Context No. 1815 of 4322 · John
Context · Reflection
John 6:60-65: in context
60Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life. 64But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe, and who it was who would betray him. 65He said, “For this cause I have said to you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.”
After Jesus has taught that he is the bread of life, that his followers must feed on him, many of his disciples recoil. This is a hard saying, they mutter; who can listen to it? Jesus, knowing their grumbling, asks, does this cause you to stumble? It is the Spirit who gives life; the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you, he says, do not believe. And from that time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
The turning point here is a hard saying. Jesus had taught something difficult, demanding, offensive to his hearers' sensibilities; and rather than wrestle with it or trust him through it, many of his disciples simply left. This is a hard saying, they said; who can listen to it? And they walked away, abandoning the one they had followed, because his teaching had become too difficult to accept. There is a warning here that touches all who would follow Christ. Some of his teachings are hard, demanding, or offensive to us, cutting against what we want to believe or how we want to live. And in the face of such hard sayings, there is a real temptation to do what these disciples did: to turn away, to abandon Christ over the teaching we cannot accept, to follow him only as far as he agrees with us and no further. The test of discipleship comes precisely at the hard sayings, the demands we would rather not hear, the truths that offend us. Will we turn back, or will we stay? The mark of genuine following is not that we find every teaching easy or agreeable, but that we hold onto Christ even through the hard sayings, trusting that his words, however difficult, are spirit and life. When many turned away, Jesus asked the twelve if they would leave too, and Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. That is the response of faith when the saying is hard: not to leave, having nowhere better to go and no better word to hear, but to stay with Christ even where his teaching is difficult, trusting that his words are life even when they are hard. The hard saying sifts the disciples; the question it puts to us is whether we will follow Christ only when it is easy, or hold onto him even when his word is hard to bear.
When Christ's teaching is hard, demanding, or offensive to what I want to believe or how I want to live, am I tempted to turn away as many disciples did over a hard saying, following him only as far as he agrees with me, or can I hold onto him even through the hard sayings, trusting that his words are spirit and life even when they are hard?