The Big Show

The Big Show
by Brodie Swisher

My eyes popped open this morning and quickly scanned the clock beside my bed. It was 5:30am, and my body was still in the groove of waking early to hit the woods in pursuit of whitetail deer. But with my buck tags punched, and the month of November now behind us, I could hardly muster up the mojo to rise long before daylight. The big show was now over. My heart and soul was longing for something else. I was ready to move on to other things. Chasing mountain lions, waterfowl, or wolves would now be the new focus of my time in the outdoors.

But isn’t it interesting the effect the month of November has on deer hunters?
I mean, it was just a few weeks ago that I was anxiously jumping out of bed, even before the alarm clock began to blare country music at my bedside, to head out for a few hours in the treestand. It was in those few, choice weeks of November that I would scramble to get my work done each day quick enough to run back to the woods to be in the stand for those last few hours before dark in the afternoon. The month of November brings the big show, the whitetail rut, for deer hunters and nobody wants to miss the big show!
But there I was lying in the bed, an hour and a half before the break of day, and the thought of punching one last doe tag wasn’t enough to pull me from the warmth of my bed. The big show was over.

At the church where I pastor, I just preached the last sermon in a series on being a true follower of Jesus. The text was a follow-up to the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in John 6. In that passage, Jesus has this huge crowd following him around because they were blown away by the fact that he fed them…thousands upon thousands of them…with just 5 loaves of bread and two fish. It was crazy! Had it been today, it would have been worthy of pay-per-view. It would have gone viral on Youtube. It was huge! It was the big show…and lots of people wanted to be a part of the big show. The passage goes on to state how Jesus later called the people out for being guilty of following Him just because He was feeding them and because they enjoyed the spectacle. He shared that they indeed needed more than just perishable food. They needed more than the big show. They needed Jesus. But the part that freaks me out the most is what comes in verse 66 of that chapter. After Jesus shares that He is the bread of life and that He is what they are really searching for, verse 66 says, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

Many no longer followed him. Sad! They were only after the show. When it came down to it, Jesus alone wasn’t enough for them. They moved on to the next big thing.

Is Jesus enough for you today? If you lose your job, your marriage, your kids, your home, your friends….is Jesus still enough?

When you get to the point where Jesus is all you have, you realize He is all you need.

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