This was a painful question Jesus asked His disciples after preaching what was arguably His most divisive (and misunderstood) sermon.
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. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. – John 6:53-55
The crowd was large and Jesus sounded like He was preaching some form of cannibalism. “Eat My flesh”?? Truly, this was a hard saying. There was no Old Testament text that supported or gave context to His command. Moses never said anything like this.
I’d discussed this with a brother once, and he thought Jesus KNEW His disciples would never leave, and that Jesus had a sort of “twinkle in His eye” and perhaps the hint of a smile on His face when He asked them, “Do you also want to go away?” (John 6:67)
But I don’t think so. Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer, and He knew exactly the message His Father wanted Him to preach. Jesus no doubt knew MANY would depart, and He had no guarantee that any would remain. He may have fully expected to be abandoned by everyone.
This was, indeed, a “hard saying.” In light of this, it’s not surprising that some people thought He was “beside himself.” What was the point?
I suspect the point is in Peter’s response: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was summer and the living was easy. The disciples had just returned from being sent out, and they were exuberant. Even demons were subject to them. Jesus’ popularity was soaring, and He’d just miraculously fed 5,000 people.
The Kingdom had arrived! (So they thought.) Supernatural power was present to drive out the hated Romans and begin the long-awaited reign of the Messiah on earth. (So they thought.) Isaiah told us 600 years ago to expect this, and now the time has finally arrived! (So they thought.) And now this: Jesus went from an apex to a pariah. “We were promised a seat at the table of a glorious kingdom.”
It’s now the end of September, and we just endured a season of intense expectation. The numbers, the scriptures, the dreams and visions – Bible codes, license plates, Strong’s numbers, signs in the heavens, day-counts, all pointing to the Jewish feast of Trumpets. September 23, 2025 and “we’re finally going home.” Do you get it? Do we follow Jesus because we love Him and trust Him … or was it all about a rapture deliverance? Will we continue to follow Him and believe in Him if the future gets tough? Like REALLY tough??
There are some messed-up eschatologies out there. We have a large number of prophetic pieces that we’ve tried to assemble into a coherent picture, to tell us what to expect. We strongly tend toward pictures that tell us to expect joy, delight, deliverance and good things. But if there are still a few speed bumps on this highway to the Millennium … then what? What if there’s a world war and we’re still here? What if the levels of misery currently being experienced by our brothers and sisters in the middle east, Ukraine, North Korea and many other places also comes to us? What if Christianity becomes hard? Then what??
And I leave you with that. Maybe this is part of the expected “great falling-away” of the last days. Maybe a LOT of the folks we know who claim to follow Jesus are just in it for themselves. Maybe when our comfort and safety is taken away, we’ll be forced to take a hard and sober look at Jesus Christ and make a few hard decisions. Do I really LOVE Him? Do I really TRUST Him? Do I really BELIEVE Him?
It’s okay to walk away. It really is. Jesus wasn’t surprised and He offered no Plan B – no attempt to soften the message or woo the people back. Go ahead – you wouldn’t be happy in Heaven anyway. But come to clarity. Don’t be a “christianette” with a puerile “oh goody goody gumdrops – we’re going to heaven!” We’re called to grow up in all things in Christ. This means being a follower even when it’s hard, mysterious, frightening or painful. We in the west have little idea what that means, how it feels, or what it looks like. But I have a very strong feeling that we’re about to find out.
We’re about to find out.
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