Jesus had announced “I Am the Bread of Life” to the crowds
who were following Him, the vast majority of whom were Jewish people. Among them there was that category of “ruling” Jews - the religious leaders who were
negative to His person and His message, and diligently looking for some reason
to eliminate Him from Israel.
John 6:41 So the Jews
grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from
heaven.”
Among the favorite pastimes of The Jews was grumbling;
finding fault with anyone and anything that differed from their oppressive
religion. They knew the Mosaic Law, and like people of all generations who have
been drilled in legalism, it was difficult for them simply to listen and learn
from God the Son as He introduced Himself and His kingdom to them. They were
thinking a phrase or two ahead of Him, making comparisons in their minds and
mentally formulating their arguments against whatever He was going to tell
them. Their mindset was always about power struggle. For Jesus, there was no struggle,
for He IS all power. What He had to tell them was absolute truth, but they
wanted a debate. They murmured among themselves (“who does this upstart think
he is? We KNOW him and his whole family!”).
John 6:42 They said,
“Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How
does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
John 6:43-45 Jesus
answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who
sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will
all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes
to me—
Here’s the truth: anyone with positive volition (a willingness to learn) toward the
Father will recognize and believe the Son. To claim faith in God the Father but
reject the deity of God the Son belies knowledge of the Father. God’s criterion
for faith: “love Me, love My Son. Reject My Son, you have rejected Me.”
Furthermore, if you desire to know the Father, He directs you toward the Son.
You’d never get there on your own. Once you have believed the Son, however, you
are His for keeps and He is in charge of your resurrection. This is the most basic Bible doctrine. If you don't know Jesus, you don't know the Father. Consequently, you don't know anything about God's plan.
John 6:46 not that
anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
Only one human has ever seen the Father. Jesus Christ, Who
lived in heaven before coming to the earth has seen the Father. That’s because
they are one being.
John 6:47 Truly,
truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
“Truly, truly” means
point of doctrine: listen carefully to what I am telling you. Jesus just kept
saying it: “whoever believes has
(present and future reality) eternal
life. He added nothing. No human works. If you believe in ME, you HAVE
eternal life.
John 6:48-51 I am
the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and
not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone
eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for
the life of the world is my flesh.”
The miraculous manna their fathers ate in the wilderness for
40 years was for physical sustenance in a desert land where they couldn’t find
proper food. God provided that every day, as their daily provision, to teach
them to rely on Him for their every need. They ate that daily and they died
physically, as all humans are going to do, each in our own time. Jesus,
however, came to provide eternal life and spiritual food for any and all who will believe on
Him. Taking in this spiritual food guarantees one will never die again, spiritually,
but will forever share the eternal life of God the Son. And just what is this
food Jesus gives? His very own perfect flesh! Jesus’ flesh is pure, true
humanity in which there is no sin. His is the only humanity that could ever
qualify to purchase our salvation, and He gave it willingly for us.
John 6:52-59 The Jews
then disputed among themselves, 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 you. Whoever
feeds on 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. Whoever
feeds on 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 whoever feeds on me, he also
will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like
the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live
forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Oh, my! What have we here? Cannibalism? This man tells us he
is God and then tells us we must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have
eternal life! What a disgusting thing to say. EEEWWW!
Here’s the reality: those who were hearing Jesus and had positive volition toward Him were not at all turned off by those words. To the
ones who are positive to Him and His Life, those words make perfect sense,
because they have already begun to realize this is not just a mortal man, and
by His teaching we will find the truth of God. Stay. Listen. Hang on. He is
giving us truth. We cannot entirely grasp it just yet, but we know it has
spiritual connotation and it is something we desperately need. We know, because
we are willing to believe this man, that he is not offering to cut off pieces of
his physical flesh for us to eat. He is offering us what only He can give: His
perfect person and His perfect work.
I know these things because that is exactly the position I was
in at about age 20, when I read these words in my King James Bible, and it did
not turn me off, but made me realize the profound sacrifice the Son of God was
making for me; for us. I could interpret it from post-cross knowledge, however,
and those Jews did not yet know what Jesus’ human destiny would be, even though He knew they would be the instigators of it.
John 6:60-65 When many
of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to
it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about
this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see
the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 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. 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.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can
come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
So the general crowds were confused, the Jews were just
negative and hostile, and then there were His attentive disciples, who had hung
on His every word, and they also were somewhat shocked. He always knew who
would receive Him and who would not. There were both categories in this group,
even though up to this point, they had all been caught up in the excitement
this Man generated. The negative ones began to drift away, offended by His
graphic statements. He tried to spell out to them that He was speaking about
spiritual things, but of course they didn’t get it. That’s because they didn't really want it. They had been along for the ride.
John 6:66-67 After
this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus
said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
Jesus’ words (“hard saying”) had culled the herd. To stay
with Him now meant true faith in Him and in His purpose. Only the Twelve
remained, and He offered them the option: “do you also want to leave?”
This brought me, personally to my moment of salvation. Peter’s
answer to our Lord still resonates in me when I read or remember them. John 6:68-69:
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
This was my awakening and my ecstasy. “to whom shall I go?”
There is no other plan. No one else is offering me eternal life. I have
believed, and now I know that You are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:70-71 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.
Our omniscient Lord knew in eternity past who would follow
him and what each person’s motivation would be. Some follow for a while, but
never really know or believe Him. We don’t know their reasons, but He does. His
words to us about eating His flesh and drinking His blood are analogous to
saving faith in His sinless person (flesh - no old sin nature) and His perfect
work (blood - spiritual death on the cross). The hostile unbelievers over-reacted to the analogy, and do today. Only those who believe Him are
given the spiritual comprehension to love those words. Those who reject Him cannot.
