“You do not want to go away also, do you?”

John 6:43-71 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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.”

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.”

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.

Matthew 26:26-28 says:  While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”   In Luke 22:18-20 Jesus says:  “I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 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.” 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.”     In today’s text it says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  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.”  Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”  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.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 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.  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.”  These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.  Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”  But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe.”   The difficulty for the disciples to listen to and accept what Jesus said is rooted in that they were trying to understand a spiritual matter in natural terms. Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe.”   1 Corinthians 2:14 says:  A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.   Many people today also turn away from following Jesus because they reason only with their natural minds and cannot understand spiritual things.

Jesus was not speaking of actually eating human flesh and drinking human blood. He says:  “The bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh,” referring to His sacrifice on the cross, dying so that we can live. At the last Passover Supper, He instituted the remembrance of the New Covenant through the breaking of bread and drinking the cup of blessing. We do that in remembrance not that Jesus lived, but that He died for our sins. Under the Old Covenant, God promised to bless the people in response to their obedience to Him. Under the New Covenant it is no longer what we do, but what He did for us that brings about the blessing of God. We then, remembering what He did, respond to the blessing of God with obedience, under the New Covenant.   Jesus says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.”   Again though to believe, we must discern in the spirit. It is more than just a mental ascent, acknowledging that Jesus lived and died, believing means that we respond to Him in all that He says:  “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”   Believing in Jesus means that we abide in Him; that everything we do is in alignment with Him and His words. Many turned away from Jesus because what He said was difficult to accept and understand. Believing in Jesus means that we follow Him even in the difficult things that He says.

The text says:  As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”  Simon Peter answered Him, “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.”    Many today are also no longer walking with Jesus. For some they find His commandment to love even our enemies; to pray for those who persecute us, and to forgive those who have sinned against us, too difficult.   For some it is Jesus call to holiness and righteousness; the call repent and turn from sin; to deny self and follow and abide in Him, which is too difficult. Still some, like Peter, will say: “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.” 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit; I believe. May I never forget what Jesus did, that He died so that I could live. May I remember and respond to the blessing of Your love and grace in obedience to Your word and Your will. Thank You for the Bread of Life.  Amen.