John 6:59-71 Jesus has the words of life
What do we do when God doesn’t meet our expectations? In this passage the answer of the many is to turn away from him, stop following him, stop asking him for anything. The crowd really liked the actions of Jesus but were not as thrilled about his teaching. It is still the same today. The crowd thinks that being “Christian” means being nice and giving but they stop their ears at the preaching of sin and death and repentance and justification. And in many ways because they can’t stand the call to repentance they have stopped asking the church for anything instead calling on new gods of science or government or ‘spirituality’ to meet their needs. (2Timothy 4:1-5)
2 Corinthians 2:15-16 because of Christ we are the sweet smell of God to those who are being saved and to those who are perishing. To those who are perishing we are an odor of death that kills while to those who are being saved we are a life giving fragrance that leads to life (JP Paraphrase)
Jesus was not trying to make them mad so they would quit. He was trying to move them from earthly things to heavenly things. He was trying to use the miracle bread that fed them once as an analogy for the Bread of Life, himself. Jesus offered to prove that he was from heaven by ascending to heaven; which he did, the disciples who stayed with him witnessed it. Jesus explained that his words were spiritual not literally physical. The crowd couldn’t get it. These things can only be understood by those who come to Jesus by being given to Jesus by the Father.
Not everyone who disbelieved left right away. The fickle crowds come and go with little gained or lost but Judas stayed with them even though he never believed. The crowd in whole or in part is never called betrayer as Judas was. He pretended to be one with them until the moment he could cause the greatest harm. Jesus knew who and what he was and that despite himself; Judas had a part to play ordained by God. Let us not lose heart over those who betray us but remember that they are also in God’s hands.
Jesus was sad but not surprised to see the crowd disperse. The twelve however had nowhere to go. Peter demonstrates that he did what the crowd could not, he listened and heard. Jesus had said, ” the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Peter repeats the lesson saying, “You have words of eternal life.” They believed and through putting all their trust in Jesus they had gained the unassailable knowledge that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Promised one, the Savior of the world, the Holy One of God.
Mark 1:24 The demons declare Jesus to be the Holy one of God. Luke 1:35 The angels announce Jesus is the Holy Son of God. The beings of the spirit realm know Jesus is the Holy One of God and now the disciples beginning to see with spiritual understanding know it too. Compare the title, Holy One of God to the title for God often used in the Old Testament, The Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 54:5) The Holy One denotes divinity while ‘of Israel’ is both the relationship between God and Jacob(Israel) and the relationship between God and all his people. Genesis 32:24-30 describes a Christophany – a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. We see that Jesus is the Holy One of Israel and the Holy One of God. ‘of God’ shows that Jesus issues from the Father as his one and only Son.
brotherpayne 