John 6:60-71

The Words of Eternal Life

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘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.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.’ He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Here we read that Jesus’ disciples (the twelve and a larger group) say bluntly that all that Jesus has been saying is ‘difficult stuff’. I think we can agree with that. But we need to go further and ask in what way Jesus’ words are hard and demanding. It is not just that at times the words are metaphorical and abstract and make one’s brain ache to make sense of them. They are also demanding because they ask for believers to participate in Jesus’ sufferings and death. Jesus’ words had made a huge hole in many of the crowds’ worldview – they were not the words or the ideas they had expected of a Messiah. Their response was just not to think about what he was saying anymore. It was all too much.

Here we have a point of division in Jesus’ followers – many refused to go with him any longer, some hung uncomfortably around the fringes and the twelve (or should we say eleven?) continued with him.

Verses 62 and 63 are key to understanding all of what Jesus has said. It is the Spirit that will give eyesight to enable people to perceive what Jesus is talking about.

This passage shows that the reality of unbelief has to be taken seriously – Jesus lost a lot of his followers after this and he was to lose Judas in a more dramatic way.

Blessings as we pray that we might have the “eyesight” to see and accept this new reality of the spirit that Jesus is teaching us about.  Be safe!  Be well!  Yes, the Spirit has come!

  To Ponder:

• Predestination (the idea that God chooses who will be saved and who not) was a hot topic for the Wesleys and a real issue of division between them and Whitefield. Do you think that parts of this passage support the concept of predestination?
• In this passage we see that the reality of unbelief has to be taken seriously – not just ‘out there’ but within the community of Jesus’ followers. Where would we place ourselves in this narrative?