John 6:60-66 -- When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Jesus had lovingly and patiently taught the crowd repeatedly what the bread of life was. He explained multiple times He spoke of eternal and spiritual things, not temporal and physical. Yet they argued and hinted He was talking about cannibalism. So, He pushes further with the metaphor of drinking His blood and eating His flesh, to hammer home, just like real bread physically, if you don't receive the Bread of Life into you, then you will not have life eternal.
Let's be real though, on the surface what He said here is startling and radical. I mean drink my blood and eat my flesh? Those who try to simply humanize Jesus and say He was a mere prophet and teacher of love, obviously skipped this part. What He says is radical, but that's if you don't know Him. Us believers today, have the miraculous benefit of holding the complete Bible in our hands. We can fully see and understand Jesus was talking of His sacrifice and death on the cross. These people…. They didn't get it. However, if they'd used the scriptures, they did have to know God better, instead of using it to make more rules, and live hypocritically, they could have better understood.
Up until now, we have been seeing the reaction and arguing from the crowd and religious Jews. We see after Jesus' radical statement it is now His disciples who speak up. "This is a hard saying…who can listen to it?". The word "hard" in the Greek is sklēros and means hard, harsh, rough, violent, offensive, intolerable.
It's easy to label people into categories. We've got "Crowd", "Religious Jews", and "Disciples". Crowd and Religious = Bad. Disciples = Good. However, after Jesus' final statement we now see labels mean nothing. There is no good, bad, or even ugly. They ALL must take in and process what Jesus said.
Also, to clarify something disciple in the Greek is mathētēs and means: a learner, pupil, one who follows one's teaching. Remember back in John chapter four it said Jesus had more disciples than John the Baptist? Well, as we're finding out, just because someone follows Him around, studies Him, listens to Him, does things for Him, doesn't mean anything if they haven't truly received Him for who He is, and walk with Him to know Him. Today we see that "MANY" of his disciples turned and walked away.
My grandpa told me a story about World War II once. He said in training they had an officer who screamed at them all the time and called them boys. When they shipped over to France the officer told them, "Now we're gonna separate the men from the boys.". It wasn't long after the officer shot himself in the foot so he could return home.
Why do I tell that story here?
Because if you really stop and read Jesus' words here in chapter six and don't skip over them, you're confronted with some tough things. You're now on notice that carrying the bread of life around, knowing about it, serving it, seeing it, doesn't bring you eternal life. You see there is no difference between selfish crowds, religious hypocrites, and eager disciples. None of your labels, words, deeds, service, giving, or knowledge, will ever fill you spiritually and without truly receiving the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, it ends in death. I'd say this is spiritually the equivalent of showing up to the frontlines in France.
Don't take my word on any of it. Be the Berean and get into your Bible and read for yourself.
Side Note: Today's picture was the patch of my Grandpa's division. He was 3rd Army, 89th Infantry Division. They were called, the "Rolling W" division.
You are loved. You are prayed over. You are not alone.
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