents were, he couldn’t be “the bread of heaven.”
 
Jesus rebuked them: Stop complaining and stop limiting the kingdom to people like you!  Their problem with Jesus was that all sorts of people were coming to him.  He didn’t demand obedience or belief.  Whoever came was welcomed.  Whoever, all and sundry.  They came because they were “drawn by the Father who sent” him.  It wasn’t up to the Jews.  It was all of God, fulfillment of the prophet who said, “And they shall all be taught by God” (Isaiah 54:13).
 
Again, Jesus claimed “I am the bread of life.”  The ancestors of those complaining Jews ate the bread from heaven and died.  Those who ‘eat’ Jesus, the living bread, will never die.  Whoever believes, whoever eats has eternal life.  Believing is eating.  The bread Jesus gives is his flesh and it is given “for the life of the world,” not just a few isolated individuals, but the world, that is whoever.
 
How welcoming are you and/or your faith community of the whoever, especially when they’re very different to your group?  If change needs to happen, what can you do to help?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, guard me from becoming like those who opposed you because you welcomed whoever.  Help me be as welcoming as you, even with those so very different in every way to me.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Welcome whoever.