To Sir

"So they said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.' Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.' " - John 6:34-35

While I think it's quite early, I'm starting to notice 'younger' members of our population (which I still think I am a part of) refer to me as 'Sir'. This includes such phrases as "Here is your change, 'sir'", "'Sir', would you like the extended warranty?" and "Excuse me 'sir'? I think you dropped this.". I think it's because I have three young kids. I may be by myself when they say that, but they must know, right? Because I'm certainly not old enough to be a 'sir'!

And when I read these two verses, I'm struck by the crowd's addressing of Jesus. They don't call him 'master', 'teacher' or 'Rabbi' like the Apostles - they call him 'sir'. It makes me wonder if - through everything they've seen, they still don't quite get who Jesus is. After all, if you met Jesus, I don't think you'd refer to him as anything but "Lord"!

But the people of Jesus's time are only seeing a part of who he is. They see some miracles first hand, hear about others second-hand, and hear his message about loving one another. But they don't quite understand why he's able to do the things he does. Why he has no fear of retribution by the Jews or the Romans for the things he says.

It's because he knows much more than they do, and knows he has to ease them into it. That it has to be a steady build-up to the ultimate sacrifice he's preparing to make - so when it happens, his whole mission will come together into one "aha!" moment for those he touched.

And maybe they'll think twice about referring to him as simply "sir"!