^{To Review:}

^{Jesus has Just laid down a hard truth.}

⁵³ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to 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 him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is food indeed,^[h] and My blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
⁵⁹These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

And the reaction to His word?

⁶⁰ Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard

I don’t know about you, but on first reading of those words, this was my reaction as well. The words “so he who feeds on Me will live” seem both at once pretty graphic and pretty plain. But that was the purpose of Jesus…to cause them to think and to present them with a course changing truth.
⁶¹ When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶²

Again Jesus is openly expressing to them that He is more than a man….that He is God. They are not dealing with an ordinary man, He is not a prophet, not a rabbi but much much more. This is a truth may be disturbing to some of them, they are comfortable following a man, it was a habit among the people of that time, to find a teacher who was impressive, or tickled your ear and follow Him. But Jesus is facing them now with the truth. That He is God.

 ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and

He now defines what He meant. That he was, in fact, speaking in spiritual terms. But life, none the less. In the third chapter of this book when Jesus is talking about the need to be born again, he introduces us to the idea of spiritual life and death. Nicodemus a scholar and a Pharisee had a difficult time figuring out the meaning then. I am not sure these people are having any easier of a time.  Many of us in fact want God to mold Himself to our way of thinking, when truthfully it is our job to mold ourselves to His.

⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. ⁶⁵ And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

And Jesus lays the truth down on the line.  You must transform your thinking to God’s thinking.  You must mold yourself to God’s truth, and not insist He follows yours.  This was a challenge, a line drawn in the sand. We cannot walk forever with Jesus in a compromised state.  We cannot “sort of” be a Christian forever. Sooner or later we are forced to make a choice that requires us to suspend our will, and submit to his.

I have met quite a few people who have said they USED to be Christians, but they stopped because iut didn’t make sense…or because they didn’t feel they had to do what the bible was telling them to do. They reached their challenge time, their point of decision when they FINALLY had to choose…..God’s way, or the highway. I would argue that these people never were Christians, That they had never made the requisite life change, that they had not sold out of themselves  and submitted to Christ,  They played the game for a while, but when the stakes became too high (giving up self rule, self determination) they cashed out…and blamed Christianity for their escape.

The same thing has occurred here.
⁶⁶ From that

And so the ones who had not committed themselves to the truth..left
⁶⁸ But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.

But good old Peter steps up to the place and states it plainly. You are the Christ…where else are we going to go? I can see the scene. People gathered around Jesus…. the devoted ones and the ones who have followed Him from the feeding. The ones who had seen the miracles, the ones who were following Jesus for the flash, and not the content.  Jesus lays this bomb of the truth in the middle of the crowd, telling them , they have to do more than follow the flash, they have to follow God, and half (or more or less) without another word…half turn..look back….and wander away.  Jesus looks around at the remainder, and Peter looks at him and says….”Whom shall we go to?  You are Christ”. Jesus answers, it what I can oly imagine is some kind of weary affection
⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” ⁷¹ He spoke of Judas Iscariot,

He loved the ones he had chosen even Judas…who did faithfully follow him for 3 and a half years, until finally his plan…his idea of what God should be doing….got the better of Him.

I want to stress here, that the commitment of Peter was one of devotion.  No one can fault Peter for his desire. He is the perfect example of he Christian Life.  Peter is an example of wanting to do the right thing, but not always making it. Peter denied Christ at his judgement, and yet when Jesus gave him the opportunity to recommit, he did so with fervor.   We too are always making mistakes, committing sin, but if we , in our commitment to God, come back to Him in repentance and commitment, he forgives us and sets us back on the path of righteousness.  Our lack of performance…can never invalidated our commitment.  God will never throw His hands up in disgust and give up on us.  Let us not ever give up on Him.

God Bless