Flashback Episode — When Followers Lose Faith: John 6:60-71

If you have ever felt that following Jesus is hard, or perhaps even a little unrealistic at times, then you may be surprised to find out that you are not alone. It may also surprise you that this isn’t just a feeling people have in today’s modern, busy, technology-filled, Internet-connected world. On multiple occasions within the gospel narrative, large crowds abandoned following Jesus because He said something challenging or something they didn’t agree with.

I don’t claim to know or understand why Jesus pushed the crowds away, but periodically, perhaps if the crowd was getting a little too big, Jesus would go deeper and more challenging in what He was teaching – and almost always, He would say something that would ultimately push the crowd away. While I doubt Jesus was interested in pushing people away, I suspect Jesus would rather have devoted disciples over casual followers. I wonder if Jesus could sense the commitment level of the crowds that followed Him, and if a crowd had a shallow level of commitment, Jesus pushed them to either deepen their commitment, or to find someone else to follow.

Our passage for this episode comes immediately after Jesus has just pushed the crowd following Him in this way. Leading up to the verses we are focusing in on, Jesus has just finished talking about how people must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to gain eternal life. While we can understand that these two ideas are metaphors that echo the sacrificial system the Jewish religious culture was built on, either the crowd did not understand this connection or they believed this challenge was too difficult to apply into their lives.

Let’s read about what happened following Jesus sharing this teaching from the gospel of John, chapter 6, using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 60, John tells us that:

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 Then 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—they are full of the Spirit and 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.”

In this passage, both Jesus’ response to the disciples grumbling about what He was saying, and Simon Peter’s final response stand out as significant in my mind.

In Jesus’ response, which sounded weird to the disciples like it sounds weird to us living over 2,000 years later, we learn something interesting about human nature and about God. Jesus knew that His ministry on earth would end, but that would not stop His ministry at a whole. While some people might have pictured Jesus’ ministry ending when He ascended to heaven following the resurrection, several places in the New Testament frame Jesus’ ministry as not stopping. Instead, Jesus’ ministry shifted, or we could say that it changed focus slightly.

Perhaps some of Jesus’ followers at that time chose to follow simply because of the miracles He was doing, and/or perhaps it was because Jesus was a popular celebrity. These people followed the man Jesus, but they didn’t believe Him to be One with God – and One sent from God. These people would have been the first to be offended by Jesus’ claims and among the first to leave when Jesus shared something that challenged their viewpoint.

When we align our lives around believing in Jesus, this means that we must accept His sacrifice on our behalf. The flesh side of the discussion Jesus shared centers around Jesus’ death on the cross – which was foreshadowed for centuries in the sacrificing of an innocent lamb – and by “eating his flesh”, we are internalizing what He did for us on the cross.

The parallel metaphor of drinking Jesus’ blood, which is even more disturbing when stopping to think about it, means that we must accept Jesus’ life into ours. The blood of a living creature is one key that holds the creature’s life, and perhaps one reason why Jesus’ words here are so appalling to those in the crowd is because the Jews were commanded in Moses’ law to not eat any animal before first draining that animal’s blood.

Since Jesus appears to directly contradict what Moses commanded the nation of Israel to avoid, I suspect that there is a bigger truth Jesus wants His followers to learn.

In my opinion, Jesus challenges us through Moses’ law to not internalize any life that is based in a sin-filled world. Jesus came from Heaven to live a sinless life – so His life is the only life we should look to for getting strength for our own lives.

In some of the pagan cultures, they believed that if one drank the blood of an animal or an enemy, they would gain that animal or enemy’s strength and life essence. While I don’t think Jesus is trying to redeem and validate a very pagan practice, He may be alluding to it in a figurative sense. Jesus might simply be telling us that internalizing His life is the only way we will be able to have true life ourselves – and true life that leads to eternal life.

In Jesus words, we find the statement at the end of verse 63, “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”

I suspect that in this passage, Jesus is not speaking here of His physical body or physical blood. Instead, I suspect that Jesus wants to point us to the very real work of the Holy Spirit working through His life. Jesus’ words have creative, restorative, and life-giving power, and they are the essence of His ministry. The miracles and healing then become significant because they point us to pay attention to the message and the Messenger. The miracles lead us to the Messenger and His message, while the Messenger and His message bring us eternal life.

If one believes Jesus’ miracles to be the devil working or the result of a series of cleaver and deceptive tricks, then they can easily discount His entire ministry and message. But if God’s power is the only possible source behind a miracle, then that validates the message and the Messenger – even if it is challenging or difficult to believe. Through our belief in Jesus and what we think about Him, God is able to “enable” us to come to Jesus.

“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (v. 66)

In the minds of this crowd of followers, Jesus had stepped over the line. He might be from God, and God might support His ministry, but in their eyes, Jesus’ words at the conclusion of this sermon were too difficult to accept.

On seeing the crowd beginning to disperse, Jesus asks His twelve core followers in verse 67, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

Perhaps Jesus believed everyone would leave, or maybe He saw some confused or torn looks in the eyes of His closest followers. However, before too much silence had settled in the air, Simon Peter speaks up with one of His bold statements about Jesus in verses 68 and 69, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

In Peter’s mind, Jesus is It. Jesus is the One that God had promised. Jesus is the One that gives eternal life. Why look for anyone else? Peter’s track-record of faith was far from perfect, both in his past and in his future, but Peter has a clear head about the simple truth that Jesus is the Holy One of God, and regardless of what anyone else says or does, He is staying.

With this in mind as our episode is coming to a close, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to believe with Peter that Jesus is the Holy One of God. Be sure to study out this truth, from both the gospels as well as the rest of the Bible.

Also, as you pray and study the Bible for yourself, purposefully look for evidence of a God who created and loves each of us personally. While there is no shortage of opinions in the world about who God is, what He is like, and who Jesus is in relation to God, choose to base your opinion on what is shared in the Bible. The Bible has stood the test of time, and it is a reliable guide for understanding who God is and why Jesus came to this earth.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!