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John 6:60-69
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Quite a few of our Reflections lately have been based on readings from Genesis, which were the lectionary Old Testament readings for those days. But if we had been using the lectionary gospel readings – which we do most of the time – we’d have been following a conversation in which Jesus describes himself as “the bread of life.” In that conversation, he has been telling his disciples that they needed to ‘eat his flesh and drink his blood.’
To us, as his followers 2,000 years down the road in Christian history, it seems pretty clear that Jesus was referring to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, which lots of us take part in at least once a month. But the Bible scholars say there was something else going on that isn’t so obvious: In the Aramaic language Jesus spoke, the idea of ‘bread’ represented spiritual nourishment as well as physical food.
But it seems that most of those who had been following Jesus took his words very literally. And in today’s reading, many of those disciples are so put off by what Jesus says that they turn away and stop following him.
That strikes us as a bit of an over-reaction. We have such a warm an comfortable feeling about the Lord’s Supper that it takes a conscious effort to remind ourselves of how disturbing this teaching would be if you were hearing it for the first time. Eating the flesh of Jesus would have been a gross and disgusting image to those who heard it. And you might remember that in the religious traditions of the Hebrew people, eating blood was strictly prohibited by the laws of Moses. So, since almost all of the original disciples were Jewish, it’s not surprising that the things Jesus said about eating his flesh and drinking his blood would drive away some of his followers.
But in today’s reading, Jesus makes two important points. The first is that what he has been saying is spiritual truth, not literally referring to his actual physical flesh. (Verse 63) The spiritual meaning of what Jesus had been saying is what matters. (And by the way, we should probably remember that there are differences in beliefs about the elements of communion among followers of Jesus even today. Most Protestants understand that Jesus is spiritually present in the elements of communion, but some others believe the elements are literally changed into the flesh and blood of Jesus.)
The second point Jesus makes is that not everyone who is exposed to his teachings will be drawn into full discipleship. Some will find those teachings too hard to understand, or too hard to live by. Some of those who have been following Jesus will turn and walk away.
At the end of the passage, Jesus turns to “the Twelve” – the apostles who were his most committed disciples. And Jesus asks them, “You do not want to leave me too, do you?”
It’s Peter who answers this question. He often seems to be the spokesman for the rest of the disciples. And we’re probably meant to understand that Peter speaks, not just for the bunch of Hebrew men and women standing around him that day, but also for every committed follower Jesus – including ourselves.
And what Peter says is probably the bottom line of today’s passage: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
You might notice that Peter doesn’t claim he and the other disciples understand Jesus perfectly. And he doesn’t say what Jesus says isn’t disturbing to them, as well. It probably was disturbing to them, just as it was to the others.
But in just a few words, Peter makes three important points. First, there is no alternative to Jesus – no one else was or is God in human form, so no one else has the same authority. Second, that the way to eternal life comes only through the teachings of Jesus. Peter and the others may not completely understand those teachings, but they somehow recognize them as the only way to eternal life. And third, they “believe and know” that Jesus is the one sent by God to announce that eternal life.
Peter’s words hold up a lens through which all of us who follow Jesus see him. We don’t completely understand everything he said, even though some might claim to. But we sense in our minds and hearts that there is nowhere else to go for truth with the same authority as the truth Jesus spoke. We believe that his words hold the secret of eternal life. And we believe – and somehow know – that Jesus represents God’s one-time intervention in human history to reconcile us to himself.
Let’s pray together. Lord, we can’t claim to understand everything that Jesus said. And some of it still disturbs us. But we acknowledge that there is nowhere else for us to turn for words of eternal life. Open our hearts to those words more and more each day. Let us understand them better and better, but even more important, let us be shaped by them more and more. Amen.
Blessings,
Henry
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