John 6:35-71
The Bread of Life
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
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.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Following Jesus was not and is not an easy task...After all, the people of His time thought (and He was) a carpenter from Galilee...Who could have guessed, what following Him would mean?...He literally changes lives, so those who joined Him, had to be shocked by Him...And I think many would be in awe of Him...He was different... I am sure most people who heard Him speak, and looked into His eyes saw His Divine Charisma...Then they could have and would have seen, heard, and thought something was unique and great about Him...Yet, at the same time God, is such a humble and subtle God, that He can do miracles right in front of us, and we can miss them...He is that great...I think this happened to those who left Him and His Disciples...The Greatest and Most Unique Man ever to walk the earth was deserted by many...How odd is that?...
But God, as I said, is so Almighty that He can do miracles in front of us and we do not see them or we overlook them...Many thought that He was our Messiah...But they thought the Messiah would be a conquering King for Israel, and wipe out the Roman Empire in their country...He might come down and destroy all evil...The Messiah could rid the world of all suffering and pain...But Jesus somehow did not meet the expectations of the disciples who left Him...Devout believers want to say at this point, how can this be, why would they leave their Messiah?...But God gives us free choice and free will in our daily lives, and we do for the most part what we want in decisions like this (on leaving Jesus)...And God has created our minds in such a fashion, that we want to know many things of the current day going on around us...And it seems man likes patterns and the same things in his life...We do not like change all that much...So those disciples who left, probably had other things in their lives, and busy days ahead on earth (in their usual daily routines)...
Had He been this great military leader or king these people who left were expecting -they probably would have stayed...But He was a different type Man...He did not come to rid the nation of Israel of the Romans and their enemies...And as the Greatest Preacher and Teacher ever to walk the earth, He did not get rid of the sin and evil in the world...Sin and evil both remained after He died on the cross...Sin and evil remained even after He was resurrected...And sin and evil remains here today...He came to the world to talk to sinners and save them...Jesus gives us someone to go to when we sin, and when we are in trouble...Yet, when we have sinned, or are in trouble and need His help, we do not always feel it, or see the Big Picture, or God's Plan...We have to trust the Son of Man, and that is a very hard teaching...And many of us will turn and no longer follow Him, when we do not get what we want, or things do not turn out as we expected, or sometimes when we just don't understand (Him)...Maybe, all He showed for His Disciples and for His followers who stayed with Him, is that they (and we) always have someone to turn to from this day until eternity -if we believe in Him and His Father...And if cannot understand that then, we are lost, and will not have an everlasting life...And then we have no where else to go...If we do not believe we have no One to turn to...
Jesus shows us who we are...He shows us what our potential can be...He shows us what our lives can really be like...He teaches us that our lives are much more than ourselves and our families...He wants us to not only love His Father, but also those who need help, like the widows and lepers, and the blind of His time...No one has seen the Father, but the One who He sent...Jesus has this unique relationship with His Father...Those who believe He is the Holy One of God, know He possesses the Words of Eternal Life...We can always turn to Him in our good times and our bad times...