This is a short version of John 6:1-59 (which means I wrote it)
John 6: 1-59 (short version)
So Jesus has been busy, very busy.
Teaching, healing on the Sabbath, getting into trouble with the authorities for healing on the Sabbath and as he wanders around Samaria and Galilee on his way home from Jerusalem: people start to hear about him, hear about his teachings, hear about his healings. Then Chapter 6 begins with the feeding of the five thousand (men) that is five thousand plus women and children. From a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, everyone was fed and satisfied and there was plenty left over.
That really woke people up and they started think “Who is this man? “Surely “This is the Prophet for sure, God’s Prophet right here in Galilee!” (John 6:14) Jesus saw that in their enthusiasm, they were about to grab him and make him king, so he slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself.
At nightfall, the disciples, are waiting in a boat for him so that they can cross the Sea of Galilee to get to Capernaum but Jesus doesn’t show up so they start the long row. When they are out in the water about three or four miles from shore here comes Jesus, walking on the water. Now, the wind is blowing, it’s dark and the waves are getting high. And Jesus is walking on the water! Guess what, the disciples are scared, terrified – what is happening here!
But Jesus being Jesus, he is able to reassure them, gets into the boat and voilà – they land in Capernaum. The crowds realizing that Jesus wasn’t with them get into boats, head for Capernaum and start their search and when they find him ask when he got there. Jesus answers – well you know Jesus seldom really answers the question asked so he tells them who they are- who they really are; Jesus says:
“I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles. Do not work for food that spoils; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.” (John 26-27)
And when, the crowd, like the Samaritan woman at the well, ask about this food, this bread, this eternal life, Jesus contrasts the manna that the Israelites were given in the desert with Moses, that came daily and kept them alive for the day, and the bread of heaven that gives eternal life which he is offering them.
35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty. 36 I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. 37Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me.
And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. 38I came down from heaven not to follow my own agenda but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.”
(John 6:35-38)
That’s when the trouble starts: Jesus starts talking about God wanting people to believe in him, talking about the second coming, talking about being himself the bread of heaven. And people are mumbling; “Hey, wait a minute we know Jesus, we know his parents, we like that he can do the things we want him to do but this talk of coming down from heaven, and eating his flesh and drinking his blood- well, that’s a little bit too much, it’s way too much for us to be hearing from Jesus of Nazareth in a synagogue in Capernaum.
Then the shoe falls: see John 6:60-69
John 6:60-69
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, “Does this make you want to give up?
63 What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making.
But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him).
He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”
66-67 After this, many of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”
68-69 Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We have already committed ourselves to you, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”
John 6: 1-59 (short version)
So Jesus has been busy, very busy.
Teaching, healing on the Sabbath, getting into trouble with the authorities for healing on the Sabbath and as he wanders around Samaria and Galilee on his way home from Jerusalem: people start to hear about him, hear about his teachings, hear about his healings. Then Chapter 6 begins with the feeding of the five thousand (men) that is five thousand plus women and children. From a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, everyone was fed and satisfied and there was plenty left over.
That really woke people up and they started think “Who is this man? “Surely “This is the Prophet for sure, God’s Prophet right here in Galilee!” (John 6:14) Jesus saw that in their enthusiasm, they were about to grab him and make him king, so he slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself.
At nightfall, the disciples, are waiting in a boat for him so that they can cross the Sea of Galilee to get to Capernaum but Jesus doesn’t show up so they start the long row. When they are out in the water about three or four miles from shore here comes Jesus, walking on the water. Now, the wind is blowing, it’s dark and the waves are getting high. And Jesus is walking on the water! Guess what, the disciples are scared, terrified – what is happening here!
But Jesus being Jesus, he is able to reassure them, gets into the boat and voilà – they land in Capernaum. The crowds realizing that Jesus wasn’t with them get into boats, head for Capernaum and start their search and when they find him ask when he got there. Jesus answers – well you know Jesus seldom really answers the question asked so he tells them who they are- who they really are; Jesus says:
“I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles. Do not work for food that spoils; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.” (John 26-27)
And when, the crowd, like the Samaritan woman at the well, ask about this food, this bread, this eternal life, Jesus contrasts the manna that the Israelites were given in the desert with Moses, that came daily and kept them alive for the day, and the bread of heaven that gives eternal life which he is offering them.
35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty. 36 I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. 37Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me.
And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. 38I came down from heaven not to follow my own agenda but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.”
(John 6:35-38)
That’s when the trouble starts: Jesus starts talking about God wanting people to believe in him, talking about the second coming, talking about being himself the bread of heaven. And people are mumbling; “Hey, wait a minute we know Jesus, we know his parents, we like that he can do the things we want him to do but this talk of coming down from heaven, and eating his flesh and drinking his blood- well, that’s a little bit too much, it’s way too much for us to be hearing from Jesus of Nazareth in a synagogue in Capernaum.
Then the shoe falls: see John 6:60-69
John 6:60-69
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, “Does this make you want to give up?
63 What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making.
But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him).
He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”
66-67 After this, many of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”
68-69 Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We have already committed ourselves to you, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”
Reflection
Jesus: friend, teacher, saviour, Lord
I chose today’s scripture not because it’s long and complicated although it is, but because the disciples have to make a genuine decision and because Simon Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question: “Do you also want to leave” is so authentic:
“Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.”
(John 6:68-69)
What if they too, these followers of Jesus, are struggling to believe, struggling to understand, struggling to continue to follow Jesus.
Others are leaving, this crowd who are so enthralled by the stories of healing and the event of the feeding of the five thousand that they follow him all the way to a synagogue in Capernaum but, if we follow the text, this wild story that Jesus tells is just too much. After all, they know his mother and his father, they know where he comes from, and yes, they are really enthralled by his healings and miracles – after all, who doesn’t like a little more wine at a wedding? So, when Jesus starts taking about life and eternal life, about bread and living bread, about water and blood, about hunger and thirst, let’s face it when Jesus starts talking about God and heaven and earth and temporal and eternal and living and really LIVING.
When Jesus starts talking about himself as being sent and blessed and gifted by God to them – people get a little antsy, a little lost, a little confused.
People still shy away from it all today, so little wonder, that way back when, confronted with a living Jesus, they kind of turned away and said “Well, if you won’t be our king and make our lives easier and better…” – translated as: “Give us food when we are hungry like you did on the mountainside, heal us when we need to be healed like you did for the centurion’s daughter and the lame man at the pool near Bethesda, and if that is not what this is about then we’re leaving.
Maybe they would have stayed, if he had just toned it down at bit, you know, maybe if had just claimed to be a prophet (except well, many prophets weren’t accepted or liked). Well, maybe if he had just left it at teacher, a good rabbi just rehashing all the stories and trying very hard to decipher the will of God for a people in a certain time in a certain place.
We know from our own experience that Jesus is quite well liked and accepted universally as long as we don’t talk about the resurrection. Jesus as prophet; sure, Jesus as someone with many good things to say about God and about being human; yep, Jesus as the living bread and offering us living water – not so much!
And so here we are with the disciples who stayed only to be confronted by Jesus: “Do you also want to leave?”
It’s not as if they had nowhere to go. There were many good, even celebrated, rabbis in Jerusalem at the Temple where students; disciples would meet with them everyday. Paul was one of those students at that time studying with the famous teacher Gamaliel, a Pharisee, so knowledgeable of Jewish Law that he was and is held in great esteem by all Jews.
They could go back to their old jobs, fishing for fish, tax collecting, they could find new ways to use their gifts. They had possibilities, just like those who left, they had lives and families, but, I think, Simon Peter spoke for everyone who stayed “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We have already committed ourselves to you, confident that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)
Despite all that they didn’t understand, despite any questions they may have held, despite any fear they kept secret, despite any doubts they had as they watched others walk away, they were committed. They made their choice and they chose Jesus.
Jesus was their Rabbi, their teacher, their friend, their lord – the one to whom they committed their lives, the one who showed them a new way of being in community, a new way of being in the world, the one who shared the Good News with them so that they could then share it with others.
The Good News that there was living bread to be had and living water to be shared and that living sustenance would bring eternal life, a new kind of life that God desired for his people.
Confusing but powerful Good News for a people governed by a Roman Imperial almost God god: Augustus Caesar and locally by a Roman Appointed King: Herod, taxed by both the state and the Temple. Jesus comes as God’s appointed, Yahweh’s blessed son.
Jesus comes with a message of peace founded on love and compassion, that confronts the Emperor’s proclaimed “Pax Romana”; that is established on military might and enforced by expediency and greed.
Jesus’ disciples have already found sustenance in what he has offered them; a new way of being in a world where God’s will is made visible in the healing of those who are wounded in body and soul, in the feeding of the who are hungry, in the freeing of those who have been held captive by life’s circumstances.
So the lame walk and the blind see, and the sick wake from their fever, demons are released and told never to return, Lazarus lives, there is wine at the wedding, bread and fish abundant on the hillside, women are listened to and encouraged to learn, tax collectors are partied with, Pharisees are met with late at night and debated with on city streets, rules are challenged and broken, and there is still more, there is always more.
As disciples of Jesus, we live in that always more: always more to learn, always more to see, always more to experience, always more bessings to come, always more joy to be had when Jesus is Lord.
When Jesus is Lord, when we commit to Jesus as our Lord, it comes with promises that Jesus makes so that we know this makes a huge difference in our lives. We might not notice it all the time, we might not even acknowledge it ever but Jesus promises us:
35 “I am the bread of life…Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty. 36 I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. 37Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go.
John 6:35-37
What a promise Jesus makes to his followers, so when the disciples respond to Jesus’ question “ Do you also want to leave?” with “Where would we go, we believe you are the Holy One who comes from God” we understand that
our commitment to Jesus is also Jesus’ commitment to us.
In this life Jesus is holding onto to us, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
May it be so Amen
Jesus: friend, teacher, saviour, Lord
I chose today’s scripture not because it’s long and complicated although it is, but because the disciples have to make a genuine decision and because Simon Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question: “Do you also want to leave” is so authentic:
“Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.”
(John 6:68-69)
What if they too, these followers of Jesus, are struggling to believe, struggling to understand, struggling to continue to follow Jesus.
Others are leaving, this crowd who are so enthralled by the stories of healing and the event of the feeding of the five thousand that they follow him all the way to a synagogue in Capernaum but, if we follow the text, this wild story that Jesus tells is just too much. After all, they know his mother and his father, they know where he comes from, and yes, they are really enthralled by his healings and miracles – after all, who doesn’t like a little more wine at a wedding? So, when Jesus starts taking about life and eternal life, about bread and living bread, about water and blood, about hunger and thirst, let’s face it when Jesus starts talking about God and heaven and earth and temporal and eternal and living and really LIVING.
When Jesus starts talking about himself as being sent and blessed and gifted by God to them – people get a little antsy, a little lost, a little confused.
People still shy away from it all today, so little wonder, that way back when, confronted with a living Jesus, they kind of turned away and said “Well, if you won’t be our king and make our lives easier and better…” – translated as: “Give us food when we are hungry like you did on the mountainside, heal us when we need to be healed like you did for the centurion’s daughter and the lame man at the pool near Bethesda, and if that is not what this is about then we’re leaving.
Maybe they would have stayed, if he had just toned it down at bit, you know, maybe if had just claimed to be a prophet (except well, many prophets weren’t accepted or liked). Well, maybe if he had just left it at teacher, a good rabbi just rehashing all the stories and trying very hard to decipher the will of God for a people in a certain time in a certain place.
We know from our own experience that Jesus is quite well liked and accepted universally as long as we don’t talk about the resurrection. Jesus as prophet; sure, Jesus as someone with many good things to say about God and about being human; yep, Jesus as the living bread and offering us living water – not so much!
And so here we are with the disciples who stayed only to be confronted by Jesus: “Do you also want to leave?”
It’s not as if they had nowhere to go. There were many good, even celebrated, rabbis in Jerusalem at the Temple where students; disciples would meet with them everyday. Paul was one of those students at that time studying with the famous teacher Gamaliel, a Pharisee, so knowledgeable of Jewish Law that he was and is held in great esteem by all Jews.
They could go back to their old jobs, fishing for fish, tax collecting, they could find new ways to use their gifts. They had possibilities, just like those who left, they had lives and families, but, I think, Simon Peter spoke for everyone who stayed “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We have already committed ourselves to you, confident that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)
Despite all that they didn’t understand, despite any questions they may have held, despite any fear they kept secret, despite any doubts they had as they watched others walk away, they were committed. They made their choice and they chose Jesus.
Jesus was their Rabbi, their teacher, their friend, their lord – the one to whom they committed their lives, the one who showed them a new way of being in community, a new way of being in the world, the one who shared the Good News with them so that they could then share it with others.
The Good News that there was living bread to be had and living water to be shared and that living sustenance would bring eternal life, a new kind of life that God desired for his people.
Confusing but powerful Good News for a people governed by a Roman Imperial almost God god: Augustus Caesar and locally by a Roman Appointed King: Herod, taxed by both the state and the Temple. Jesus comes as God’s appointed, Yahweh’s blessed son.
Jesus comes with a message of peace founded on love and compassion, that confronts the Emperor’s proclaimed “Pax Romana”; that is established on military might and enforced by expediency and greed.
Jesus’ disciples have already found sustenance in what he has offered them; a new way of being in a world where God’s will is made visible in the healing of those who are wounded in body and soul, in the feeding of the who are hungry, in the freeing of those who have been held captive by life’s circumstances.
So the lame walk and the blind see, and the sick wake from their fever, demons are released and told never to return, Lazarus lives, there is wine at the wedding, bread and fish abundant on the hillside, women are listened to and encouraged to learn, tax collectors are partied with, Pharisees are met with late at night and debated with on city streets, rules are challenged and broken, and there is still more, there is always more.
As disciples of Jesus, we live in that always more: always more to learn, always more to see, always more to experience, always more bessings to come, always more joy to be had when Jesus is Lord.
When Jesus is Lord, when we commit to Jesus as our Lord, it comes with promises that Jesus makes so that we know this makes a huge difference in our lives. We might not notice it all the time, we might not even acknowledge it ever but Jesus promises us:
35 “I am the bread of life…Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty. 36 I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. 37Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go.
John 6:35-37
What a promise Jesus makes to his followers, so when the disciples respond to Jesus’ question “ Do you also want to leave?” with “Where would we go, we believe you are the Holy One who comes from God” we understand that
our commitment to Jesus is also Jesus’ commitment to us.
In this life Jesus is holding onto to us, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
May it be so Amen
