John 6:60-71
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64Yet 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. 65He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
66From 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.
68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
70Then 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.)
After the discussion on Jesus being the bread of life, many of His own followers found this hard to accept...They even said this is a hard teaching, who can accept this???...Instead of changing His message, His delivery, or His style, to gain or keep followers, He continues...It is not easy to follow Jesus...In fact, we are told in verse sixty six that many (not few) turned their backs on His message and no longer followed Him...
As this grumbling and discussion about Him being our bread of life, He continues with His teachings that are difficult...He asks those, who are there, "Does this offend you???...What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before!!!...The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing...The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life...Yet there are some who do not believe."...
Then He adds another hard teaching, by saying "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father had enabled him."...Jesus does not explain, what enabled means or is...He leaves His statement, as just that...
Jesus knew that many of these followers were to leave, but He also knew the Twelve would stay...Jesus asks the Twelve if they want to leave...Peter says where would they go...You (Jesus) have the words of eternal life...Peter then identifies Him as the Messiah...We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God...Jesus responds that this is why He has chosen the Twelve, yet one is the devil and will later betray Him (Judas)...
Jesus has many hard teachings...We are told He is the bread of life...If we come to Him, we will never go hungry...The Spirit is what gives life, not the flesh...Our flesh counts for nothing (these are His words, are flesh is not important to Him)...He wants us to understand the Spirit...The Spirit is the life...He says some of His listeners did not believe...No doubt some did not understand...But according to Jesus, the LORD has to "enable" us if we are to come to Him...No doubt this is hard to understand, and many will not accept it...We must pray that the Father helps us, with this enabling, and enables us to follow Jesus...
But Peter gives a good answer...Where else do we have to go, who else knows these words of the Spirit...What we are hearing is unusual, but we are hearing these words of eternal life...Even though we do not completely understand them, we have to have faith and believe that He is the Holy One of God...We also need to keep in mind, when Jesus was teaching the Pharisee Nicodemus, about the Spirit in chapter three of John...Nicodemus did not understand the Spirit and being born and reborn of the Spirit...Flesh only gives birth to flesh...But the Spirit gives birth to the Spirit...Nicodemus was Israeli's teacher and did not understand these things...So we too, may have trouble also learning and understanding these things about the Spirit...Jesus tells us we can only speak on things we know and understand...Man is limited and has limitations...
We must remember, Jesus knows all things...The words He speaks about the Spirit are words about eternal life...We can have this eternal life by faith...St. John tells us how: God so loves us and the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16)...