Where Else Can We Go?

Where else can we go?John 6:60-71John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 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. 64 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.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.IntroductionThere are a lot of things going on in this passage. There is offense and grumbling, disloyalty andbetrayal, and true belief and submission. Why did the majority of Jesus’s disciples in Capernaum leave Him at this point? Why did Judas stay? And why is Jesus sometimes hard to understand and for some people, hard to believe?This moment in John 6 would be a ministry-ending failure for most people. Can you imagine thescene? Suppose that after this service 90% of you just walked out never to return. Jesus doesn’tpanic, or try to talk them into staying. Why is He not concerned that His reputation and influence are in a death spiral, or even that a large number of people are making an eternal decision? He simply turns to The Twelve and asks, “Do you want to leave too?”Jesus is so submitted to the will of the Father, that He doesn’t take this personally. In thissituation a normal human reaction would be to succumb to making excuses, or belittling those who walked away or flattering those who stayed. Jesus’s security and worth are not tied to numbers or who follows Him or who doesn’t. Jesus knew from the beginning what the plan of God was, and He’s not swayed by human opinion, so this doesn’t faze Him.John 6 gives us a close-up view of the spiritual condition of this group of disciples, and how theysplit into three camps. A large group that that no longer walked with Him, a small group called The Twelve and one of The Twelve who was a deceitful betrayer.Those who no longer walked (v60-66). The disciples mentioned here would include the regular followers of Jesus in Capernaum and probably some that had followed Him from across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has just finished teaching in the synagogue, and so there’s probably anywhere from a few dozen to a couple hundred disciples interacting with Jesus when we get to verse 60.They said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” First of all, what does “this” refer to? It’smost likely the whole previous dialog summarized by, “I am the bread that came down fromheaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus’swords draw a line in the sand that the non-believers couldn’t cross and the betrayer couldn’t see. But, to be honest, Jesus’s statement that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood is very odd. Jesus made many statements recorded by John that sound strange, but their intent was to make the hearer think and to give a deeper, spiritual lesson. In John 3 Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again and it drew him into a meaningful conversation. John 4 tells about the disciples when they find Him at the well, and Jesus said “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” Which prompted the disciples to question each other about who had brought Him food. “Did you bring Him food? I didn’t bring Him food. Who brought Him food?” Then Jesus explains the spiritual meaning.In John 10 Jesus says, “he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.” This statement caused division. And in John 11 Jesus, speaking about Lazarus, says, “Our friend has fallen asleep.” And I would love to know the tone of voice when the disciples explain to Jesus that if he’s fallen asleep, he’ll wake up. Again, Jesus was making a much larger spiritual point about glorifying God.Remember the thread running through John 6: Jesus feeds the five thousand, then from thephysical food brings a spiritual point that He is the bread of life, and then in verse 53 provides the implication. Unless we eat the Bread of Life and drink His blood, that is to consume Jesus and totally identify with Him, we have no life in us. This is a hard statement.The word “hard” means offensive, not hard to understand. The same word is used in Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.” It’s translated in other places as harsh or cruel. When I was in my late twenties I got a job at an investment firm in downtown LA. My boss was a Christian man, and a very bright guy who had a masters in mathematics. He never missed a detail and was very direct and easily one of the best bosses I’ve ever had. Shortly after I started working for him, I took Linda down to see my office. Here I am, this twenty-something nobody and I had a window office on the 37th floor with a view from Beverly Hills to Dodger’s Stadium. It was amazing, and I wanted Linda to see it. So, while we were there she saw some programming code of mine on the desk (this was way back when people printed stuff), and there was a note in red pencil from my boss. The note said, “Check this out.” Now, being who I am, I read that as, “Whoa, this is genius code, check this out.” The way Linda read it was, “This is questionable. Check this out. David is in trouble.” And wouldn’t you know it? Linda was right. The literal words were hard for me to understand because of my bias.The Jews who heard Jesus’s words weren’t confused or misunderstanding like so many other times. This statement wasn’t hard to hear because they intellectually or theologically struggled to comprehend what Jesus meant. They understood what Jesus was saying and they were offended by His words. They were likely offended for multiple reasons, and up to this point the crowds were eating up Jesus. Just not in the spiritual sense.Jesus has exposed their values. He brought what they loved right to the surface. The people liked when Jesus healed them and fed them and talked about being their King, but when the rubber hit the road, it was His words and the expectation of all-or-nothing submission to Him as Almighty God in the flesh that they would not accept. “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” They rightly heard Jesus saying, “to truly be My disciple, you must submit to all that I say I am.”C.S. Lewis explains the choice that Jesus gives the disciples and to us, this way, “You must makeyour choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”Jesus was forcing His disciples’ hand. It was time to make a choice. We all have points where wemake relational choices about who we want to be associated with. And there are times, especially in the last year, when people made statements that likely caused you to say, “I can’t listen to this anymore.” Maybe you unfollowed someone on FB, IG, or my favorite, TikTok, because of what they believe. They’re Trumpers or not Trumpers or racist or maskers or anti-vaxxers or they’re really out there on the fringe of normalcy and drink Kombucha. Why did you make that decision to block or unfollow them? Most likely because they offended what you value, and the same thing is happening here in Capernaum. Jesus starts off providing physical food that people need for life, and then makes the analogy to needing spiritual food for eternal life. Jesus is that Bread of Life and to have eternal life you must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Which means that you believe that Jesus is the Word become flesh, and to have eternal life you must feed on Him and Him alone. This was offensive to many of the people following Jesus, and still is today.Jesus explains (v61–63)So, Jesus plainly asks the disciples if they take offense, but He already knows they do. As the most spiritually mature man ever, He could read a room. He could tell by their questions and attitudes that they were offended and grumbling.CS Lewis, again in Mere Christianity said, “We have lots of good advice from the many worldreligions. There has been no lack of good advice for the last four thousand years. A bit more makes no difference.”Jesus is not offering a bit more good advice. He is claiming to be God in the flesh and He knowsthis offends them and doesn’t appear to wait for their answer before asking His next question. Like so many other times, Jesus asks an absolutely brilliant question that very gently puts the issue of belief in the foreground. “What would it take for you to believe?” If you saw Me ascend to heaven, would that persuade you that My words are true? But there’s also an implication in the question that Jesus is God if He were to ascend “to where He was before,” and that He existed before His time on earth. Remember back in verse 58 when Jesus referred to Himself as the “bread that came down from heaven?” Would Jesus’s offer to prove His claim by ascending back to heaven humble them to believe? Jesus doesn’t wait for an answer to this question either, and explains in verse 63. The answer is No. Belief and life are from the Spirit, not the flesh.It doesn’t matter what miracles they might see. They would not come to believe based on having more information. Jesus makes a very similar statement in Luke 16 in the story of Lazarus and the rich man who both die. Lazarus is at Abraham’s side and the rich man is in torment and begs for Lazarus to be sent to his five brothers to warn them. Jesus said to the rich man, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” No matter what we see or hear it won’t convince us to believe, Belief and life are from the Spirit.The larger group of Jesus’s disciples were thinking of tangible, fleshly things. “Give us this breadforever” is exactly the wrong desire. They wanted to see more miracles, comfort now, provisionand security now, out from under Roman rule now. Jesus is saying those things are flesh and nohelp at all. What difference would it make if you got those things and still died an eternal death? The real help is His words which are spirit and life. To believe in Jesus and the things He did is good, but is not life-giving. We must consume the Word. Hopefully this sounds less strange now because it’s not new. Jeremiah said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.” This is eternal life, to delight in the incarnate Word and submit to His calling. If we will follow Him and believe Him and feast on Him then we will have eternal life with Him.Some do not believe (v64–65)Look back at verse 64. “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.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” There are some who will not believe no matter what is said, how it is said or the consequences of not believing. My words and your words are powerless to change a heart and mind. It does not matter how many facts you have or how clearly you articulate the reasons, your words will fall on deaf ears. The people here heard the very words of Jesus Himself and did not believe. And Jesus knew that from the beginning. And here we get a perfect picture of Jesus submitting to the will of the Father. He does not try to persuade people to believe, He does not change His tone or undraw the line in the sand. He submits to the fact that no one can follow Him unless it’s granted by the Father. It’s not even up to Jesus who follows Him and who doesn’t. And He lets His disciples know He knows this to protect their faith. To keep them from being overly discouraged that so many do not believe and one would even betray Him.So, why do many not believe? In John 3 Jesus says it’s because people love the darkness and do not want to come to the light, and multiple times in John 6 He says, “no one can come unless it is granted by the Father.” To put them together, everyone must choose to come out of the darkness and into the light and have their deeds exposed, but they cannot come unless it is granted to them. God is the One who decides. He is the initiator of belief.We could easily wonder how in the world Judas could be with Jesus day in and day out for twoyears by this time, and not believe. How is it possible that someone could see all the miracles and the compassion and the love of Jesus, and still not believe? How could Judas watch Jesus display such incredible zeal for God in cleansing the Temple, and healing a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years with a simple “Get up and walk” and not believe? The answer that God gives us through John is that it was not granted to him. There is no failure of Jesus’s works or words. Less than a year later, at the next Passover, Jesus would again say to the disciples, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’” Judas made his own choice to betray Jesus. He loved the darkness and was often looking for a way to benefit himself. Whether it was stealing from the moneybag, or later in ultimate betrayal when he negotiated a price with the chief priests. And yet at the same time, it was the devil who was prompting him along. John 13:2 “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him.” But even in this high-handed plot from the prince of darkness, God was allowing it and guiding every detail to fulfill His own will.Many walk away (v66)But the majority walked away. The phrase “turned back and no longer walked with Him”communicates a final decision. Some of His followers couldn’t take any more. We’re not told how many turned back, but verse 67 says it was all but The Twelve. Jesus isn’t bothered when most of the people following Him walk away. He is completely in sync with the will of God. Jesus is secure knowing that God is the only person He needs to please. He is like it says in Psalm 112, “He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.”This group of disciples who turned back would not accept what Jesus was offering, but let’s not be the ones to condemn them. There are probably many reasons why each individual made the choice to walk away. Have you ever noticed that understanding your own decisions and motives is very difficult? We very often cannot tell the difference between a fact and an opinion in our own mind. Or between a conviction and a preference. We even struggle to tell the difference between a spiritual gift and a personality attribute. And this first group of disciples couldn’t tell the difference between fleshly words and spiritual words, because God had not given them the ability to do so.But there are also many human reasons why people walk away from Jesus. You remember the rich, young ruler in Luke 18, “But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.” Then there was the one whom Jesus invited to follow Him and he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Or the people of the country of the Gadarenes. When Jesus healed the two demon-possessed men “all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave.” There are dozens of reason why people don’t want to follow Jesus.There’s a country-western song with the lyric, “I'd rather be on a lake with my mind on God than in church with my mind on fishin'” that has an odd ring of integrity to it. It’s saying, “I’m nohypocrite.” Unfortunately, it’s effectively walking away by saying, “I want God on my terms, notHis.” Bottom line, no matter what the stated reason is, the decision is made by everyone who takes offense and walks away that something else is more important than Jesus.The Twelve (v67-69)Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Do you want to go away as well?” There is no concern in Jesus as He asks this. Based on the grammar, there is no uncertainty what He expects the answer to be. Jesus knows who His true followers are. He is not asking this question for His benefit, but for the disciples’. Remember earlier in John 6, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Jesus asks questions to test and to teach. He gives us opportunities to think and decide. And I just completely love Peter’s answer, “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.”Here’s the heart of a true follower, a genuine believer. You know that there is no one else to follow. You know that Jesus’s words are eternal life, and no one else is even a second choice. Peter is certain, as he should be, that there isn’t even anyone else to consider. There’s nowhere else to go because Jesus is what Peter truly wants. Jesus is the Holy One of God. He is the special One, set apart from any other to save us from our sins and give us eternal life. Jesus’s words are spirit and life because He is the Holy One of God.John Piper, commenting on what it means to believe in Jesus said, “Belief is seeing him for who he really is, seeing him as infinitely valuable as the Son of God. It's not just acknowledging the fact that he is the Son but also seeing him as infinitely precious and valuable. We just want to know him, be with him, enjoy him, follow him, and celebrate him.”This belief in Jesus actually grows over time. It’s not all at once and done. Remember that two years earlier than where we are in John 6, Andrew said to his brother Peter, “We have found the Messiah.” They believed who Jesus was from the beginning, and as they saw Jesus turn water into wine and heal many and feed the five thousand, their belief increased. And yet, like us, they were not without setbacks and failures, but the belief and submission that Peter verbalizes was constant. We are all like the father of the demon-oppressed boy in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”One Who Was Going to Betray Him (v70-71)Jesus then singles out one of the Twelve in verse 70, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yetone of you is a devil.” And again, we see Jesus perfectly submitting to the Father even though He knows it will lead to His own betrayal and crucifixion.I’ve been in a lot of business meetings in my life, like more than I could ever count. Not once have I ever seen a leader identify a fraud within the inner circle and not do something about it. In 1780 when George Washington and Alexander Hamilton uncovered the plans of Benedict Arnold to betray the country and provide the British with a victory at West Point, they went to great lengths to hunt down Arnold and anyone associated with him because of the great harm that would have been done to the country.What harm would Judas, a devil, a slanderer, an adversary, do to Jesus? The honest answer is none, and in actuality Judas was an instrument of evil that God used to fulfill prophecy. Jesus knows the will of God and submits. He would even quote Psalm 41 at the next Passover and call out Judas, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” By calling out the one who would betray Him, Jesus is submitting to God, and He is also strengthening the faith of the other eleven disciples.How did the disciples make sense of Jesus cleansing the temple? They remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” How did they understand Jesus’s claim that if “this temple is destroyed, He would raise it up in three days?” After His resurrection, they remembered and believed the Scripture and the words of Jesus. Over and over Jesus makes statements that His followers don’t understand, but then can look back and remember and have their faith strengthened.Even in the darkest of times, God is trustworthy. Submission to His word and getting your spiritual food by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus is always the right path. Submitting is always the best way, no matter what the perceived consequences are.ApplicationI don’t think the disciples knew it at the time, but Jesus was preparing them and their faith for alifetime of following Him. He’s laying the foundation so that when the years ahead bring even more trials, they can remember Jesus’s words and know that the sovereign God who knows the beginning from the end has it all under control. When a large group of disciples abandons ship don’t be discouraged, the kingdom is not in jeopardy, but remember the sovereignty of God and that all to whom it is granted will come to Jesus. When we are tempted to doubt our own belief, remember that true belief simply stays with and submits to Jesus as the Holy One of God. And here in John 6, a little less than a year before His betrayal, Jesus is dropping pointers to God’s sovereignty so that when He is betrayed and crucified, the disciples can remember that He told them in advance.The future could have looked very fearful to the disciples. From their perspective, the ministry is in shambles, one of the twelve is a devil, and Jesus doesn’t seem to care about either one! But to Jesus, the future is precisely on track because He trusts in the sovereignty of God.So, how can we apply this passage? For sure, number one is to decide which camp you’re in. Those who walked away, those who truly believed in Jesus as the Holy One of God or the one who was just hanging around to see what he could get for himself. What is your response when Jesus says you must eat His flesh and drink His blood?And second, who will you go to when you need answers for life? Let’s be honest. This past year has been a little on the stressful side. With social unrest, a pandemic, multiple mass shootings, political animosity and a rapidly decaying ability to even know what’s true anymore, where will you go for the words that make sense of it all? And these big, public issues are on top of normal life sorrow and stress from jobs and finances and family.Where will we go for true words that comfort and encourage and strengthen? Will we stay with Jesus and say, “There’s nowhere else I want to go. You have the words I need most.” Jesus is the incarnate Word and His words are life.