“This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”

John 6:43-71 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

⁴³ Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

Words to the Disciples

⁵⁹ These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

⁶⁰ Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? ⁶² What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. ⁶⁵ And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

Peter’s Confession of Faith

⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” ⁷¹ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.

In today's text Jesus continues His teaching that He is the bread of life. In verses 50-58 Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood as being the key to eternal life. Many of those who heard Jesus say these things didn't understand them and rejected both the teaching and Jesus Himself. As Jesus explains in the next verses, the reason they couldn't understand was that Jesus was speaking of spiritual things and they were trying to understand with their natural minds.

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? ⁶² What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.

Among those who rejected this teaching were those who had been drawn to Jesus because of the miraculous things He did. They sought and followed Jesus to participate in the miraculous blessings He brought.    Jesus also says:     “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”    Even today there are many who come to Jesus for what they can get, not through a spiritual revelation that He is Christ.

Jesus was not speaking of people literally eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He was speaking of those who would participate in the New Covenant He was establishing, the New Covenant He spoke of and enacted at the Last Supper with His disciples.

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁰ And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.Luke (22:19-20)

This was a spiritual principle and truth That Jesus was sharing. He spoke in advance of something He wanted them to do later in remembrance of Him. Jesus explains that no one can come to Him unless it has been granted by the Father. In order to understand spiritual things God the Father must draw us and reveal truth to us by the Holy Spirit. Those who are drawn, even to Jesus, by the things of the flesh or worldly material things will not truly stand with Him when the hard things come.  Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well.        "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

If we are to have eternal life with Jesus we must yield to the Holy Spirit within us. Only through the Spirit can we understand spiritual things. Only through the Holy Spirit, given by The Father and sent by Jesus, can we worship God in spirit and in truth. 

Jesus then asks a question of the twelve.   ⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”

Peter answers with a response I and every believer and follower of Christ needs to have come to believe and know.      ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

Through the revelation of the spirit, we have believed and come to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Holy One of God, and He alone has the words of eternal life.  It is a revelation, an understanding, a knowledge that comes from the Spirit. None of us can give that revelation to another. That's why we can't debate or convince anyone of the truth we have come to know. God uses the circumstances of our lives, both good and bad, to draw us to Himself, but the spiritual understanding the revelation of who Christ is as our personal Lord and Savior comes only through the Spirit.

It is that revelation of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that will allow us, no matter how difficult times become, whether in personal trials and tribulations or in the tribulations and persecutions of these last days we are living in, to say with Peter. 

 “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.  We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”   All that this world has to offer, it's best and it's worst is nothing in comparison to what we have in eternity with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Thank You. Amen.