Knowing The Word in John:

It is said that soft teaching produces hard people and that hard teaching produces soft people, especially when it comes to teaching about sin and grace, which are the two main theological points in this discourse on the bread of life. Jesus’ primary concern has been truth, not numbers, faithfulness, not popularity. Jesus pushes away far more people than he converts, getting an “F” in contemporary church marketing! Perhaps all that these Galileans have heard for years is soft teaching, because they cannot relate to Jesus. They are hard people with a combative spirit. They need hearts of flesh, but they have hearts of stone. Their response to Jesus’ teaching is decidedly negative, and many turn away from him.

As in his encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus turns to the Spirit to explain receptivity to the life of the kingdom offered by Jesus. It is the Spirit who changes hearts from stone to flesh, from unbelief to belief in Jesus.

While most of us would be overwhelmed by such a substantial loss of followers, Jesus is not. Instead he turns to his small group of twelve to see what they are thinking. As typical, Peter answers for the group. He knows there is nowhere else to go. Jesus is uniquely God’s. They all believe in him—that is all but Judas, who will betray him. It must have been a difficult day at the synagogue for these disciples, and this debriefing session reassured them that Jesus was not giving up on them. They were chosen by him, and he has promised not to lose any who come to him.

60 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. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Prayer: How do you respond to Jesus’ hard words? Do they lead you into the heart of the kingdom of heaven or in a different direction? Ask the Spirit to work on your heart, drawing you deeper into eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.