September 14, 2003 John 6:60-69
After David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, God confronted David through the prophet Nathan. Nathan said to David, because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” (2 Sa 12:14) Shortly thereafter the child came down with an illness. For seven days David refused to eat any food. He lay on the floor every night, desperately pleading with God to spare the child’s life. Finally, the child died. The servants were nervously whispering to each other, not wanting to tell David what had happened, thinking he might kill himself or something. 2 Samuel then goes on to say that David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. (12:19) When David noticed something was wrong, he could have avoided the situation and pretended nothing was wrong. He could have kept his head in the sand - but he went ahead and asked the crucial question - “is the child dead?” The servants didn’t beat around the bush. They plainly said, “yes, he is dead.”
When the military adopted the policy, “don’t ask, don’t tell” for the military, they were in effect choosing to keep their heads in the sand. This is the approach that some people take toward life - “don’t ask, don’t tell.” A young man has his eye on a girl from his class, but he is too afraid to ever pop the question, “will you go out with me?” A parent may suspect that his teenage son is on drugs, but it’s much easier just to keep quiet and not ask. Sometimes life is just much easier that way - less stressful and less waves if we don’t ask tough questions.
Jesus never backed away from a confrontation or asking the tough questions. He wasn’t afraid of how someone would answer. As a matter of fact, He knew how they would answer, but he asked the questions anyway. Today we see Jesus once again ask two crucial questions - ones that left no room for a middle ground. With these questions he was drawing a line in the sand and saying, “what are you going to do?”
The Crucial Questions of Christ
I. Does this offend you?
Let’s start out with a little background on this text. Just prior to today’s reading, Jesus had fed 5,000 people. With this taste of food, these “disciples” followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee for more. It was at this time that Jesus told those following Him several profound things about Himself. Jesus basically said, I am the bread of God who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. With these words, Jesus was saying that He came straight from heaven. If this wasn’t profound enough, Jesus then went on to say, If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (Jn 6:51) Jesus also claimed that the eternity of man’s soul depended on EATING HIM.
So how did the Jews respond? At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” (Jn 6:41) They first of all grumbled because Jesus said He was from heaven, when they knew his parents - Mary and Joseph. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” But instead of backing down, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, 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 real food and my blood is real drink. (Jn 6:53-55) You need to remember that drinking blood was specifically forbidden by God in the Old Testament laws. (Deuteronomy 12) The very concept of eating the actual flesh and blood of a man was even more offensive. It wasn’t sitting well at all.
Think about this for a moment. Jesus could have very easily just explained that what He actually saying that he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (vs. 35) He could have changed the topic and talked about something more acceptable - that they could agree on. But instead Jesus said, This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Does this offend you? He was in effect saying, “I know this is hard to swallow that I am the bread of life. I know it offends you, and I also know WHY it offends you!” He said, The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. . . . This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” The reason they were offended is because they were nothing but sinful and helpless human beings - run by their reason and their opinions instead of the Word of God. But He didn’t worry about it or run away from it. Instead of being afraid of offending them, He confronted them about it by asking the crucial questions - “can you accept it? Does this offend you?” In effect Jesus was saying, “if you don’t like it, then leave.”
Think about how “offensive” Jesus’ sayings really are. Jesus said that He was God - that the God who filled the Universe was born in a mother’s womb! The God who described Himself as all knowing had to “grow in knowledge.” That doesn’t make sense! Jesus claimed that He was the only way to heaven - through FAITH in Him . Jesus said that your flesh counts for NOTHING. You can’t even believe in Jesus unless the Father draws you. How offensive this is! Reason cries out, “how can God blame us if we don’t have free will to come to Him?” This isn’t reasonable stuff.
Yet Jesus looks you in the eye this morning and says, “does this offend you?” What are you going to say? “No, not at all Lord!” Honestly, does it make sense that God could send a little Chinese boy to hell for not believing in the sacrifice of Christ for his salvation? (Romans 10:17) How could God really condemn a Catholic priest who donated his life to spreading the Word, just because he thought by spreading the Word he was contributing to his own salvation? (Romans 4:6) Yet there’s other things that are offensive as well, however. How could a God of holiness care about a world of people who He describes as dead and ugly sinners? Why would the Holy Spirit enter a body that is completely corrupted? How could the death of a man two thousand years ago effect the world and actually save it? How could God - who is ONE - forsake HIMSELF on the cross? Why would God GIVE salvation just through faith in His Son to a convicted murderer, but not to someone who spent his life feeding people? These things are offensive - they’re literally “hard” - rough things for us to accept. In all reality, they’re impossible for us to accept - because they are offensive to our flesh - our reason and our pride. They don’t fit into our brains. When Jesus asks us, “does this offend you,” what else can you say but, “yes, it offends me! It attacks my reason. It attacks my sense of justice. It makes me feel like a helpless little piece of garbage - like a helpless piece of meat! It doesn’t fit into my brain! It doesn’t seem right!”
So how did these fringe disciples respond? From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Notice that MANY of his disciples turned back. This was a mass exodus. Jesus went from a congregation of thousands to a congregation of twelve - and one of them was a hypocrite! Why did Jesus do this? John explains that, Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. Jesus already knew that many of them were only following Him because they thought they were going to get forty years of bread out of Him, not because they wanted Him to save them. So it wasn’t like He was blowing out a flickering wick. His bold statements were simply revealing who the true followers were from the false. He was separating the wheat from the chaff.
There’s a principle involved here. It’s really quite simple, and yet quite complicated to our flesh. Isaiah 55 says, As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. God says that faith comes from hearing the message - that His Word works in the way He wants it. Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him. Faith is not a matter of how much of God’s Word we can actually understand or how many facts we can accumulate. It’s not about intellect. It’s about gift of God. That’s why Timothy was able to know the Holy Spirit “from infancy.” (2 Timothy 3:15) That’s why John was able to leap for joy at the sound of Mary’s greeting while he was STILL IN THE WOMB. Faith isn’t a matter of how smart you are or how much you can figure things out. It’s a matter of the working of the Spirit through the Word. Isn’t that a great thing then? Even though we CAN’T fit God into our brains, He can still work faith in us to believe in the unbelievable. He gives us faith to believe that God did become man. He gives us faith to believe that God did die on the cross for the sins of the world. He gives us faith to believe that we are actually HOLY in God’s sight through faith in Christ - that God does love the world, even when our senses and our experiences tell us otherwise. It’s not about us - it’s about the power of God working through the WORD.
Since this is the principle, Jesus wasn’t about to change His mission, His words, or hide the truth about Himself just so these “followers” would be able to keep on following Christ on THEIR terms. Jesus knew that as offensive as they were, the words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. The only way faith in Him as Savior would come about would be through His Word. So He had no choice but to tell them Who He was - God in the flesh - and why He had come - to give salvation through HIM. They needed to eat and drink Him - to digest Him as their Savior. If this revelation of Himself offended them, then so be it. Without this revelation they couldn’t have been saved anyway.
I. You do not want to leave too, do you?
After all was said and done and everyone had started leaving, Jesus then turned to his twelve chosen disciples who were left standing there. They too, were probably offended at what Jesus had to say. They didn’t know how they could eat his flesh or drink His blood. They didn’t know how God could be standing in the flesh before them. Yet they stood there and believed. Jesus didn’t thank them. He didn’t congratulate them. He didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. Instead, He went ahead and confronted them with another question. Jesus asked, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Isn’t this the most unreasonable question of all? After Jesus told the disciples they couldn’t come to Him except by the work of the Father, he then told asked them if they WANTED to leave. Even though they didn’t have the power to come to him, they did have the power to leave Him. Jesus was laying it on the line for them. Jesus wasn’t asking this question because he wanted them to leave- but to give them an opportunity to rededicate their lives to Christ - to remind themselves that they were there to stay.
How did Peter respond? Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” It’s not like Peter had a whole lot of options. They couldn’t go to the Rabbis for the words of eternal life. They couldn’t go to Moses. They couldn’t go to the mountains. All they would there would be laws and regulations about how to try and please God by what they did. They would leave feeling guilty and hopeless. Only Jesus offered a free forgiveness - eternal salvation - through faith in HIM. Only Jesus offered a free ride to heaven. Only Jesus opened up God’s love and grace in a way that the disciples had never seen before. His words opened up heaven to them, even though His words weren’t always “reasonable”. So when Jesus asked, “do you want to leave?”, Peter answered, “no, we want to stay!” At that point, thanks to the Holy Spirit living in them, the disciples made a conscientious decision to stay with Christ.
The truth is, you also don’t have to stay here. If you want to leave, the door is open. God allows each and every one of you to walk out this door and never come back. But notice the answer that Jesus was expecting out of Peter. Jesus wasn’t expecting the disciples to leave, because He knew they believed in Him. I don’t expect you to leave either. Why? Because I know that you have been baptized, which gives the gift of the Holy Spirit. I know that you have been taught that Jesus died for your sins. I know that you profess to believe that when you take the Lord’s Supper - you are receiving the body and blood of the Lord for the forgiveness of your sins. I know that the Holy Spirit works through the WORD, which is being taught here. In light of these things, I expect you to say, “I want to stay here because salvation through Christ is preached here. I want to keep hearing the law and the gospel. I want to keep singing with you, praying with you, and doing ministry with you.” Even so, it’s a question that God wants you to consider every day - “do you WANT to leave or not?”
After David found out his son was dead, the Bible says - Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. (2 Sa 12:20) It seemed like a strange response to the servants, but David explained, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Sa 12:22-23) David could move on with life, now that he asked the crucial question and knew what had happened. After Jesus asked the crucial questions, it also enabled Jesus to get on with his true ministry - to offer His body for the sins of the world - instead of feeding thousands of people with bread and a smile on a hillside.
Out of all the questions you are asked in the world, “will you marry me, will you buy this house or car, will you take this job, will you get treatment” - the most important question you have put before you is the one that Christ lays out to you - His followers - today - “Will you leave me too?” The answer to that question will determine what you’re really here for - is it to hear about a God that YOU want? Is it get a piece of bread from Jesus? Or is it to hear what you need to hear - that you’re a helpless sinner who needs the Holy Spirit to come into your heart - that God became man to die for a world of helpless sinners - that God gives you heaven free of charge? Just because Jesus tells you things that are hard to accept - will you leave too? What’s your answer? Hopefully it’s the same one that Peter gave, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. Amen.
